It was a day of two halves for Emirates GBR on Race Day 1 of the Canada Sail Grand Prix as “wacky conditions” played havoc in Halifax. After a review of the weather forecast, SailGP opted for split fleet racing with the 13 teams split between two groups. The two groups each raced twice, with Emirates GBR finishing sixth in the first race and second in the last race of the day. It was a dramatic end to the day as the Brits were just pipped to a first-place finish by Sweden’s Artemis SailGP Team
The conditions in Halifax tested every team in the fleet, with them expecting solid breeze, only for conditions to shift dramatically moments before racing got underway. Rain cells moved across Halifax Harbour throughout the afternoon, creating an ever-changing mix of pressure and making tactical decisions increasingly difficult.
Emirates GBR Driver Dylan Fletcher MBE said: “It was a very difficult day out there with some super wacky conditions. We needed to have a bit of lady luck on our side but unfortunately we slipped on a few banana skins in the first race, but at least we had a solid result in the last race of the day. We felt like we were chipping away in the last race but we couldn’t quite catch Artemis on the line, but we felt like we were sailing the boat a lot better which was a positive.”
The split fleet groups consisted of Australia, Spain, France, Canada, Brazil, Denmark and New Zealand in Group A. While Emirates GBR was in Group B with USA, Sweden, Germany, Italy and Switzerland. Each group had two races with points awarded on a 5-4-3-2-1-0 scale.
On Sunday, each group will compete in two races, forecast dependent, followed by a winner-takes-all four-boat final contested by the top two teams from the two groups. As always in SailGP, the winner of the Final wins the event, with finishing order determining positions one through four in the final.
Racing resumes on Sunday at 20:00 BST, UK viewers can watch all the action live on TNT Sports 1.
