Emirates GBR Driver Dylan Fletcher MBE said he was “disappointed” with the performance of his team at the Emirates Great Britain Sail Grand Prix in Portsmouth, as the Brits ended the event in 11th place. Spain took the win after fending off Sweden, Switzerland and Canada. Emirates GBR is now fifth on the 2026 Season leaderboard, and Emirates GBR Strategist Hannah Mills OBE said the team was ready to put in the work to get back into the top three as they look towards the Grand Final at the end of the season.
“We know this is not where we want to be, and we need to put in a lot of work to get ourselves back to that point – but we’re ready for that,” Mills said.
Fletcher recognised that while the team was unhappy with its performance, the support and atmosphere from the home fans was still “amazing”.
“The fans have been amazing, despite us not delivering the result they wanted,” he said.
“It was amazing to see such a strong crowd out this weekend, with a huge grandstand and fantastic conditions on the Solent. It was great to see that side of things and all the kids with their t-shirts on, so a huge thanks to everyone for coming, and hopefully we’ve inspired the next generation a little bit.”
Mills echoed Fletcher’s comments, stating: “A huge thanks to everyone who came this weekend, especially the young people – the next generation coming through – whether you want to be racing or you’re just a fan who loves the sport. It really does give us the biggest buzz ever to see you all out there cheering us on.”
With a ticketed crowd of 20,000 across the weekend, the grandstand on Southsea Common was packed with fans who experienced some of the best conditions we’ve seen in SailGP so far this season. As well as adrenaline-fuelled action, the crowds also witnessed live Apres-Sail performances from Jess Glynne on Saturday and Craig David on Sunday.
© Ricardo Pinto for SailGP
Ricardo Pinto for SailGP
The 13 SailGP teams were split into two groups for the racing in Portsmouth, with Spain, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Italy, Denmark and Brazil on Group A and Sweden, Switzerland, USA, Germany, France and Emirates GBR in Group B. On Race Day 1, the team finished sixth and fourth in the first two races on Saturday, before pulling off a spectacular comeback to win the third race of the day. This meant the Brits entered day two in fourth place in Group B, with them needing to be in the top two to make it into the event final.
On Race Day 2, Emirates GBR finished race four in fifth place and the last group race saw the team nail a strong start before disaster struck as they fell of the foils at the first mark and finished in sixth.
Fletcher said of the result: “We’ve obviously very disappointed with the result. After yesterday, we felt like we needed to get some good starts, which we delivered on, but then things unravelled from there, which is quite unusual for us. At this point we need to look back at it, work out what went wrong and work towards improving for Sassnitz.”
Next month, the Rolex SailGP Championship races ahead to Germany for the second iteration of the ROCKWOOL Germany Sail Grand Prix | Sassnitz, August 22-23, 2026. Limited tickets remain – visit SailGP.com/Sassnitz to find out more.