SailGP

Intense races, iconic global venues, elite teams and athletes, record-breaking speeds. SailGP is the most exciting racing on water.

SailGP boasts the most competitive fleet in sailing, with any team capable of winning any event. Racing identical F50 catamarans ensures only one thing will decide the SailGP champion - talent.

Visit the Official SailGP Website here for more info.  

SCORING

The SailGP scoring system is simple; points are awarded for races and events, and are added up to determine the three boat line-up of the winner-takes-all Season Grand Final.

The winner of The Final is declared event champion and awarded 10 points in the Championship Leaderboard.

Second place in The Final is awarded nine points, and third place is awarded eight points.

The teams who did NOT qualify for The Final are then awarded Championship points relating to their overall event ranking; fourth place is awarded seven points, fifth place is awarded six points, etc.

The Championship Leaderboard is recalculated after each event, with the three highest ranked teams at the end of the season qualifying for the Grand Final.

The winner of the Grand Final is crowned champion of the SailGP Championship, while the other boats in the Grand Final will be ranked in the Season Championship according to their finishing place in the Grand Final.

The rest of the Season Championship is determined by ranking the remaining boats - those not involved in the Grand Final - accordingly to their total points in the Championship Leaderboard, from highest to lowest.

SCORING TIES

Event Ties 

If there is a tie between two or more boats in an event leaderboard, they shall be ranked according to their finishing places in the most recent race.

Season Ties

If there is a tie between two or more boats in the Championship Leaderboard, they shall be ranked in the Leaderboard according to their finishing places in the most recent event.

DNS / DNF 

Did not start

A boat that doesn’t start the race or gets disqualified gets 0 points.

Did not finish

A boat that starts but doesn’t finish (capsize/breakdown or otherwise) will receive ONE point.

Race Terminations

If a race is terminated and at least one team has crossed the finish line, the teams which haven't crossed the finish line will be ranked by their position at the previous mark.

If a race is terminated and no teams have crossed the finish line, the race is abandoned and no scores are awarded.

EVENTS

The SailGP Championship is made up of packed calendar of events taking place at iconic venues around the world.

Events are made up of multiple races and take place across two days, with seven races scheduled for each Sail Grand Prix. The first day includes three fleets races, while the remaining three fleet races take place on the second day before the event winner is crowned in the Final.

Fleet Races

The entire fleet go head to head in the six fleet races, with points awarded according to each team’s finishing position. Fleet races are intense and last approximately 15 minutes each. A leaderboard is produced after each race to determine the event rankings, based on the points each team has been awarded in every race.

The Final

The last race of a Sail Grand Prix is winner-takes-all Final, in which the three highest ranked teams go head-to-head to be crowned event champions. Should there be a scoring tie after fleet racing is complete, the boats are ranked in order of their finishing places in the most recent race.

Grand Final

The Grand Final is the final race of the last Sail Grand Prix of the season. Only the three highest ranked teams in the season leaderboard will progress to the Grand Final where they will go head-to-head to be crowned the SailGP champion.

THE RACECOURSE

SailGP events take place all over the world in multiple iconic venues and in all kinds of weather conditions.

This means our racecourse is always changing, sometimes even multiple times at the same event if the conditions dictate.

This may at times appear confusing, but the fundamentals of a SailGP racecourse remain the same regardless of the actual course layout.

The Basics

This may at times appear confusing, but the fundamentals of a SailGP racecourse remain the same regardless of the actual course layout.

Racing is intended to be on windward (upwind) and leeward (downwind) courses, with the final course to be sailed designated by the race committee no later than five minutes before the starting signal.

The course may have both its position and length altered depending on the weather conditions during events, but the basic windward/leeward configuration remains the same for every SailGP race.

In this windward/leeward configuration, one mark is placed directly upwind from the center of the start line and the second mark is placed directly downwind from the first mark.

One of the most intense parts of a SailGP race is right at the start, as the first leg takes the boats on one of the fastest points in sailing, a reach, to the first mark, or the speed mark.

From there, the boats begin heading to the leeward gate at the bottom of the course, and once a boat has passed through it starts heading upwind to the windward gate at the top of the course.

The boats repeat the journey to the leeward gate once they have passed through the windward gate, and then continue racing this course until the designated number of laps have been completed, before heading to the finish line.

How Starts Work

There is no standing start in SailGP, as all races begin with the entire fleet moving.

EXAMPLE VIDEO OF START 

Various signals are communicated to the boats during the starting procedure, with the entire fleet required to be inside the starting area at a set time. The fleet will then start moving towards the start line as the clock counts down to the starting signal.

Boats may cross the start line any time after the starting signal has been sounded to begin the reach for the first mark.

If a boat has crossed the start line before the starting signal, it is declared OCS (on course side) and penalised.