Great Britain win at SailGP Sydney

The Great Britain SailGP Team claimed their inaugural 2025 Season victory at the third stage held February 8-9 Sunday in Sydney, Australia. The win was also a first for driver Dylan Fletcher after a hard-fought three-boat showdown against the Canada SailGP Team, who finished second, and hometown favorites, Australia in third.

Much of the Final saw Fletcher jostle for first with the man he replaced at the start of the season – Canadian driver and double Olympic gold medalist, Giles Scott. The Canadians had a healthy lead going into the final upwind leg, but gave away too much leverage to the Brits that benefited from a shift to make the pass and hold on to the finish.

“Personally it’s massive where we’ve come – from the start of SailGP in 2019, where I began my journey,” said Fletcher. “To return and win here is amazing. I’m just really proud of the whole team and how they’ve included me.”

After dominating the 7-race qualifying stage, Australia SailGP Team driver Tom Slingsby could only watch after fouling the Canadians before the start. “We’ve been sailing so well as a team, and have a lot to be proud of. I’m just sorry to the fans. I think everyone thought we were a shoe in, but it didn’t quite go our way and that’s sport.”

The Rolex SailGP 2025 Season leaderboard was impacted by a practice incident between Brazil and Germany, along with an unforced error by USA that prevented them from racing. Emirates Great Britain has stretched their overall lead with the league now on the move to the USA for events in Los Angeles (March 15-16) and San Francisco (March 22-23).

Sydney Results
1. Great Britain, 5-1-3-3-1-6-7-(1)
2. Canada, 7-8-5-4-4-2-4-(2)
3. Australia, 3-2-1-1-3-3-1-(3)
4. Denmark, 6-4-4-6-7-4-6
5. Switzerland, 1-6-2-9-9-11-2
6. France, 4-3-8-2-6-9-8
7. Spain, 2-9-7-5-5-5-9
8. New Zealand, 8-7-11-11-2-1-5
9. Italy, 9-10-9-8-10-10-11
10. Brazil, 11-5-10-10-11-8-101
11. Germany, 10-11-6-7-8-7-3
12. United States, Did not race

For complete crew list, click here.

SailGP information – Sydney details – YouTube – Facebook

Season 5 Leaderboard (after 3 of 14 events)
1. Great Britain, 27 points
2. Australia, 24 points
3. Spain, 20 points
4. New Zealand, 20 points
5. Denmark, 17 points
6. Canada, 15 points
7. France, 15 points*
8. Switzerland, 12 points
9. Italy, 7 points
10. Brazil, 0 point**
11. United States, 0 points**
12. Germany, -6 points**
* France was awarded points for the first two events as their F50 was not available
**Teams are awarded season penalty points for incidents during practice or racing

Season 5 Schedule – 14 events
2024
November 23-24 – Dubai, UAE

2025
January 18-19 – Auckland, New Zealand
February 8-9 – Sydney, Australia
March 15-16 – Los Angeles, USA
March 22-23 – San Francisco, USA
May 3-4 – Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
June 7-8 – New York City, USA
July 19-20 – Portsmouth, Great Britain
August 16-17 – Sassnitz, Germany
September 6-7 – Taranto, Italy
September 20-21 – Geneva, Switzerland
October 4-5 – Andalucía – Cádiz, Spain
November 7-8 – Middle East *
November 29-30 – Grand Final – Abu Dhabi, UAE
* Venue to be announced

Format for Season 5:
• Teams compete in identical F50 catamarans.
• Each event runs across two days.
• Five qualifying fleet races of approximately 15 minutes may be scheduled for each regatta.
• The top three teams from qualifying advance to a final race to be crowned event champion and earn the largest share of the prize purse (amount not confirmed; Season 4 had $400,000.00 USD prize purse with winning team earning $200k at each event).
• The season ends with the Grand Final, which includes the Championship Final Race for the top three teams in the season standing with the winner claiming a monetary award (amount not confirmed; Season 4 had $2 million USD prize).
• The top team on points ahead of the three-boat Championship Final will get a monetary award (amount not confirmed; Season 4 had a $350,000.00 prize).
• Ten of the 12 teams are privately owned, with the league having ownership of New Zealand and Spain.
For competition documents, click here.

Established in 2018, SailGP seeks to be an annual, global sports league featuring fan-centric inshore racing among national teams in some of the iconic harbors around the globe.

Source: SailGP, SSN