{"id":80018,"date":"2024-11-22T16:11:44","date_gmt":"2024-11-22T21:11:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/?p=80018"},"modified":"2024-12-10T12:42:50","modified_gmt":"2024-12-10T17:42:50","slug":"no-doubts-in-dubai-for-rebooted-us-sailgp-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/racing\/no-doubts-in-dubai-for-rebooted-us-sailgp-team\/","title":{"rendered":"No Doubts in Dubai For Rebooted US SailGP Team"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\"US <\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n
\n US SailGP Team gets in the reps in the F50’s new livery ahead of SailGP’s first event in Dubai. <\/span>\n Ricardo Pinto\/SailGP<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\t <\/figcaption>\n <\/section>\n\t\t\n\n\n

The sailors of the US SailGP Team have been living their best Rockstar life in Dubai for about three weeks, acclimating for the first regatta of SailGP<\/a>\u2019s fifth season. They\u2019ve played in a gigantic waterpark, bounced a concert, and bombed through the desert in dune buggies under a full moon. All of it so ridiculously amazing, says its strategist Mike Buckley, and that’s even before the lights and cameras of the media day, the VIPing and the practice sessions on their newly wrapped Lady Liberty in \u201cLiberty Green.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s all good, but it\u2019s time to go racing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The league has slapped down a bumped-up $12 million prize purse on the heels of announcing Rolex as title sponsor and a 10-year deal. The Rolex SailGP Championship is now a long season that circles back to the Middle East (Abu Dhabi) next November, with 14 international venues and 12 teams going for it. The US Team rookied its way through last season, under-skilled in the F50 and babes to the slaughter of the leagues veteran teams. But a summer training block in Bermuda in August, and productive days in Dubai with their new flight controller Hans Hanken, is a boost to their confidence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur confidence\u2014in executing maneuvers\u2014is probably the biggest thing,\u201d said helmsman Taylor Canfield. \u201cWe gained a lot of confidence in our ability to push the boat. In some of the venues and in some of the conditions last season where we were very inexperienced there was definitely some intimidation. The boat was sailing us a little bit, and now it feels like we’re sailing the boat and taking control. We have the confidence to do any maneuver that any of the top teams are doing now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\"SailGP <\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n
\n Practice races went OK, says driver Taylor Canfield. One for three on the starts, but tight maneuvers all around.<\/span>\n Ricardo Pinto\/SailGP<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\t <\/figcaption>\n <\/section>\n\t\t\n\n\n

That\u2019s not just because of Henken\u2019s mountain of experience as flight controller alongside Jimmy Spithill, the league\u2019s undisputed GOAT. It\u2019s the whole team, Buckley reminds: \u201cEverybody\u2019s so damn good on these teams. The experience certainly helps. But you need the chemistry, you need the communication, you need the confidence in each other to really move up the leaderboard. Some of these other teams have taken key people out or moved people around, and it\u2019s going to be interesting to see how it stacks up.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Weis is Jacked, As Is the Team<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Buckley also believes he has an ace in the cockpit with jib trimmer and grinder Anna Weis. She\u2019s been posted up at the Red Bull Athletic Performance Center, doing the heavy lifting so her grinding can get the F50 the lift it needs for \u201cpopping.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She went into training at 14 pullups, Weis says. She\u2019s now pulling 17. Canfield only dreams of that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m on for every single race, and that\u2019s exactly why I train super hard, so that I can push as hard as I can in every single race,\u201d Weiss says. And yes, when not hitting the handles hard, she\u2019s also trimming the jib. \u201cI think that especially in lighter conditions it\u2019s going to be an advantage because the women are going to have to grind and four- and five-up sailing conditions (likely for Dubai<\/em>), so it just gives our team a benefit that I have the experience and have been training for it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Light-winds on the practice day delivered mixed to marginally good results (5-7-8) for the US team, but those don\u2019t count, Canfield says, as there was some \u201cerratic behavior from some of the teams\u201d and \u201cumpires clearing calls whenever they want.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, Canfield said, \u201cWe stuck to our plan and had two decent starts and one really good start. We executed when we needed to and made a few mistakes. There\u2019s no doubt with our sailing ability, how much it\u2019s grown over the last month, that, if we sail our best, we can go out and have a good start and win the race.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An Underdog Prone To Bite<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\"flight <\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n
\n With new flight controller Hans Henken and a talented backup with Mac Agnese, US SailGP team CEO Mike Buckley says he’s happy with the bench they’re building.<\/span>\n Felix Diemer\/SailGP<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\t <\/figcaption>\n <\/section>\n\t\t\n\n\n

If that were to be the case, the team on Lady Liberty would certainly shock the broadcast commentary team of SailGP, which put the US team at rock bottom of its pre-seasons rankings. \u201cHaters gonna, hate,\u201d Buckley says. \u201cI think we\u2019re a little misunderstood and frankly, everybody loves an underdog, right? And there\u2019s a reason it\u2019s called the American dream, so we\u2019re gonna figure it out. It might not be tomorrow or the next day, but it\u2019s really hard to beat people that are not willing to ever give up.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As far Canfield is concerned, \u201cIt\u2019s a long season, and with this many more boats, you\u2019re going to see people having that big swings, they’re going to win races, and they\u2019re going to have deep ones. So I think a good goal for the team right now is to play the averages, to come away with some threes and fours, and occasionally maybe a seven. We’ll start making finals pretty quickly if we aim for that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And it\u2019s all live on Saturday and Sunday (November 23-24), 1 to 5 p.m. GST, on SailGP.com, YouTube and host broadcast networks. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On the eve of the Rolex SailGP Championship season start, the US Squad is confident and jacked. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":80015,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"BS_author_type":"BS_author_is_guest","BS_guest_author_name":"Dave Reed","BS_guest_author_url":"","hydra_display_date":"","hydra_display_updated":false,"_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":"","_yoast_wpseo_metadesc":"","_yoast_wpseo_title":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","arc_story_id":"","arc_website_url":"","custom_permalink":"","arc_subtype":"","arc_exclude_from_feeds":false,"sponsored":false,"sponsored_label":"Sponsored Content","sponsored_display_label":false,"sponsored_image":false,"post_right_rail":true,"post_right_rail_ad_1":true,"post_right_rail_ad_2":true,"post_right_rail_ad_3":false,"post_right_rail_ad_4":false,"post_right_rail_recirc":true,"fixed_anchor_ad":true,"post_top_ad":true,"post_off_ramp":true,"post_taboola":false,"labels":true,"apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":false,"apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":"\"\"","apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"footnotes":"","ad_targeting":"","ad_settings_ads_on_this_page":true,"ad_settings_automatic_ad_injection_into_the_content":true,"sponsored_url":"","social_share":true,"alternate_title_newsletter":"","alternate_content_newsletter":""},"categories":[159],"tags":[1446,2969,2970],"class_list":["post-80018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-racing","tag-sailgp","tag-sailgp-season-5","tag-us-sailgp-team"],"acf":[],"apple_news_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80018","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80018"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80018\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80015"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}