{"id":82904,"date":"2026-01-20T13:21:40","date_gmt":"2026-01-20T18:21:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/?p=82904"},"modified":"2026-01-20T13:21:43","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T18:21:43","slug":"emirates-great-britain-win-sailgp-season-starter-in-perth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/racing\/emirates-great-britain-win-sailgp-season-starter-in-perth\/","title":{"rendered":"Emirates Great Britain Win SailGP Season Starter in Perth"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Emirates Great Britain SailGP Team helmed by Dylan Fletcher leading BONDS Flying Roos SailGP Team helmed by Tom Slingsby as they sail past Spectators watching from Grandstand in the Race Stadium, on Race Day 2 of the Oracle Perth Sail Grand Prix presented by KPMG in Perth, Australia.<\/span>\n Ricardo Pinto for SailGP<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\t <\/figcaption>\n <\/section>\n\t\t\n\n\n

Emirates Great Britain have sent a message to the fleet with a commanding title defense \u2013 claiming a season-opening victory in the Oracle Perth Sail Grand Prix, presented by KPMG. The Brits ruled the waves on day two, defeating the Bonds Flying Roos and DS Team France, respectively, in a Fremantle day that left no margin for error. Battling steep waves and 45 km\/h gusts of wind, Emirates GBR driver Dylan Fletcher called the conditions \u201cAbsolutely incredible. This is why we came to Perth,\u201d he continued, \u201cTo Fremantle, for the Doctor.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Heading into the Final, Emirates GBR executed perfectly through the start \u2013 holding off a hard-pushing French crew as the Bonds Flying Roos were forced behind due to a pre-start boundary penalty. Despite their advances, Fletcher stayed ahead of his rivals \u2013 staying calm and sailing clean to gain a comfortable lead and sweep across the line first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rolling the dice, a decision by Quentin Delapierre to split away from the others heading into the penultimate leg spelled disaster for DS Team France, who were defeated on the final reach after a late burst of speed from the Bonds Flying Roos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After his 2025 Season Grand Final triumph just over one month ago, Fletcher said he was on \u201ccloud nine\u201d after claiming victory in the Perth opener.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fletcher said, \u201cIt\u2019s been an incredible start for the team here in Perth,\u201d Fletcher said. \u201cWe left a lot out there, with plenty still to work on, but I\u2019m really proud of how the team has been chipping away each day. We had a disappointing start yesterday and didn\u2019t get the results we wanted but we came out firing today, and I\u2019m stoked with the result.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\n BONDS Flying Roos SailGP Team helmed by Tom Slingsby in action on Race Day 2 of the Oracle Perth Sail Grand Prix presented by KPMG in Perth, Australia.<\/span>\n Ricardo Pinto for SailGP<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\t <\/figcaption>\n <\/section>\n\t\t\n\n\n

Emirates GBR strategist Hannah Mills said, \u201cWe\u2019ve had Stu come on board as wing trimmer which is a big dynamic shift. We\u2019re really proud of how the team has come together this week \u2013 we kept a learning mindset and then put it into practice when we went racing. It doesn\u2019t get much better than that, especially in Perth. It\u2019s our flight controller\u2019s hometown and for us to go out there with the Doctor coming in strong, amazing breeze and a bit of chop, it made it tricky to race the boats but it delivered phenomenal racing.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite missing out on an opening home victory, Bonds Flying Roos driver Tom Slingsby said the day was \u201camazing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Slingsby said, \u201cI think Fremantle should be the final. It caused a bit of chaos and some damage as we are headed into the second event of the season, but I think this would be the best final venue. Imagine doing that three-boat final for a couple of million bucks \u2013 I think that\u2019s how we should do it in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Australians welcomed a late crew change \u2013 sail racing veteran Glenn Ashby \u2013 who stepped in for Iain \u2018Goobs\u2019 Jensen following an injury in training on Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Slingsby commented, \u201cThe hardest part is that Glenn hasn\u2019t sailed in those conditions before. He hasn\u2019t sailed with the 18-meter wing, T-foils, or any of that, so it\u2019s really about supporting him and helping him through it. Goobs was in the coaching box, sitting there calling different things and bringing us into the start \u2014 he did a great job helping out. Glenn did such an amazing job stepping in on a couple of days\u2019 notice, and getting a result like that for our team and his country. He\u2019s stoked to be racing for Australia, so it\u2019s an awesome result for us and for him.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Emirates GBR were the form team of the day \u2013 claiming back-to-back victories in fleet races five and six. Throughout, Fletcher only moved forward \u2013 not back \u2013 showing he can pick his way through the fleet in even the most challenging conditions. In the seventh and final qualifying fleet race of the day, the Northstar SailGP Team sailed away with the win and a 20-second lead \u2013 but it was too little, too late for Giles Scott \u2019s Canadian crew, who finished sixth on the event leaderboard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite entering the day in pole position, newcomers Artemis missed out on a spot in their first event final after finishing 6th, 4th and 11th in the final three qualifying fleet races of the weekend. Artemis finished the weekend fourth overall \u2013 a result driver Nathan Outteridge is \u201creally proud\u201d of.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Outteridge said, \u201cFourth is an awesome result. It\u2019s always hard to go from leading to missing the podium on day two. I\u2019m really proud of the team \u2013 what a result. If you\u2019d told me four months ago that we\u2019d be fighting for the podium and winning races, I would have taken that. It hurts a bit today, especially the way it happened with a terrible start in the last fleet race, but it was a great weekend and the team did an amazing job.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Championship Sunday didn\u2019t quite go their way \u2013 finishing 9th, 8th, 9th in the day\u2019s fleet races \u2013 the U.S. SailGP Team sit fifth in the standings, with all the points tallied.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

U.S driver Canfield said, “It wasn\u2019t our best day execution-wise. We\u2019re disappointed for sure, but we made some great strides. It\u2019s not that we weren\u2019t comfortable sailing in those conditions \u2014 we just made a few silly errors. It was a long day, but good progress. We definitely have a solid base in the big breeze now, and we\u2019re super pleased with that, as it was one of the areas we wanted to improve.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\n ROCKWOOL Racing SailGP Team helmed by Nicolai Sehested in action on Race Day 1 of the Oracle Perth Sail Grand Prix presented by KPMG in Perth, Australia. US SailGP Team started the regatta strong with a few podium finishes.<\/span>\n James Gourley for SailGP<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\t <\/figcaption>\n <\/section>\n\t\t\n\n\n

The first of 13 events on the 2026 Season calendar, the Oracle Perth Sail Grand Prix presented by KPMG has set the bar high, according to league CEO and co-founder Sir Russell Coutts. Almost 15,000 watched from the sold-out Race Stadium at Bathers Beach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coutts said, \u201cPerth\u2019s SailGP debut has exceeded expectations \u2013 with incredible racing and conditions built for the sport\u2019s very best. The support we\u2019ve had from the local community and our partners at Tourism Western Australia has been outstanding. With a sold-out Race Stadium and incredible engagement in the very first year \u2013 we can\u2019t wait to be back in 2027, 2028 and hopefully for many years to come.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next month, the most exciting racing on water returns to another fan-favorite venue \u2013 Auckland, New Zealand (February 14-15). It will be a race against time to ensure the Black Foils make the startline, with extensive repairs needed after yesterday\u2019s race one collision with the Swiss. Spain is expected to compete after their damage, sustained during a practice nosedive earlier in the week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Emirates GBR claims victory in Perth Sail Grand Prix, setting a high bar for SailGP 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":82902,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"BS_author_type":"BS_author_is_guest","BS_guest_author_name":"SailGP Media","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":[1446,3073],"class_list":["post-82904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-racing","tag-sailgp","tag-sailgp-season-6"],"acf":[],"apple_news_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82904","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=82904"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82904\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/82902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}