This weekend’s visit to Australia will mark the 5th SailGP event in Sydney since the beginning of the league, with consecutive events in Season 1,2 and 3, as well as a standalone event in 2020.
As we prepare for this weekend’s fast and furious racing action on February 24-25, we look back at the top line stats and records set on previous visits to the iconic city.
When it comes to Sydney winners, the first two seasons were both won by Tom Slingsby’s Australia, while Emirates GBR dominated in 2020. Season 3’s visit meanwhile, which was disrupted due to an extreme weather incident, saw the Sydney event title handed to France after Quentin Delapierre’s team won the first three fleet races and topped the leaderboard after the first day of racing.
The top SailGP racing speed ever recorded in Sydney was set by Sebastien Schneiter’s Switzerland during the team’s first visit to the city. The Swiss racked up a top speed of 96.3 km/h during the second fleet race of Season 3’s visit.
This makes sense given the highest wind speed was recorded during the same event – gusting at a top speed of 55 km/h during the third fleet race.
The same race witnessed the quickest start speed in Sydney, with Tom Slingsby’s home Australia team reaching a blistering speed of 88.2 km/h on the start line of Fleet Race 2 in Season 3.
France and Australia both tied for crossing the line the quickest in Sydney, crossing the start line 0.2 seconds after the gun sounded in the first fleet race of Season 3. The same race also saw the closet start by distance, with Australia, France and Emirates GBR all positioned just 4m away from the line at the gun.
The shortest distance recorded in Sydney during racing meanwhile was picked up by New Zealand, with Peter Burling’s crew finishing the second race of Season 2’s visit to Sydney covering 3296m.
The KPMG Australia Sail Grand Prix | Sydney takes place on February 24-25, with racing from 16:00 AEDT.
