MARTINE GRAEL

Martine Grael has sailed in Guanabara Bay since childhood, watched her father and uncle race its unpredictable winds and won Olympic gold on these waters. Now, as SailGP’s first female driver, she’s bringing the world’s fastest sail racing to South America for the first time – and she’s ready to put on a show.

There’s a jacket in Martine Grael‘s wardrobe – ten years old, starting to show its age – that tells the story better than any press release. It dates back to the 2016 Olympics, when Grael and Kahena Kunze held off New Zealand by two seconds in the final race to win gold in the 49erFX class, setting off celebrations on Flamengo Beach that saw them carried ashore on their skiff by a crowd wading into the surf.

A decade on, Guanabara Bay will host the largest and loudest sailing event it has seen since. SailGP arrives in Rio de Janeiro on April 11-12 for the ENEL Rio Sail Grand Prix – the championship’s South American debut – and at the wheel of the Mubadala Brazil SailGP Team is the same sailor who knows these waters better than anyone on the startline.

Ask any of the rival drivers what they know about racing on Guanabara Bay and the honest answer is: not much. Sugarloaf Mountain to one side, the Serra do Mar range to the other – the geography that makes Rio so visually spectacular is the same geography that makes it a puzzle on the water. Grael grew up sailing here, but she is under no illusions that local knowledge translates to an easy weekend.

“You’ve got mountains just to windward of the race area, which create a lot of twists and turns in the wind,” she explains. “The wind can come from two different sides of the mountains, which makes it very tricky. It’s not an easy place to sail, especially if you’re coming in without much experience there.”

The currents compound the challenge. Ahead of the 2016 Olympics, nations poured significant scientific effort into modelling tidal flows in the bay in a bid to get the upper hand. The conclusion, as Grael puts it with characteristic directness: “It’s incredibly hard to predict.” Tides, wind influence, temperature layers – everything interacts, and everything shifts. “In the end, it’s about observation. You don’t need a fancy model, you just have to look at what the water is doing at that moment.”

There is one equaliser: the F50 fleet will be navigating these conditions largely blind. “It’s good that it’s a bit new for everyone,” Grael acknowledges. And if the wind direction shifts even slightly – as it routinely does when funnelled between two mountain ranges – everything changes. Every race. Every lap.

More than a home Grand Prix

The event was supposed to happen last year. It didn’t – a late withdrawal due to equipment issues left Brazilian fans, who had built themselves into a considerable frenzy, waiting. That anticipation hasn’t dissipated. If anything, it has grown.

“We missed the event there last year, so I think there’s a bit of extra hype for it to finally happen,” Grael says. Her own sense of what’s at stake goes well beyond points and standings. “There’s a big hype around it in the sailing world, of course, but it’s also just a huge event for Rio. For me, being from Guanabara Bay, getting to see friends and having people come to watch – it’s really special.”

Grael grew up sailing these waters, watching her father Torben – a five-time Olympic medallist and the joint most decorated sailor in Brazilian history – and her two-time Olympic medalist uncle Lars race in the same bay. There are memories layered on memories here. “I don’t know about ‘family legacy’,” she says, careful with her words, “but it’s always nice to race in your hometown. I sailed there throughout my childhood, watched my dad and my uncle racing there, and we sailed together and against each other. Those are really special memories.”

For the rest of the fleet, Rio will be a novelty – a striking new country, a different culture, a racecourse unlike anything on the calendar. For Grael, whose brother Marco will be alongside her as one of Mubadala Brazil’s grinders, it is something more personal. “Sailing in Guanabara Bay is just beautiful. Sometimes you can stop and just look around and get inspired by the scenery.” For fans it promises a heady combination of edge-of-your-seat racing and those world-famous Rio party vibes. Then, with a smile in her voice: “The Brazilians will definitely bring the party.”

The first, but not the last

The number Grael carries – first female driver in SailGP history – is one she wears with a mixture of pride and impatience. The pride is earned: a two-time Olympic champion, she entered a circuit of elite athletes and immediately competed at their level. The impatience is pointed: she doesn’t want to be a one-off.

“I’m very honoured to be the first female driver, but I do wish I wasn’t the only one,” she says. “I would rather be one of many.”

She thinks carefully about the effect her presence has – and about what the right kind of success looks like. “I don’t think about it too much unless someone asks me, but I do hope it inspires other female sailors to come in and do as well as, or better than, I have.” The bar she sets for herself is deliberately high, and deliberately self-effacing.

“I hope I end up being the worst female driver SailGP ever has, because that would mean others have come in and pushed things even further.”

That’s what’s cool about sport, she says. When you create a pathway, the level just keeps rising. Grael is not trying to be a ceiling, she is trying to be a floor.

Hungry for more

After a steep learning curve in the Mubadala Brazil team’s debut season, the building blocks are in place. A first fleet race win in New York last year signalled what the team is capable of. Sydney, the most recent event, offered mixed results – a seventh-place finish that Grael is blunt about: “We didn’t feel like Sydney was a great result – seventh place doesn’t make our eyes shine – but it was progress. We’re hungry for

The immediate target is clear. “I think we have the level to make a final. We haven’t done it yet, so I won’t talk about winning, but getting into a final is definitely within reach.” If there is a venue that might serve as the breakthrough, it is hard to imagine a better one than the bay she has raced since childhood.

“You always have to sail what’s in front of you,” she says, “but the home advantage is definitely the support. Brazilians know how to cheer, and we’re going to hear them.” A pause. Then: “I think it’s going to be massive for our team. We already feel a lot of support at events, but in Brazil it will be on another level.”

Grab your ticket to the ENEL Rio Sail Grand Prix HERE – or find out how to tune in from wherever you are in the world HERE.