San Francisco Sail Grand Prix
Teams prepare for ‘most extreme conditions’ of the season ahead of Oracle San Francisco Sail Grand Prix
The stage is set for what could be “the most extreme conditions” of the 2025 Season calendar, with three-time SailGP champion Tom Slingsby (Australia SailGP Team)cautioning, “it takes bravery” to battle it out on the Bay. Emirates Great Britain leads the 2025 Season leaderboard into the weekend, rounded out by New Zealand in second and Australia in third.
Known for strong currents and big breeze, San Francisco offers some of the most tactical racing on the Rolex SailGP calendar. A Bay area local, U.S. SailGP Team wing trimmer Hans Henken echoed Slingsby’s warning: “The key is to pay attention to the weather,” he said.
Henken continued: “Being here in winter time is going to change the conditions. The forecast will be really important – look around, use your eyes. Those teams making instinctive decisions around the course will do the best out there this weekend.”
Eleven of 12 national teams will be on the startline when the action gets underway. ROCKWOOL Denmark has been ruled out due to damages caused last week in Los Angeles, which have proven too substantial to repair before this weekend’s event. Denmark is now the fourth team to be handed down the maximum eight-season points penalty for a single incident – a call ROCKWOOL Denmark driver Nicolai Sehested said could put the Danes’ season “massively at risk.” The others were Australia (Season 3) and France (Season 4). Germany was also handed an eight-season penalty for an incident in training last month in Sydney.
Sehested said: “We all know the rules and play by the rules. When you make a silly mistake like that, the hardest one is on yourself. It’s tough on myself and the team and the most disappointing thing is letting our great sponsor ROCKWOOL down.”
Asked whether he was worried about his role as driver, Sehested was candid: “If we can’t perform and someone better can, then there should be changes, for sure. That’s sport,” he said.
The Oracle San Francisco Sail Grand Prix begins tomorrow (Saturday, March 22), with live racing underway at 2.30 p.m. local time. The event is the second stop on SailGP’s U.S. slate of events before the global racing championship heads to Rio de Janeiro for its first South American event next month (May 3-4), followed by the Mubadala New York Sail Grand Prix on June 7-8.
A handful of tickets remain for both days of this weekend’s event, available for purchase at SailGP.com/Tickets.
