The second day of racing at the inaugural Rolex Sail Grand Prix in Geneva proved a frustrating one for Emirates GBR. The team finished tenth and seventh in the day’s two races. Despite the results, the team ended the event in fourth place and remains second in the season’s overall standings, firmly in the fight for the championship.
From the outset, the day brought constant changes. Racing was initially brought forward to avoid a late‑afternoon storm. However, the wind arrived earlier than forecast, prompting SailGP to make the decision for an all‑fleet rudder change on the water, swapping out light‑wind boards for their high‑speed alternative. This on‑water rudder swap was a first in the series’ history. It delayed the start of sailing and set the tone for a drama‑filled day ahead.
More pre-racing drama followed when Brazil’s SailGP Team, suffered damage in an incident with a race mark that left a hole in their boat. They ultimately had to withdraw from all racing for the day.
By the time the opening fleet race began, the breeze had dropped. In super‑light conditions, Emirates GBR were blocked out on the left side of the start line and crossed it off their foils. The breeze dropped even further, becoming nearly impossible to make up ground, and the Brits eventually finished in 10th place. Despite that result, their performance on Day One had provided enough points to stay within reach of the crucial top‑3 podium final. The race was won by Germany, with Italy second and ROCKWOOL Denmark third.
Fleet racing continued into Race Five, with Emirates GBR again late to the start line, with both hulls in the water, crossing in 9th. Next came perhaps the most contentious issue of the day with the non‑penalties for the action known as “cycling the boards,” where teams continuously and illegally pump the foil daggerboards up and down to gain propulsion in the light winds. Despite infringements by a number of teams, the umpires issued only warnings; no penalties were handed out.
Emirates GBR eventually finished the final fleet race in 7th, with Spain winning followed by Switzerland and Germany. This gave the Brits a fourth‑place finish overall, while Australia, Germany and Switzerland qualified for the event podium final.
Emirates GBR driver Dylan Fletcher said: “Super‑light and tricky conditions out there, and we didn’t have the best day. But, you know, there are still positives, that fourth place finish moves us up the leaderboard. There was also an element of frustration, it’s clear in the SailGP rules that cycling the boards is not permitted and so it’s quite unusual that teams were getting warnings for cycling the boards rather than actual penalties. We’ll definitely need more clarity from the umpires, because we felt like those teams made big gains in a critical race situation. Coming into this weekend, we knew things would be challenging given the lottery of the weather. So to come out fourth and end up one point closer to the lead in this series, that’s a good result.”
In the Podium Final, the home team, Switzerland, narrowly missed a perfect start by going slightly early over the line, resulting in a penalty that forced them behind Germany and Australia. It then came down to which team could keep foiling. Germany executed brilliantly to claim their first event win of the season.
Looking ahead, Emirates GBR head into the Spain Sail Grand Prix in Cádiz still in second place overall with 75 points — just one point behind Australia and two ahead of New Zealand. With the season nearing its climax, every race, every start, and every penalty will count even more.
