The most exciting racing on water makes its Portsmouth debut tomorrow, Saturday, July 19, with 20,000 ticketed fans expected across the two-day event (July 19- 20, 2025). Spain leads the fleet heading into the weekend, but with just ten points separating first from sixth, anything could happen as the Rolex SailGP Championship leaderboard continues to take shape.
“The fans are in for a great event this weekend,” said SailGP CEO and co-founder Sir Russell Coutts. “Especially Sunday when the breeze is going to be up. We’ll most likely be on the small wingsail configuration and who knows – we may even hit a new speed record.”
Racing off Southsea Common, the Solent offers a dynamic racetrack for SailGP’s 12 international teams, with Northstar Canada driver Giles Scott promising, “an amazing racecourse” with “plenty going on” – from obstacles to dodge, to choppy waters and major currents.
The Emirates Great Britain Sail Grand Prix | Portsmouth marks the seventh stop on the Rolex SailGP Championship’s 2025 Season and the first event of the European series. Spain, Australia and New Zealand round out the championship podium – in first, second and third, respectively – but Emirates GBR, Canada and France will all be pushing, not only to gain positions, but maintain contact with the front group.
After a disappointing eight-place finish in New York, Emirates GBR Driver Dylan Fletcher said the team would be looking for redemption – and a welcome boost from home crowd support. “We didn’t bring our A game [in New York and San Francisco] and we’ve spent a lot of time analyzing and working on that,” said Fletcher. “The SailGP season is long and we said at the start that it’s going to be up and down. Hopefully we’ve had our bad events, put them under the rug and from here it will be all the way to the top.”
Emirates GBR co-owner and CEO Sir Ben Ainslie welcomed the pressure on the team to perform. “People talk about pressure in sport and it’s definitely an added pressure when you see tens of thousands of people there and they’re all expecting the home team to win. Frankly, it’s a little bit intimidating but at the same time, we say in sport pressure is a privilege and I think Dylan, Hananh and the rest of the team will really thrive off that.”
The Emirates Great Britain Sail Grand Prix | Portsmouth gets underway tomorrow, Saturday, July 19, with live racing beginning at 4p.m. BST. The event will feature two days of 12-team fleet racing, culminating in a winner-takes-all, three-boat Final on Sunday. Limited tickets remain for both days, available for purchase at SailGP.com/Portsmouth .
