Kiwis win driftathon on Lake Michigan

SailGP: Kiwis win driftathon on Lake Michigan

by Richard Gladwell/Sail-World.com/nz 17 Jun 15:28 PDT
18 June 2023

New Zealand SailGP team won the first event of Season 4, when they beat Australia and Canada in a driftathon Final Race.

Light winds prevailed for the three races of the last day. Racing was only possible through the use of the large 29metre wingsails which gave the boats some momemtum in a breeze that varied between 3 – 6km/h (1.5-3kts).

Spain won the fourth race in the series with USA’s Jimmy Spithill having a welcome return to the top end of the fleet in second, with the ever-consistent Kiwis taking third.

The Swiss team, now just in their second season, won the last the the Qualifiers, with Canada in second, and France third. Australia and New Zealand both had bad races, finishing 5th an 6th respectively. However they had both done enough by Race 4 to have a place in the Final. Canada took third place with their second in Race 5.

In the Final race all boats were short, by a healthy distance, of the start line seeking to avoid being penalised. Australia got caught in a Kiwi/Canada sandwich – being forced to drop back a length as Canada on the outside and New Zealand on the inside fought for the lead at the first Mark.

Essentially the race should have been over at that point, but all three boats had a serious crack at the Final win at Mark 2, when the Kiwis opted for the left hand mark, while Canada and Australia jockeyed for position at the right hand mark.

The Kiwis looked as if they could have blown their lead when the breeze dropped before they had rounded, with Canada being scored as the first around. However Phil Robertson, the NZ skipper, sailing for Canada – and now a coach as part of the Alinghi Red Bull Racing team for the 37th America’s Cup – did some quick thinking and applied the brakes as soon as he knew he had rounding rights at Mark 2. That action slowed both Canada and Australia and allowed Peter Burling and friends to get across to the left and pick up a “kiwi puff”, or maybe helicopter downdraft, extending out to a 70 metre lead before they had to tack and cross Australian and Canada.

Tom Slingsby, a co-helmsman for the American Magic America’s Cup team, returned the favour to nudge ahead of Canada, as the intersection loomed with the Kiwis coming across on port at a blistering 4kts, but had sufficient margin in the bank to be able to cross the other two, tack again to make Mark 3 and then hold onto lead through to the finish.

Around the course there were some unusual sight, with the only female crew member of the Kiwi boat, the diminutive Liv Mackay, being put on the grinders for the whole race, and with the crew using the hydraulic power she generated to rhythmically raise and lower the windward foil – claimed by the commentators to be adding to boatspeed.

“If you got to their first mark in good shape, it’s a pretty hard course to pass,” said skipper Peter Burling after the finish. “We were quie surprised how well the left paid, with the helicopter puff that Canada used to get through. we held our composure and managed to finish the job and bounced back after being so close to winning season final last time.”

Burling was overheard to say on the on board communications that the racing was some of the most stressful of his life.

“At least when you’re going fast you got heaps of inertia, and you’re just having to concentrate on the boat. With the light winds you have to look around, and you’ve got all the time in the world. So I think it’s just an extra time thing, that adds to the stress.

“It’s amazing how on such a short race course there can be so much going on. And make one little mistake and you get passed. It’s so easy to drop from that 10km/hr that we try to maintain most of the time, to something like 5km.”

“If you get a penalty – it’s all over. Our crew did an amazing job holding it all together.”

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