The dominance Tom Slingsby (left) and the Australian SailGP team continue to demonstrate year after year is extraordinary. This is nothing like the other glory days when the Australian got everything in sync to achieve a perfect scoreline at the 2021 Moth Worlds, or when he came back from the brutal disappointment of Beijing 2008 to crush his rivals in the Men’s Laser in Weymouth. Before Slingsby won his second SailGP title in 2022 it looked unlikely in the extreme that one person could possibly dominate a series which brought together a dozen of the world’s 20 best sailors; surely honours would be shared? So when ‘Slingers’ locked down a third SailGP title in San Francisco, Team Australia confirmed a new level of mastery with the F50 cat: no one else is even close. No wonder that for several years now Tom Slingsby has regularly topped the polls as the fastest sailor in the world
Apparently it costs around US$7million to operate a SailGP team for a season. I think it would be hard to get full team sponsorship because I don’t know that any team can attract enough exposure to commercially justify an operating budget on that scale. Then you would have the amortisation of the purchase price of the team from SailGP itself, whatever that would be (as the first franchise owner, Sir Ben Ainslie is believed to have spent in excess of US$20million for a SailGP slot – ed). Now there are plenty of avid yachtsmen out there who spend more than US$7million on their yachting, in the J Class, Maxis and superyacht racing for starters. Probably TP52 teams now spend north of US$7million. So ownership could be a lot of private investment plus sponsorship. Plus markets matter; I think a SailGP team in Italy could gather a big following. Conversely, even though they win more than anyone else ever will, the Aussies can’t generate US$7million in sponsorship. The perennial champions struggle every winter to fund the next campaign. In the final analysis I am bullish on SailGP. The product is built, and they will figure out new efficiencies in moving the circuit around, thus reducing those costs. The show already has enough ‘wow’
factor to attract good venues and I assume good venue fees. The same ‘wow’ factor has attracted the likes of Rolex to a longterm commitment, and I know they do their due diligence so the value must be there for them. So it’s the team element that needs to be solved – no doubt some more wealthy sailing enthusiasts would like to be team owners… but at the right price. In closing, I want to note that The Ocean Race is in Newport, RI at the time of this writing. Not quite sure what to say about this race which produced some of my best memories in sailing. On a good note, one point separates the top three teams in the Imoca Class, and with just over half the points awarded the race is completely up for grabs. There has been a bit of drama with a couple of dismastings on leg 4, including the race leader, Holcim PRB, who watched a commanding lead evaporate while their boat was transported to the USA on a freighter following their dismasting off Brazil shortly after the start.
The small fleet, short stopovers and interesting route all combine to give me at least a quite different feel for this race compared with the Whitbreads/Volvos of 25 years ago.
Holcim PRB will be leaving Newport with a one-point lead over 11th Hour Racing and Team Malizia who are tied for second. Biotherm is five points back and Guyot Environnement-Team Europe has had a rough go not finishing two of the four legs so far. The VOR 65s will rejoin the race in Aarhus for the final three legs. Let’s hope for some exciting racing ahead.
SEAHORSE 37
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