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Flying the flag


Among the first entries to announce for the new SailGP series in F50 foilers was a British team. Not Ben Ainslie’s America’s Cup syndicate – which this time around is fighting shy of anything that distracts from the end goal – but a new group led by former 49er star and Prada AC72 helmsman Chris Draper


Six teams are set to compete next year in the Coutts-Ellison SailGP one-design flying catamaran circuit. At the time of writing these were in the process of being announced with two former Oracle crew- men, Rome Kirby and Tom Slingsby, leading the US and Australian teams respectively, and with Chinese, Japanese and French teams soon to be revealed. At the international launch of SailGP, held on the banks of the River Thames


48 SEAHORSE


by Tower Bridge in October, the Great Britain SailGP Team was also unveiled. This is being led by the familiar figure of Chris Draper, who holds the role of team CEO and is wing trimmer onboard, having passed on the position you’d expect him to be in – in other words, skipper/helmsman – to Britain’s Rio 2016 49er helm and 2017 world champion Dylan Fletcher. After steering Luna Rossa’s spectacular silver AC72 around the course in San Francisco in 2013, followed by a further short stint with the Italian team before their AC35 campaign was canned, Draper last year moved on to become tactician and sailing team director alongside Dean Barker at SoftBank Team Japan. Perhaps that latter position was an early warning of Draper’s imminent exit from sailing roles, having turned 40 last March? He maintains it was never his intention to helm the British F50 and he doesn’t believe in splitting helmsman and skipper roles, especially on a boat capable of 50kt+ speeds. ‘I will sail on the boat for the first season for sure, then we’ll just see what happens as we move along,’ he says.


With the likes of Nathan Outteridge and Peter Burling showing the way on the AC45s and 50s over the last few seasons, and Draper coming from the generation before them, 49er sailors have unquestion- ably proved the most capable of adapting to fast foiling catamarans.


As to the need to introduce the new generation, Draper explains: ‘I compare it to how it was in the early days of the Moths. Rohan Veal cleaned up for years and showed everyone how to do it. Then some younger guys came in and started asking, “why can’t you tack on the foils?” So evolution comes from open-minded- ness, youth, confidence and so on and who knows where it can go? That is something SailGP is pushing for as well.’


Within the SailGP system this seems to be more general philosophy than some- thing laid down in rules. While there are ultra-strict restrictions on crew nationality, there are none yet making it mandatory, for example, to carry a prescribed number of under 30-year-olds or women.


Perhaps this would be hard with the circuit already attempting rapidly to bring


GILLES MARTIN-RAGET


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