Sailing-Bigger and Faster, SailGP Back where everything Began In Sydney
By Nick Mulvenney
SYDNEY, lespoetesbizarres.free.fr Feb 7 (Reuters) - SailGP go back to where it all began in Sydney this weekend and 6 years on from the inaugural race, co-founder Russell Coutts sees a bright future for the innovative global sailing league.
An Olympic champ and skipper of 3 Americas Cup-winning boats, Coutts coordinated with Larry Ellison, the billionaire founder of the Oracle software company, oke.zone to release the series with six teams all owned by the league.
While the inaugural season which kicked off in Sydney in February 2019 featured simply five rounds, this weekend's race will be the third round of 13 the now 12-strong fleet will contest on the 2025-26 schedule.
"It's simply amazing, actually, the uptake and variety of events now," SailGP president Coutts informed Reuters at the Sydney Opera House on Friday.
"We're certainly sitting at 13, and aiming to increase that over the next seasons to somewhere around 20. If you compare that to Formula One that has 24, that's sort of where we wish to get to. So yeah, the future looks great."
The idea of Formula One on water is implicit in the league's name and drapia.org the comparison is not far from the mark when the world's finest sailors push the F50 foiling catamarans to their limits at what are spectacular speeds for waterborne vessels.
"We didn't set out to just attract the passionate sailing fan, we attempt to make this sport reasonable and explainable for all sports fans," Coutts included.
"Most of our fans are not devoted sailors, which is among the reasons why we've grown so rapidly. We are attracting people that similar to enjoying a race, they do not have to understand anything about sailboats."
A bumper crowd of 25,000 ticketed fans ended up to see Tom Slingsby's Australia team win the second round of the series in Auckland last month.
"I believe you'll see numerous of our occasions this year now like that, perhaps even topping that," said Coutts, a 62-year-old New Zealander.
"The most crucial thing is the fans seeing on broadcast ... however the fan experience on site is likewise extremely important. We desire fans to come and have a fun time and see some fantastic racing."
Technological innovation is integral to SailGP and hundreds of thousands of data points are relayed from the boats to the for making use of race organisers, teams and to assist broadcasters improve the audience experience.
360 DEGREE VIEW
Coutts is excited about some more developments coming online as Artificial Intelligence is progressively used to overcome the mountain of information.
"The huge advancement for us moving forward is the 360 degree view from on board the boat, with listening to the group comms," he said.
"The viewer will be taken on board and ride along with the Australian team in a race, and be able to browse wherever they desire. That's the future."
There have, obviously, been obstacles over the six years with the second season interrupted by the COVID pandemic and botdb.win race days still often at the grace of wind conditions.
A scarcity of F50s meant the French team was not able to contend at this year's season-opening race in Dubai and damage to the boat once they got it ruled them out of the Auckland leg.
The full fleet of 12 boats will for that reason race for the first time this weekend and among the most pleasing aspects for Coutts is that all but one of the teams are, or quickly will be, independently owned or run.
"These groups are now offering for $50 million, I would never ever have actually anticipated that this at an early stage," said Coutts, who plans to bring another couple of groups on board next year.
"We knew that that was the entire way the design was set up, that team owners would have the ability to trade their teams and hopefully earn money out of it, but I didn't think we 'd attain it this early. That's been a nice surprise." (Reporting by Nick Mulvenney, editing by Michael Perry)