Sailing-Bigger and Faster, SailGP Back where all of it Began In Sydney
By Nick Mulvenney
SYDNEY, Feb 7 (Reuters) - SailGP returns to where all of it began in Sydney this weekend and 6 years on from the inaugural race, co-founder Russell Coutts sees an intense future for the innovative global sailing league.
An Olympic champ and skipper of three Americas Cup-winning boats, Coutts coordinated with Larry Ellison, the billionaire creator of the Oracle software business, to the series with six groups all owned by the league.
While the inaugural season which began in Sydney in February 2019 included just five rounds, this weekend's race will be the 3rd round of 13 the now 12-strong fleet will object to on the 2025-26 schedule.
"It's just incredible, really, the uptake and number of events now," SailGP chief executive 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 someplace 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 appearances great."
The idea of Formula One on water is implicit in the league's name and the comparison is not far from the mark when the world's best sailors press the F50 hindering catamarans to their limitations at what are awesome speeds for waterborne vessels.
"We didn't set out to simply interest the devoted sailing fan, we attempt to make this sport understandable and explainable for all sports fans," Coutts added.
"Most of our fans are not passionate sailors, and that is among the reasons that we have actually grown so quickly. We are interesting people that simply like enjoying a race, they don't need to understand anything about sailboats."
A bumper crowd of 25,000 ticketed fans turned out to see Tom Slingsby's Australia group win the 2nd round of the series in Auckland last month.
"I believe you'll see numerous of our events this year now like that, possibly even topping that," said Coutts, a 62-year-old New Zealander.
"The most important thing is the fans enjoying on broadcast ... but the fan experience on site is likewise critically important. We desire fans to come and have a good time and see some excellent racing."
Technological innovation is essential to SailGP and hundreds of countless data points are passed on from the boats to the Oracle Cloud for the use of race organisers, groups and disgaeawiki.info to assist broadcasters improve the viewer experience.
360 DEGREE VIEW
Coutts is excited about some more developments coming online as Artificial Intelligence is increasingly employed to work through the mountain of data.
"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 trip along with the Australian group in a race, and have the ability to take a look around any place they want. That's the future."
There have, obviously, been challenges over the 6 years with the second season interfered with by the COVID pandemic and race days still often at the mercy of wind conditions.
A shortage of F50s meant the French group 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 complete fleet of 12 boats will for that reason race for the very first time this weekend and one of the most pleasing elements for Coutts is that all but among the groups are, or soon will be, independently owned or run.
"These teams are now costing $50 million, I would never ever have actually forecasted that this early," said Coutts, who prepares to bring another couple of groups on board next year.
"We understood that that was the entire method the design was established, that team owners would have the ability to trade their teams and ideally generate income out of it, however I didn't think we 'd attain it this early. That's been a great surprise." (Reporting by Nick Mulvenney, editing by Michael Perry)