Editor’s note: This story is part of The Athletic’s coverage of SailGP, an international sailing competition that has been likened to Formula 1 on water. Follow SailGP here.
Even the presence of Wolverine and Obi-Wan Kenobi was unable to protect the New York Sail Grand Prix from the effects of strong, gusty wind blasting out of the mean streets of Manhattan on Saturday.
The first day of racing should have seen the fleet of 12 internationally flagged F50 catamarans foiling up and down the Hudson River between Governors Island and the Statue of Liberty. But the strong breeze proved too hazardous to safely winch all 12 boats into the water in time for the scheduled 3 p.m. start.
So the race organizers made the controversial call to prioritize the craning-in of the F50s in order of the current season standings. Only four of the 12 boats made the cut, starting with the dominant performers of 2026 thus far, the Bonds Flying Roos of Australia, along with Britain, Spain and the U.S., which is fourth in the season rankings. The remaining eight were left to gnash their teeth on the shore.
The race window had already been pushed back to wait for the wind to drop, and the U.S. boat needed all the time it could get as the swirling breeze continued to buffet the F50 back and forth beneath the crane. Meanwhile, the other three teams were charging around the racetrack, getting in much-needed practice before the first race.
However, the Aussies pushed the boat a little too hard, nosediving hard into the Hudson, a sudden stop that didn’t cause any injury to the sailors but resulted in damage to the front crossbeam and port-side foil case. These are highly loaded parts, which will take the shore crew a hard night’s work to get sorted if there is any hope of skipper Tom Slingsby’s team rejoining for Sunday’s racing.
This is the first piece of hard news for a team that had built up quite a bit of momentum in recent months. After dominating the past two events in Rio de Janeiro and Bermuda, this weekend also saw co-owner Hugh Jackman, known for playing Wolverine in the X-Men movies, join the team in New York after an announcement Friday that Disney+ greenlit a new docuseries following the team’s progress through the SailGP season.
All that Disney+ excitement was far from Slingsby’s mind Saturday, though. His good run of fortune had run out, clearing the way for Britain to win the first of three races, with Spain winning the next two as Diego Botin took the overnight lead going into Sunday. With so many of his friends and rivals stuck on shore, Botin acknowledged his lead in the standings didn’t give him the usual sense of satisfaction.
“It’s a bit weird, to be honest,” the Spanish skipper told The Athletic. He knows SailGP organizers have found themselves stuck between a rock and a hard place. “We are not making the crucial rules. We can maybe give our input for the future, but it’s what is given to us.”
The Great Britain team and the Australian team foil past the Statue of Liberty while preparing for the opening race on Saturday. (Jason Ludlow for SailGP)
Botin said he had been told Saturday’s racing was effectively an exhibition match for the spectators, but Dylan Fletcher, the skipper of the British boat, believed the opposite. “We went out there believing that this racing counted for the championship,” he told The Athletic, looking confused. Organizers eventually ruled that Saturday’s races would not be scored, but Sunday’s races will be included in the season standings.
The final day is shaping up to be altogether different from Saturday’s stormy chaos. The wind will be much, much lighter, so craning the whole fleet into the water will not be the problem. The issue now is whether there will be enough wind to get the fleet racing against the strong currents of the Hudson. This weekend is turning into a microcosm of all the things that challenge a wind-based sport like sailing. SailGP’s motto is “Powered by Nature.” This weekend, it’s feeling more like “Scuppered by Nature.”
