A bravura performance from Giles Scott and the Emirates Great Britain crew to sweep the ROCKWOOL Canada Sail Grand Prix.
The British crew led day 1, topped the day 2 fleet racing leaderboard, and then stormed to victory in the winner-takes-all Final ahead of France and Denmark.
Scott nailed the Final start grabbing the inside berth as they crossed the start line to lead from mark 1, hitting 50+ knots (57+ mph) in gusts of 21+ knots and a downpour that reduced visibility.
France and Denmark had their chances and a wobble by the Brits as they headed into the final turning mark, caused a sharp intake of breath by the long suffering GBR supporters.
But nothing was going to stop an “absolutely buzzing” Giles Scott securing his first SailGP win since taking over from Ben Ainslie as Driver of the Emirates Great Britain SailGP Team in January.
Earlier Ben Ainslie, Emirates GBR’s CEO, had issued a statement . . . ‘For the record. Rumours about Giles Scott future in SailGP are way wide of the mark. He has mine and the teams full support. Bring on race day @EmiratesGBRSGP.’
Following the Canada Grand Prix win Ainslie was quick to congratulate Giles and the team posting on social media: “Never in doubt! Awesome effort from Giles Scott, Hannah Mills and the rest of the team. That’s how you bounce back from a rough patch.”
Emirates GBR team line-up consists of Giles Scott as Driver, Hannah Mills as Strategist, Luke Parkinson as Flight Controller, Iain Jensen as Wing Trimmer, Nick Hutton and Neil Hunter as Grinders and Hannah Diamond as Reserve Sailor.
The win puts Emirates GBR in sixth place on the Season 4 leaderboard, trailing the top three – New Zealand, Spain and AUstralia – by 13 points with two events to go, in New York (22-23 June) and the winner-takes-all Grand Final in San Francisco (13-14 July).
The second day’s high winds forced SailGP to adopt an adjusted format after being unable to safely crane all ten F50s into the water in time for the start of racing. With team’s prioritized in order of day one standings, Switzerland and the U.S. were unable to race on day two, whilst Germany missed out on Fleet Race Four.
There was also a dramatic capsize involving Australia on the final upwind leg of Fleet Race Five. Driver Tom Slingsby pointed to a ‘malfunction’ with boat controls as a cause of the incident, in which all crew were uninjured.
Slingsby said: “No one touched a button and the wing inverted and resulted in a capsize. It’s a technical issue and I feel like a broken record. I don’t like to blame anyone or anything, but it feels like we’ve been pretty unlucky with technical issues.”
