Dylan Fletcher believes Team Emirates GBR were unfortunate to miss the SailGP final in Portsmouth, with the reigning champions finishing bottom of Group B despite flashes of promise on home waters.
Driver Dylan Fletcher felt his team were unlucky to finish bottom of their group at the Emirates Great Britain Sail Grand Prix on the Solent, in front of a crowd of 20,000.
Missed Final by Eight Points
The British boat finished fifth and sixth in its two group fleet races, missing qualification for the final by eight points. Sweden and Switzerland progressed instead. Fletcher saw his crew storm off the line in the final race, only to be pipped to the first mark by the Swiss, resulting in a loss of speed and falling off the foils.
“It was difficult. In the first race we just got boxed around a bit and didn't really have the opportunity very often to go where we wanted, and the second race was over after mark one for us. We know we chipped away and got back into the fleet a bit but ultimately we were miles behind after being off the foils,” Fletcher said.
Strong Competition
BONDS Flying Roos, the season championship leaders from Australia, also failed to progress, with Canada’s NorthStar and Spain’s Los Gallos taking the top two positions. Spain clinched its second consecutive victory and moved ahead of Emirates GBR in the championship standings, while USA and Sweden also leapfrogged the Brits.
Fletcher added: “Especially yesterday, there weren't many overtaking lanes so it's very difficult for us to come back from those poor starts. It was different today - we managed to get on top of the starts and worked with the whole team to remedy that. That was nice to see, so as frustrating as it is, there are some little positives to take away from the weekend but it unravelled after that in both races.”
Group Racing Format
The previous race in Halifax also split teams into two groups for fleet racing, a format SailGP plans to continue. Fletcher said the longer group racing goes on, the fairer it becomes, but the quality of fleets can vary. He described the Portsmouth course as fantastic with interesting racing opportunities and great positioning in front of the crowd.
