Burling and his Kiwi Black Foils are setting a course toward a $2 million SailGP payday
AP Sports Writer
The final day of SailGP’s Season 4 could bring a nice seven-figure payday for skipper Peter Burling and his Team New Zealand Black Foils on San Francisco Bay.
The Kiwis head into the final regatta already having clinched a spot in the $2 million, winner-take-all Grand Final, the biggest cash prize in sailing. Their two opponents will be determined via five fleet races on Saturday and Sunday in front of the Golden Gate Bridge.
Three-time defending SailGP champion Tom Slingsby and Team Australia have a good chance of making the final if they stay in the top three and keep their 50-foot foiling catamaran, the Flying Roo, in one piece.
The Kiwis have a 15-point lead over their rivals from across the Tasman Sea, with Diego Botin and Spain sitting just two points behind the Aussies. Quentin Delapierre has France another five points back in the fleet of 10 national teams in tech titan Larry Ellison’s global league.
The New Zealanders will pocket $350,000 for finishing atop the season leaderboard and then go for the $2 million in the Grand Final, which is double the payout for each of the first three season championships.
“As a team we’ve really wanted to set the benchmark all season long,” Burling said Friday. “We obviously had a good wobble in the middle of the season, but seeing the way we’ve come on in the second half is really pleasing. We really want to go into the final with momentum.”
The Kiwis have dominated despite a stunning setback in the season’s third regatta, when their wingsail suddenly shattered and fell into the Mediterranean minutes after they had completed the first day of racing in Saint-Tropez. They were forced to the docks for the rest of that regatta and the next regatta.
It’s not surprising the Kiwis have bounced back, considering their deep experience. Burling and wing trimmer Blair Tuke won three Olympic medals together, including one gold, and form the core of two-time defending America’s Cup champion Emirates Team New Zealand.
They won five of the first 12 regattas while the Aussies, who dominated SailGP’s first three seasons, have won just once.
“We need to just go wrap it out now,” Burling said. “All season long, San Fran has been the goal to get here, try to be the top performing team and put it all together in the final. Looks like the weather’s going to be awesome, good breeze.”
Slingsby, an Olympic gold medalist and former America’s Cup champion, isn’t used to coming into the final regatta in second place.
“The Kiwis and the Aussies have an amazing rivalry in every sport we do,” Slingsby said. “For sure it does sting a little more when you lose to the Kiwis. I’m sure they’ll say the same about us. But the fact is, they’ve been the form team. You even take away the penalty points we got that I felt were pretty harsh, and they still beat us. They would have overtaken us. They really came home strong the second half of the season.
“They deserve the prize money for winning the points score and we’ve got to try to win the overall season one,” Slingsby said.
Slingsby has had great success on San Francisco Bay, starting when he helped Oracle Team USA mount a stunning comeback against Emirates Team New Zealand to defend the America’s Cup in 2013. He then won the first three SailGP championships there.
“The way we draw our confidence is in this venue,” Slingsby said. “This venue suits our sailing — strong winds, consistent. We’ve done really well in that million-dollar race in the past. So we’ve got to look for different ways to draw that confidence and we’re looking to draw that confidence from our history here.”
In last year’s Grand Final, Slingsby held on through a few tense moments after his catamaran fell off its foils and then prevailed over Burling of New Zealand in a short dash to the finish. Britain’s Sir Ben Ainslie was third.
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Bernie Wilson has covered sailing for the AP since 1991.
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