SailGP Christchurch: New Zealand team take lead after opening day

The NZ SailGP boat. Photo / Photosport

The New Zealand SailGP team are clearly comfortable at home.

In need of a big result at SailGP’s New Zealand debut in Christchurch to enhance their chances of qualifying for the grand finale, there was little standing in the way of the Kiwi crew stamping their mark on the event.

The Peter Burling-led team finished the opening day of racing with a win and two runner-up finishes to sit atop the leaderboard at the halfway point of the regatta.

Kiwi driver Phil Robertson and his Canadian crew sit second on 24 points for the event – four back from New Zealand – while Great Britain sit third on 23, with France in fourth on 21.

Sitting in second place on the overall leaderboard coming into the regatta, the New Zealanders are only one point clear of France in third and two clear of Great Britain in fourth. The top three is where the teams all want to be at the end of next month’s races in San Francisco, where the top three on the overall ladder have a one-off race for the US$1m prize.

It looked like the New Zealand crew would have their work cut out for them when sailing got underway following a delay due to dolphins swimming through the race course.

The Kiwis had a mediocre start, sitting sixth in the opening leg of the race.

Perhaps it was local knowledge, or picking the wind shifts, but by the end of the second leg, they were battling with the Australians – and winning that – for second place behind France, who shot away at the starting line.

Putting space between themselves and Australia, the Kiwis were sailing faster than the French and began to edge away at the lead. However, France were able to maintain their position to claim their fourth-straight race win.

Australia were surprisingly pipped on the finishing line by Great Britain; the extra point gained by finishing one place ahead could be a big gain after all five fleet races are completed.

It was a different story in the second race. The Kiwis nailed their start with a familiar launch, making the most of the space at the back of the starting box before building up speed and slingshotting toward the line across the face of the rest of the fleet at speed.

From the gate, it looked likely to be a shootout between Australia and New Zealand, and that proved to be the case. The league’s top two teams tussled for position throughout the race, but an error rounding a mark from Australia late in the race saw their boat dip off their foils, allowing New Zealand to put a big gap between themselves and the fleet to claim a big win.

Opening up race three with a boundary penalty in the starting box, the New Zealand team had to start at the back of the fleet. Again, whatever they had found in the venue showed on the water, as before long they were in second place trying to chase down Robertson and his Canadian crew.

Much like the first race of the day, the Kiwis looked to be making gains on the boat ahead, but Robertson was able to drive to a victory.

Sunday will feature two more fleet races, before the top three for the event race to decide the podium spots.