For the first time in SailGP history, teams will race on consecutive weekends. The action kicks off in Los Angeles (L.A.) on Saturday afternoon local-time (tomorrow morning NZT), while the San Francisco event will be held the following weekend.
Peter Burling, CEO and driver of New Zealand’s Black Foils, believes the team is better prepared than ever for the Los Angeles course—a course they’ve raced on just once before.
“It’s super exciting to be building into this busy race period. The team’s had a bit of time off since Sydney but we’ve also been working super hard on tidying up those little areas that were letting us down there. I am looking forward to getting back into racing this weekend.”
The Black Foils started off this year’s racing with a hiss-and-a-roar, at the top of the leaderboard after the first race in Dubai. With each event since then, they’ve dropped places on the leader board. The Black Foils enter the L.A. leg of the SailGP Championship sitting in fourth place on the leaderboard, equal on points with third-placed Spain but sitting well-behind leaders, U.K. and Australia. Burling hasn’t indicated any expectation of climbing the ranks during the California-based events; instead, he’s emphasised that the team’s full focus is solely on the L.A. event. He further clarified that their strategy is to make gains event to event.
“Our debrief process involves everyone feeding in ideas before we then focus on what we want to put time into and have individuals and little groups go out and really try to smash those areas. I am excited by the progress we’ve made since Sydney and am looking forward to putting that in action here.”
With just one previous event in Los Angeles, Burling noted that it would be important to learn quickly during today’s practice racing.
“The racecourse is super tight in all directions. We will be really close to the Grand Stand like we were in Auckland. The forecast conditions are very different to what we experienced last time so we will need to adapt.”
The question is, can they? Can they adapt and lift their game? Our serious hope is that the Black Foils will find their wings and fly, so to speak. But with only a short time between the L.A. leg and the San Francisco event will they be able to fix any technical issues that arise, or lift their game where they need to to ensure they don’t drop further down the ranks on the leader board? Our fear is if they come out of this weekend ranked lower than fourth place, there will be a lot of questions coming their way; and we’re not sure the newest team members will get the most criticism.
The Rolex Los Angeles Sail Grand Prix begins tomorrow Saturday 15 March 2025, with racing starting at 2pm local time (Sunday 10am in NZ). Here on boatingnz.co.nz we will carry real time results and highlights — make us your go-to for the latest news!
