For the first time the SailGP season will be contested within a calendar year and the action starts in Western Australia with Fremantle hosting an event for the first time with the sold out Oracle Perth Sail Grand Prix presented by KPMG.
With the short gap between seasons dominated by athlete transfer news, the Black Foils enter the season with the same sailing line-up as Season 2025 supported by a new High Performance Support Team in Matt Steven and Will McKenzie.
Black Foils Co-CEO and Driver Peter Burling said his team were starting the season in a positive place.
“Last season’s result definitely gives you plenty of motivation for the season ahead. And I think right across the whole group we’re super proud of what we achieved that season. We had a new flight controller with Leo, quite a new group and built momentum really well through the season. And for us, we feel like we’re still on that positive trajectory. It’s going to be a completely different weekend here – the other end of the breeze spectrum, probably the other end of the configuration spectrum as well. We are looking forward to trying to put one notebook away, pull out the other one and get off to a good start to the season.”
Burling added it was exciting to balance the settled sailing team line-up into the season with new on land support.
“It’s been super nice to have the same starting line-up that we had last season. We obviously had a big change last season, losing Andy. So that for us has been a lot of upskilling and processing. We’ve got new faces in our coaching department with Matt and Will and that’s bringing a really cool, fresh energy to the group. But to have a consistent line up and be really happy with that group is something that’s putting us in really good stead coming into this first round of the season and we’re looking forward to continuing to grow.”
