Giles Scott was already having a tough day. Wrong wing, gusty conditions, a boat that was, by his own admission before the start, wobbling all over the place. Then three boats in front of him piled into each other, and suddenly NorthStar Canada were through to the event final.
That is not how it was supposed to go. But that is New York.
The collision happened in the final seconds before the Race 3 gun. Red Bull Italy came back to the line too early and rotated hard to stay behind it. The U.S. team, approaching fast from below, either didn’t see them or couldn’t react. They were the windward boat. They had to turn clear. They didn’t. Brazil was wedged in the middle and had nowhere to go. The broadcast commentary went quiet for a moment, then: “Oh, wow. That’s three boats.”
Safety crew were on the water immediately. No serious injuries, the broadcast confirmed, though the footage of the boats suggested the relief was more about the sailors than the hardware. The Americans were disqualified. Italy and Brazil were out. Three of the day’s strongest contenders gone before Mark 1.
The fleet that was left raced around the wreckage. Scott, who minutes earlier had shrugged off the pre-race chaos with a “we’re just plugging away,” led from the first mark and never came off it. ROCKWOOL Denmark’s Nicolai Sehested tucked in second. Then came Tom Slingsby and the BONDS Flying Roos, and this is where the day got genuinely strange.
Slingsby had damaged his boat before Race 1. He started that race ninth. He looked finished. Three races later he was standing in the final. The commentary team called it a Houdini act. The man himself would probably say he just kept sailing.
Emirates GBR crossed fifth, but with the disqualifications reshuffling the standings above them, Dylan Fletcher’s crew came through as well.
The event final: NorthStar Canada, Emirates GBR, and the BONDS Flying Roos. One race. Three boats on the Hudson. The rest of the fleet watching from the dock.
| POS | TEAM | DRIVER | POINTS |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | NorthStar | Giles Scott | 10 |
| 2 | ROCKWOOL Racing | Nicolai Sehested | 9 |
| 3 | BONDS Flying Roos | Tom Slingsby | 8 |
| 4 | Germany by Deutsche Bank | Erik Heil | 7 |
| 5 | Emirates GBR | Dylan Fletcher | 6 |
| 6 | DS Automobiles FRA | Quentin Delapierre | 5 |
| 7 | Explora Journeys Swiss | Sebastien Schneiter | 4 |
| 8 | Artemis | Nathan Outteridge | 3 |
| 9 | Los Gallos | Diego Botin | 0 |
| 9 | Black Foils | Peter Burling | 0 |
| 9 | Red Bull Italy | Phil Robertson | 0 |
| 9 | Mubadala Brazil | Martine Grael | 0 |
| 9 | U.S. SailGP Team | Taylor Canfield | 0 |
