Black Foils second in Group B after a light-air opening day in Geneva

New Zealand’s Black Foils SailGP Team ended day one of the Rolex Switzerland Sail Grand Prix second in Group B on nine points, a point behind the BONDS Flying Roos SailGP Team of Australia and a point ahead of the Emirates Great Britain SailGP Team and the Explora Journeys Swiss SailGP Team. Peter Burling’s crew didn’t win a race. They finished second, third and fourth, and the top two teams in each group go through to the winner-takes-all final.

Racing started around 3.30pm Geneva time on Saturday, the early hours of Sunday in New Zealand. The breeze ran between about 7 and 13 km/h. Crews were cut to four, with the grinders watching from the chase boats, and the fleet raced with the 27.5-metre wing and light-air foils. An F50 can top 100 km/h, and the fastest speed quoted in the race commentary was 44. Five races produced five different winners.

The Black Foils were on the gun in the first race and rounded the first mark second, 5 seconds behind Giles Scott’s NorthStar SailGP Team. Soon after, they took a board-cycling penalty, the raising and lowering of the daggerboards to lift a hull in light air. They served it and finished 27 seconds behind NorthStar, still second.

In the second race they were fifth at the first mark. Burling and strategist Liv Mackay took them offshore towards the breeze, and they were third by the next mark and stayed there. Only the Swiss finished inside the 16-minute cap, and the Black Foils were classified third.

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In the third race, Burling was pinned in the middle of the start line by BONDS and didn’t cross until 18 seconds after the starters’ horn. He ran last at all four marks, 1 minute 42 seconds behind at the fourth. On the final leg the Red Bull Italy SailGP Team and NorthStar took penalties and the Swiss came through on the inside. The Black Foils passed Italy and NorthStar to take fourth, 1.3 seconds ahead of Italy.

Valencia was worse: they finished 11th, with Burling saying one strong race there had given the team confidence for Geneva. Last year they won Race 1 here and ended the event eighth, behind Germany’s first win.

In the other results, NorthStar won the first Group B race, the Swiss the second and BONDS the third. In Group A the Artemis SailGP Team, with Kiwis Andy Maloney and Brad Farrand in the squad, won the first race and the ROCKWOOL Racing SailGP Team the second. Kiwi Phil Robertson’s Red Bull Italy were third in the opener and ended the day last in Group B on four points.

Group A raced twice to Group B’s three, the slow racing meant that the window for TV telecast ran out and as such, racing stopped. The missing sail of group A will happy at the start of racing on Sunday. ROCKWOOL Racing and Artemis lead the group on six points, and the United States SailGP Team, with Martine Grael driving in place of the injured Taylor Canfield, are on none.

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Racing starts at about 3.30pm Geneva time on Sunday, 1.30am Monday in New Zealand: the Group A race first, then the last two pool races, then the final. A win is worth five points, so a single race can swallow the Black Foils’ one-point margin over Emirates GBR and the Swiss.