Short Sightings — Grand Prix Foiling Hits Rough Patch

The fast foiling grand prix pro circuit zipped through California last month, but Earth’s gravitational pull is bringing them back to Earth for a bit. They sail on the edge, so it’s really not surprising for things to go wrong in the high-priced, high-tech world of foiling events. The two big ones, the America’s Cup and SailGP, have both hit a rough patch.

SailGP Cancels Brazil Event

It turns out the wing failure in March on San Francisco Bay aboard the Australia SailGP foiling cat was not a one-off situation. After analyzing the failure, SailGP has determined the same problem exists on multiple F50s in the SailGP fleet. As a result, they have decided to skip the planned next event in Rio, with the hope of finding a fix for all the wings in time to safely hold the Mubadala New York SailGP event on the weekend of June 7/8.

They’re also hoping to have fixed the Rockwool Denmark boat that hit a mark in L.A., making the boat unable to race in San Francisco.

The British America’s Cup Team Breaks Down

In the last America’s Cup, Sir Jim Ratcliffe and Sir Ben Ainslie were the teammates who took the British team all the way through the Louis Vuitton challenger trials to compete against the Kiwis for the Cup. They lost. The British team became the challenger of record for the next Cup, but since then, the Ratcliffe/Ainslie partnership has fallen apart, with each blaming the other for the breakup. It appears Ainslie’s Athena Racing Team has won out and remains associated with the Royal Yacht Squadron as the challenger of record for the next Cup. Sir Jim Ratcliffe has pulled out and will go back to making money and greenhouse gases with Ineos.

New Zealand America’s Cup Team Moves Ahead Without Peter Burling

After racing and winning the America’s Cup three times in a row over the past 10 years, Emirates Team New Zealand will no longer be sailing with their Cup-winning skipper Peter Burling. Burling was just here on the Bay with SailGP in March, with the team placing fifth in the SailGP event and standing in fourth for the season. No reason was given for his departure except that negotiations between the team and Burling did not result in an agreement.

The drama of the grand prix pro circuit happens both on and off the water.