Quentin Delapierre celebrated his debut as skipper of France by winning his first SailGP event in the Bay of Cadiz, with a narrow lead of three seconds over the Americans.
The melee with Jimmy Spithill’s USA culminated in a tense last minute battle between the two crews before France crossed the finish line just three seconds ahead. Tom Slingsby’s Australia, meanwhile, finished third after aggressive match-racing tactics from the United States early on pushed them to the back of the pack.
Incredible
It couldn’t have been worse. A fateful day in Spain in a bay of Cadiz with hardly any wind. Two very uneven sleeves from start to finish. In the first he entered outside the time limit (16 minutes) and in the second he was eighth, yes, ahead of Great Britain. I don’t know how we could disguise this poor performance by the Spanish Sail GP team, but no matter how many excuses are made, this is not the Spain that excited the 80,000 spectators who came to see them live on Saturday.
Great start in the first heat, by the pin and windward of Great Britain. Second in the unmarking and dribbling very well, so much so that in the third section they were able to leave the English behind at the cost of losing the lead and giving it away to Canada, who took advantage of the absurd marking of Spain against the English to escape and get the distance enough to sail frankly and calmly. They turned the third mark, seconds ahead of Denmark and Great Britain, and it was precisely in that section that the Spanish boat suddenly lost control and stopped moving, occupying seventh place in the classification.
The wind began to drop and time was running out. Meanwhile, ahead, Canada, Australia and Great Britain took almost a section to the rest of the fleet. It was clear that it was not going to be possible to finish the regatta because the clock was running faster than the F50.
In the end, only the first three qualified, who entered the 16 minutes established by the regulations as a time limit. Canada in the lead followed by Australia and Great Britain. The rest, disqualified.
Out of line
Second leg with less wind, about 7 knots of intensity and many things to clarify in order to qualify for the dispute of the final regatta of the Spanish event. A lot of nerves before the start, so many that the Spanish team made an unfortunate out of line trying to loop the loop twenty seconds before crossing the line. That’s where the regatta ended for Xammar’s men, since they were already seventh at the break mark, while Canada ruled the regatta as it did in the first round of the day. They were penalized and went on to occupy eighth place in the standings ahead of Great Britain.
Canada and Denmark commanded the fleet with a good distance. It was intuited that it was going to be the day of the Canadians, while it was also being seen that the poor performance of New Zealand was going to leave them out of the final in favor of a surprising France.
Spain entered eighth, ahead of Great Britain and thus closed a bad day that places them seventh in the general classification of this event that has been held in Cádiz.
end of heart attack
The final was played between France, the United States and Australia. The “Cinderella” of the regatta took advantage of the desire for victory of the Americans and Australians to place themselves at the head of the regatta before the start was given. The French did what they had to do, swim and take care of their clothes and let the fight between their two rivals come almost to blows.
The improvised match race between the United States and Australia was used by France to take victory over the Americans by just three seconds, in a truly heart-stopping final stretch. A victory that did not enter into the forecasts or the most optimistic, but it was deserved.
