After competing for the first time since sustaining serious damage at February's ITM New Zealand Sail Grand Prix, the Black Foils have missed the Canada Sail Grand Prix | Halifax final by a single point, with Spain's Los Gallos claiming the qualifying berth they needed.
To earn a spot in the final, New Zealand needed at least one other boat to split them from the Spanish in the closing Group A fleet race. A late charge from Denmark's Rockwool Racing, combined with careful match racing from Black Foils Driver Peter Burling, produced a three-boat-wide finish, but Los Gallos held on ahead of Rockwool to lock in their spot. Spain went on to win the final, which made history as the first SailGP event to feature a four-boat final.
Sunday's split fleet racing had been moved forward by two hours in a bid to deliver the strongest possible conditions on the water.
The Black Foils' fifth-place finish overall was enough to lift them off the bottom of the Rolex SailGP Championship standings, moving them past Mubadala Brazil into 12th place.
Black Foils Driver and Co-CEO Peter Burling said it was great to be back racing.
Peter Burling said: "We wanted to compete from the start of this event returning to racing and I think it's a really positive thing that we feel so disappointed to have missed the final. There were moments across the two days where we didn't help ourselves but there were lots of positives, particularly competing so strongly after the time away and in a configuration we've not had as much experience sailing with compared to the rest of the fleet."
"It was obviously very tight at the end there with the Spanish, and we will look at if we could've tried to change things up earlier but it was fun to give it a go and be in with a chance to the very end. It felt like we continued to improve across the weekend and it's exciting to look ahead at where we can take things this season. We have fond memories from Portsmouth last season, so it's a good feeling to be heading there next."
