Tom Slingsby's Bonds Flying Roos have won the ROCKWOOL Germany Sail Grand Prix, crossing the line just before the breeze died completely and left the other three boats grinding home off the foils in an old-fashioned drift race for the minor placings.
Australia had the better of the start. Slingsby got away clean while NorthStar Canada came in too close to the line and had to slow down, bunching up the rest of the fleet behind them. Black Foils NZ, boxed in high on the line early, worked through to second by the first mark, but couldn't close the gap to Australia. They've now converted every mark-1 lead into a win in a final this season, and this was no different.
The middle of the race was sailed in driving rain and visibility bad enough that commentators compared it to a fog bank rolling through, with wind around 30km/h and the boats punching upwind through it at speeds high enough to make the rain feel like it was hitting the crews horizontally. New Zealand held second through the middle stages, but lost real distance on the leg where the wind dropped away, and Los Gallos Spain and NorthStar Canada closed back up into the fight behind Australia.
Then the wind died altogether. Australia crossed the finish line with the breeze still enough to sail on, and were already celebrating on the water by the time it dropped out completely behind them. NorthStar Canada, Los Gallos Spain and Black Foils NZ were left to finish the race in barely a breath of air, off the foils and hunting for ripples and dark patches on the water for any speed at all. Canada secured second comfortably. New Zealand and Spain arrived at the line together, overlapped at a boundary crossing where New Zealand held the right of way but were judged not to have given Spain enough room. The penalty required New Zealand to drop back behind Spain to serve it, which settled the last two places on the podium: third to Spain, fourth to New Zealand, even though New Zealand's raw crossing time was marginally the quicker of the two.
Event final result
| Pos | Team | Time |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bonds Flying Roos (Australia) | 10:04.3 |
| 2 | NorthStar Canada | +3:11.3 |
| 3 | Los Gallos Spain | +3:26.1 |
| 4 | Black Foils NZ | +3:25.9 |
*New Zealand were penalised for not giving room at a boundary crossing and had to drop back to serve it, which decided third and fourth. New Zealand's raw crossing time was fractionally ahead of Spain's, but the penalty determined the final classification.*
A first win of the weekend, and the one that counted
Australia hadn't won a single fleet race all weekend in Sassnitz, having led for most of Saturday before fouling their way to last in one race and getting becalmed to fifth in another. Their only win of the whole event was the one worth the most: it's their first victory since New York earlier this season, and it comes with $400,000 of the event's prize pool. It also extends their season lead, taking them to 76 championship points with four events left. Los Gallos Spain's third place stretches their own gap over Artemis Sweden in the standings past ten points.
DS Team France, who set the weekend's headline moment with an all-time SailGP speed record of 107.63km/h on Saturday, spent the final watching from outside. Speed alone wasn't enough to convert into a top-two finish in their group, and they missed Sunday's decider entirely.
