Emirates GBR arrived in Perth carrying the Rolex SailGP Championship title into a new season, and off Bathers Beach they proved it was no fluke. A difficult opening day gave way to a strong recovery, the British team fighting through to the three-boat, winner-takes-all Final and converting that chance into victory with the Fremantle Doctor blowing hard across the racecourse.
The win meant something beyond the scoreboard, coming after an off-season of change across the fleet. Stuart Bithell, formerly of the Germany by Deutsche Bank programme, had come aboard as wing trimmer, bringing a significant shift to the crew dynamic heading into the new campaign.
Hannah Mills was candid about how much the week had demanded. "It's mega, it's surreal," she said. "Like all the teams, we have so much to learn. Most teams have had a bit of a shake-up coming into this, and obviously we've had Stu come on board as wing trimmer, which is a big dynamic shift. We're just really proud of how the team has come together this week, kept a learning mindset, and then put it into practice when we went racing."
Perth itself sharpened the occasion. Flight controller Luke Parkinson calls the city home, and the conditions that greeted the fleet made the result feel thoroughly earned. "Honestly, it was the best day ever, just insane," Mills said. "It doesn't get much better than that, especially here in Perth. It's the hometown of our flight controller, Luke Parkinson, and for us to go out there with the Doctor coming in strong, an amazing breeze, and a bit of chop, it made it tricky to sail the boats but delivered phenomenal racing."
Driver Dylan Fletcher was equally lifted by the swing from day one to day two. He made no attempt to hide how much the team had left on the table on the opening day, nor how differently things had gone when it counted. "It's been an incredible start for the team here in Perth," he said. "We left a lot out there, with plenty still to work on, but I'm really proud of how the team has been chipping away each day. We had a disappointing start yesterday and didn't get the results we wanted, but we came out firing today, and I'm just stoked."
In the Final, sharp execution set the tone from the gun. Fletcher described how a decisive read at the start gave the team the control they needed to see the race through. "I got quite excited at the start, there was a small opportunity, or what might have been an opportunity, to lock the other boats out, but from there we just focused on our own race," he said. "We had the inside line at mark one, so after yesterday, it was about staying clean, especially at the bottom gate. We gave away a few meters to sail our own race, and the results came through."
With a reshaped line-up bedding in across the week, the Oracle Perth Sail Grand Prix presented by KPMG gave Emirates GBR a strong opening signal that the defending champions had no plans to let the title go.
