Switzerland SailGP Team: Season 4 showdown in San Francisco
by Switzerland SailGP Team 15 Jul 2024 18:54 NZST
13-14 July 2024
ROCKWOOL Denmark SailGP Team, Canada SailGP Team, Switzerland SailGP Team, New Zealand SailGP Team and USA SailGP Team in action on Race Day 1 of the SailGP Season 4 Grand Final in San Francisco, USA © Samo Vidic for SailGP
Switzerland SailGP Team wrapped up its second season competing in SailGP this weekend, at the Season 4 Grand Final in San Francisco. The high-speed racing action took place in front of the city's iconic Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz Island on Saturday and Sunday. San Francisco marked the thirteenth and final event on the calendar.
The city is one of the fastest and windiest racecourses in the league and for the Swiss, it was a tough two days battling it out across five fleet races on the Bay, at the upper end of the wind limit.
In the build-up to racing on Saturday, the team hit its top speed of 97.76km/h, with the 18m wing, high speed boards and smallest jib config. It was the first-time racing with this set up for a while, and the first time ever for wing trimmer Will Ryan. Today, with a lower breeze on the course the all-purpose 24m wing returned, but the fast-racing action continued.
It was a tough end to the weekend and Season for Swiss SailGP Team, with a series of low score finishes and a 10th place overall. However, it was a thrilling and exciting final race for the Season's top three placed teams; Australia, New Zealand and Spain's Los Gallos. Los Gallos - who finished Season 3 last overall - proved hard work pays off by defeating the league's two heavyweights to claim the $2million prize money.
San Francisco was driver Nathan Outteridge's fifth and last event leading the Swiss on the water, as well as his last event of SailGP. Outteridge said: "It was a really tough weekend for us today in San Francisco. It's not how we wanted to finish off the Season and not how I wanted to finish off my time sailing with the team, but we got caught in the pack and made too many errors and the fleets just too strong if you make errors you end up at the back. So, a pretty disappointing end overall and plenty of things for the team to work on moving forward."
CEO Tanguy Cariou said: "It was event 13 here in San Francisco and it's been a long journey for the team. It's been difficult to have stability in the crew and SailGP is the most competitive league with the best sailors, so at times we've been struggling at the back of the fleet. But we've never stopped striving and learnt a lot, especially with Nathan's support and experience. Now we will regroup, re-access and move forward to Season 5 starting at the end of this year."
The SailGP fleet will now enjoy a break period until the 14-event Season 5 starts up in Dubai on November 23-24 (2024). The first ever Rolex Switzerland Sail Grand Prix | Geneva event is also a part of next Season's line up, taking place 20-21 September 2025. Find the full racing calendar here.