{"id":284207,"date":"2026-02-14T18:34:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-14T18:34:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/284207\/"},"modified":"2026-02-14T18:34:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-14T18:34:12","slug":"sailgp-auckland-crash-phil-robertson-dylan-fletcher-reflect-on-format-after-black-foils-collision-with-france","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/284207\/","title":{"rendered":"SailGP Auckland crash: Phil Robertson, Dylan Fletcher reflect on format after Black Foils collision with France"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201c[I] took a glance over my shoulder and saw them sort of spin out and that was it. Didn\u2019t really see the rest until we stopped and looked back and saw two boats on top of each other, so it\u2019s not very nice to see that,\u201d Robertson said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThese boats are pretty hard to control at those high speeds and everyone\u2019s pushing like mad on those reaches and they were pushing their ride height and got a bit slidey, which is very natural to happen, and slid towards us. You trust that they\u2019re going to get grip again, but they got grip before I needed to take action.\u201d <\/p>\n

While Robertson referred to the situation between the Kiwis and French as a racing incident, he said it would raise questions about how the league structures its action dependent on conditions moving forward. <\/p>\n

With a 14th boat joining the fleet in the 2027 season, the league will be splitting the fleet and racing seven boats at a time. At the moment, they split the fleet in practice but have the full 13-boat fleet on the course together for racing proper. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen it\u2019s conditions like this, I think [splitting the fleet] is probably the expectation. We know it\u2019s going to be tricky, there will be crashes, but it just minimizes that risk a bit when there\u2019s a bit more space on the course. Bigger courses for sure, 13 boats, no problem, but I think small courses and big breeze, when everyone\u2019s on the limit of control already, it\u2019s probably a smart idea to start having that conversation seriously,\u201d Robertson said. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s the shortest racecourse in SailGP and 13 boats, yeah, I don\u2019t know. I think questions will be asked.\u201d<\/p>\n

That conversation will be a hot topic over the coming days both inside and outside the league, with the next regatta in Sydney \u2013 another venue that historically serves up solid conditions for racing \u2013 just two weeks away. <\/p>\n

Emirates Great Britain driver Dylan Fletcher<\/a> said such an incident gave the rest of the fleet plenty to think about while there were still boats on the course. <\/p>\n

\u201cAs ever, the first thing that goes through your mind when we saw the incident is \u2018oh God, I hope everyone\u2019s safe\u2019 and coming on the radio and checking in, but it was really good to hear that they are stable and from that point onwards we were sort of waiting to see what went on, are we going racing, are we not going racing? Ultimately, quite rightly, the focus is on ensuring everyone\u2019s safe and the boats are safe,\u201d Fletcher said. <\/p>\n

But in terms of the structure of race days, Fletcher favoured the all-in, 13-team format. <\/p>\n

He did, however, suggest that given the damage sustained to the Kiwi and French boats, it would be some time before there were 13 boats on the starting line again. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d rather we stay as one fleet. It doesn\u2019t honestly feel that different, you know. When you\u2019ve got 11 or 13, it actually feels relatively similar; kind of spread out a little bit and, even at the start, you kind of get that separation. So, from my point of view, I do love the racing, it\u2019s great with the 13 boats. It\u2019s unfortunate we won\u2019t have that for a little bit of a while now, but it\u2019s the way it is.\u201d <\/p>\n

Christopher Reive<\/a> joined the Herald sports team in 2017, bringing the same versatility to his coverage as he does to his sports viewing habits.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201c[I] took a glance over my shoulder and saw them sort of spin out and that was it.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":284208,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1443,74,13916,49638,51,29385,3390,5432,7022,34094,3549,60037,3930,32851,158511,19134,1221,194,14731,661,111,43,139,69,90,21037,17146,52083,8986,32850,1533,102,2963],"class_list":["post-284207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-about","tag-after","tag-asked","tag-athlete","tag-auckland","tag-believes","tag-best","tag-between","tag-black","tag-collision","tag-crash","tag-dylan","tag-fletcher","tag-foils","tag-format","tag-forward","tag-france","tag-kiwi","tag-league","tag-major","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-on","tag-phil","tag-questions","tag-reflect","tag-robertson","tag-sailgp","tag-will","tag-with","tag-zealands"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=284207"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284207\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/284208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=284207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=284207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=284207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}