Before her first visit to New York a year ago, Nicole van der Velden was warned about what to expect. It wasn\u2019t the crowded subways, gruff locals or long lines at museums. It was the unpredictable wind patterns, the powerful cross currents and distracting sightlines.<\/p>\n
Ms. van der Velden is a professional sailboat racer, and much of her time in the area last year was spent on the murky green and blue waters of New York Harbor, where she helped her Spanish sailboat team, Los Gallos, win the 2025 New York Sail Grand Prix. Out in the chop in the third-busiest port in the country, just minutes before that race started, Ms. van der Velden took a moment to spot the Statue of Liberty in front of her, the Brooklyn Bridge behind her, and that famous skyline.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ve seen it in so many movies, and then it\u2019s all around you,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s such a unique and dynamic place for a race.\u201d<\/p>\n
The race, likened by many to Formula 1 on the water, is part of a spring and summer of major sporting spectacles in the New York region that includes the Knicks\u2019 march to the N.B.A. finals and soccer\u2019s World Cup in New Jersey, all on land. Out on the briny this weekend, SailGP took over the harbor for an exotic sailboat race that features high tech catamarans careening across the upper bay, their vivid colors stamped against some of the most recognizable scenery in the world.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen people think of a sailboat race, they think of white triangles on a blue background far from shore, slow-paced, hard to understand, elitist,\u201d said Sir Russell Coutts, who founded SailGP seven years ago along with Larry Ellison, the tech billionaire. \u201cWe\u2019ve shortened the races and moved them close to shore where you can see the speed, which is breathtaking,\u201d Mr. Coutts said.<\/p>\n
The pace of the boats, generated by sails that resemble airplane wings turned on their ends, can be stunning. Mr. Coutts recalled that during a meeting in Shanghai a few years ago, he showed a video of the races to a minister for sports, who exclaimed, \u201cNo, no, we can\u2019t have power boats on the bund.\u201d Mr. Coutts said he assured the minister that all the boats were wind-powered only.<\/p>\n
But it can still get dicey out there. Only 12 of the 13 teams are competing in New York because of a significant crash in Auckland, New Zealand, three months ago. The New Zealand boat collided with the French boat<\/a>, and two athletes went to the hospital, one with a compound leg fracture.<\/p>\n The New York course has its own set of challenges. Ms. van der Velden said that the confluence of the Hudson and East Rivers, along with waters sliding in from under the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge \u2014 and even the variable salinity of the water \u2014 also make the upper bay unique for sailing.<\/p>\n On Saturday, high winds meant a modified race, with only three boats able to compete. The problem was not on the course itself. It was deemed too dangerous to crane the rest of the multimillion dollar F50s into the water from their staging area in Red Hook, Brooklyn.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was very stressful,\u201d said Diego Bot\u00edn, the driver of the Spanish boat. \u201cBut we got some racing in and the boat is still in one piece.\u201d<\/p>\n