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Photo Courtesy of SailGP<\/p>\nThis past weekend at the Mubadala New York Sail Grand Prix, the U.S. SailGP showed that consistency and momentum have been game changers in their 2026 season. The team now sits in third place overall with 36 points, behind the UK\u2019s Emirates GBR (44 points) and BONDS Flying Roos of Australia (55 points). With seven events remaining for the SailGP 2026 season, the American team has shown significant gains, thanks in part to the late 2023 team reconfiguration led by Mike Buckley and tech entrepreneur Ryan McKillen.<\/p>\n
The team was in fourth place going into the Mubadala New York Sail Grand Prix at an event that offered a much-anticipated opportunity to perform in front of a home crowd gathered on charter boats, superyachts, and along the shores of Governor\u2019s Island. Normally each event stages five fleet races before the three-boat final determines the event champion. However, gale force winds on Saturday meant only three boats could race and ultimately in the name of fairness, these races were not scored. This meant that the points all came down to three races and a final on Sunday.<\/p>\n
In the first race on Sunday, the American team (driven by seven-time world champion Taylor Canfield) finished second, earning nine points, just behind lead boat Emirates GBR who earned 10 points. Race two saw Canfield and team hit the starting line with speed and remarkable timing that put them in first where they remained for the entire race, taking the win and gaining 10 more points. That pivotal second race truly showcased that consistent sailing and hard-fought experience is really building momentum for this team. That thrill of victory turned agonizing for the Americans in the third race, when a prestart collision with the Italian boat helmed by Phil Robertson spelled disaster. The Americans were disqualified and lost seven points.<\/p>\n
Photo Courtesy of SailGP<\/p>\n
With the finals set for the top three boats, it was the Australians on BONDS Flying Roos who dominated the racecourse. Still, in the overall series scoring, the Americans did enough to move into third.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe day started off great,\u201d Canfield said. \u201cDisappointing ending, obviously, but we felt like we had a good grip at the racetrack and were sailing the boat well. The team was gelling nicely. It\u2019s not the day we wanted in the end, but there are some positives to take away. You must think about those gains that we made this week.\u201d
The Mubadala New York Sail Grand Prix hosted more than 6,000 spectators over the weekend on the water and through corporate hospitality.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were sold out on Saturday with both the spectator fleet and through our corporate hospitality offering. This on the water experience got them up close to the racing while the event continues to bring sailing to a broader audience,\u201d said Natalie Fortier, global director of communications for SailGP. \u201cWe had a lot of positive feedback on the experience from spectators, and it put a lot of New York fans on the water which they enjoyed.\u201d
New Yorkers also flocked to Governor\u2019s Island to watch the racing. Spectators were a mix of non-sailors who just enjoyed the event and sailing fans who came to watch up close.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are New Yorkers, and we simply planned to come out to Governor\u2019s Island and watch the racing. It is literally in our backyard,\u201d said spectator Dina Shah, who does not normally follow yacht racing. \u201cWe enjoy watching, and it looks like incredibly hard work to sail these boats.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Wendy and Rob Bitner of San Francisco, a trip on the Queen Mary brought them to New York City a couple of days prior to the SailGP event and they decided to stay on and watch the action from the island.
\u201cWe are sailors from San Francisco and have followed this level of racing for many years,\u201d Wendy Bitner said. \u201cThe Queen Mary docked in Brooklyn and that was when we saw the F50s. We decided to stay a few days in New York and took the ferry out to Governor\u2019s Island today to watch the races.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Photo Courtesy of SailGP<\/p>\n
The event is also appealing to several celebrities including basketball icon Breanna Stewart who did some pre-race sailing with U.S. SailGP. The British team got to host actor Ewan McGregor while the Australian teams\u2019 co-owners are actors Hugh Jackman and Ryan Reynolds.<\/p>\n
For Stewart, the visit offered a behind-the-scenes look at the physical and tactical demands of racing an F50, from pre-race preparation to the teamwork needed once the boat is flying. \u201cMy first impression of SailGP is it\u2019s very exciting,\u201d Stewart said. \u201cAfter going through some of the training exercises, there are a lot of similarities in exercises that we do to get going, except the grinder. We don\u2019t do that in basketball.\u201d<\/p>\n
She added, according to a prior report, that the experience had given her \u201ctons of respect\u201d for SailGP athletes, saying everyone on board \u201cneeds to be on the same page to have a successful race.\u201d<\/p>\n
McGregor, meanwhile, described his ride with Emirates GBR as \u201can extraordinary adrenaline rush.\u201d
\u201cJust the speed and the G-force in the corners, the speed is amazing,\u201d he said during a press event. \u201cYou realize immediately you\u2019ve got no idea what you\u2019re doing\u2014especially running across the boat. It\u2019s the first time you\u2019ve done anything like that in your life, but I get a bit better at it each time. It was one hell of a sailing lesson\u2014I loved it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Photos Courtesy of SailGP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This past weekend at the Mubadala New York Sail Grand Prix, the U.S. SailGP showed that consistency and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":254309,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[9,56,63,65,64,4886,97590],"class_list":["post-254308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-new-york","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-racing","tag-sailgp"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=254308"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254308\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/254309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=254308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=254308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=254308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}