Heart Pumping Excitement at the Sail GP Season 3 Grand Final
Tom Slingsby and his Aussies make it three in a row in San Francisco
When I got my watch with a heartrate monitor, I didn’t think I would need it while sitting in the grandstands at SailGP. But the watch was doing its thing without regard for my expectations, and registered 140 beats per minute during the race. My heart was beating faster while watching sailing than earlier in the day when I was climbing the stairs to Pacific Heights.
The Aussies lead from start to finish, so it didn’t look like the racing was going to cause any extra heart pumping in the stands, until that last tack before the last mark. Just prior, in the tack just before the last tack, New Zealand got a nice gust of wind and smoked out of their tack while the Australians tacked in a bit of a lull and fell off the foils. The Aussies immediately burned their 100 yard lead getting the boat going again.
Then New Zealand did their final tack for their approach to the final mark, and Australia had to tack while not yet fully up to speed. Somehow, the 2 times champions stayed up on the foils through the tack and New Zealand came within half a boat length of getting the inside overlap.
The Aussies lead had been cut from over 100 meters to 18 meters making the distance from New Zealand’s bow to Australia’s stern only 2.76 meters.
In the post race interview Tom Slingsby said he was thinking: “I can’t believe I am going to choke like this this in front of all these people and watching around the world.”
But Tom and the Australians didn’t choke and won the race and the $1 million prize for the third year in a row.
At the start of the race, the Australians took full advantage of another situation that was probably also caused by some nerves. As the boats got set for the start, Ben Ainslee was trying to position his British boat to lead the others to the starting line, but he turned a bit early and left himself open to attack.
Slingsby pounced and in seconds the Brits had to turn to avoid fouling the Aussies, falling off the foils in the process.
One down, one to go.
This Season 3 Grand Final was clearly the best so far. The wind was steady enough for the boats to get ripping, but variable enough to give the trailing boats a chance to catch back up. The battle on the first day between FRA and GBR lived up to the hype and the Australians, who were clear leaders all season long got pushed right up to the last mark rounding.
The experience was most certainly worth the trip and as a bonus, my heart got an extra work out.
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I shared the heartrate bump! what a finish. I was only sorry the Brits were out of it so early, but give credit to Slingsby for seeing the opportunity and jumpin on it. At these speeds, the demands for quick decision making is incredible. Already looking forward to next season. I do believe SailGP has put together an attractive (and tv worthy) event.