by Miranda Blazeby
Old rivals BONDS Flying Roos and New Zealand topped the leaderboard in New York’s pre-event practice racing, which saw crews battle the city’s tricky conditions ahead of official racing this weekend.
Split fleet racing once again took place, with the 12-boat fleet split into two groups; Group A and Group B.
Group A saw New Zealand, Spain, Switzerland, Emirates GBR, ROCKWOOL DEN and NorthStar Canada go head to head across three races, before Group B took to the stage; Red Bull Italy, France, Mubadala Brazil, BONDS Flying Roos, Germany Deutsche Bank and home favorites the United States.
Practice racing was the first chance for teams to size each other up following a 77 day racing hiatus caused by the collapse of the Australian team’s wing in San Francisco and consequent cancellation of Rio in May.
Teams battled New York’s gusty conditions, which made the tight racecourse a game of snakes and ladders, and navigated a choppy sea state disturbed by the city’s strong current.
And it was New Zealand, which won last season’s event here in New York, which rose to the top of the first fleet, executing near perfect starts and gaining dominant early leads to pick up a 1-3-1 scorecard – while Season 4 champion Spain won the second race.
It was a trickier first day back on the water for the Danish and Swiss, which looked rusty after an enforced racing break.
The Kiwis rose to the top of Group A after three races with 28 points, followed by Emirates GBR with 25, NorthStar Canada and Spain with 23 apiece, ROCKWOOL DEN with 20, and Switzerland with 16.
As Group B took to the course, Tom Slingsby’s BONDS Flying Roos wasted no time propelling themselves to the front of the fleet, blasting out the middle of the line and jostling for the lead with France – eventually overtaking Quentin Delapierre’s team at Gate 4.
The team struggled in the second race, which was won by Red Bull Italy, finishing fourth, but battled back to secure a second race win in the third and final race of the day.
At the end of the day, it was BONDS Flying Roos top of Group B with 27 points, Red Bull Italy in second with 26, Mubadala Brazil and France tied on 23, the United States with 19 and Germany Deutsche Bank in last place with 12.
Official racing gets underway on June 7/8. Tomorrow’s racing schedule has been brought forward by 2.5 hours due to incoming storm activity later in the day and will now start at 1pm ET.
Read the full SailGP article here.
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