Aussies take Spanish boat for a spin, all eyes on Grand Final

With the $3M winner-takes-all Grand Final approaching, the BONDS Flying Roos showcased their capabilities during a light-air practice session aboard the Spanish F50 in Cadiz. Tom Slingsby’s crew currently leads the DP World Spain Sail Grand Prix season leaderboard by a slim margin of one point over New Zealand, setting the stage for an intense competition in this penultimate event ahead of the Grand Final in Abu Dhabi on 28-29 November.

During the practice racing, eleven teams gathered to participate, with Spain trialling the league’s new 27.5-meter windsail. This design serves as a middle ground between the existing 24-meter all-purpose windsail and the 29-meter light air version. While the BONDS Flying Roos took their practice laps on Spain’s F50, the Australian team is looking forward to returning to their own boat for the official races.

Tom Slingsby, the driver and co-owner of the BONDS Flying Roos, expressed his eagerness to race in their own boat again, noting, “We’d love to be sailing our boat but we got lucky in Geneva being the team that got to test the light-air foils first. This time, SailGP said it’s Spain who are testing the 27.5 meter wing so unfortunately we’re not in our boat today but we’ll be back in it tomorrow for official racing.” He also remarked on the team’s growth in handling light winds, stating, “Historically, we always wanted big wind and big waves and were a bit scared when it went light. That wasn’t our strong suit but now we’re comfortable in everything and to be more comfortable in the light airs than heavy airs is the goal of this year. We’re definitely on track with that.”

With seven different winners across ten events and just three points separating the top three teams, the race for the Grand Final is highly competitive. Slingsby emphasised the importance of a strong performance in Cadiz, saying, “The race to the final is heating up with four teams vying for three positions and we just want to be one of those teams that make it in but that all depends on having a good event here. If we post a really good result in Cadiz then we’ll be hard to beat going into Abu Dhabi.” Official racing kicks off tomorrow, 4 October, before a sold-out crowd, with Australian fans able to catch all the action live from 11:30pm AEST on Fox Sports and Kayo Sports.