SailGP Grand Final: Black Foils miss out in three-boat shootout for $3.2 million

In a season where everything comes down to a one-off race to find a victor, prior performance counts for nothing.

In San Francisco this weekend, the Black Foils saw their season of SailGP dominance slip to a third-place finish in the final.

In the race for $3.2 million, the New Zealand team were on the back foot from the start, trailing at mark one and having to try and fight their way back; a fruitless task as Spain and Australia positioned themselves well on the race course to ride the best of the wind.

In a real underdogs story, it was Spain – last season’s bottom team – who claimed the season title. A team who might consider themselves lucky to have even made the final, they stayed clear of the other two teams in the starting box before powering over the top of them to lead at the first mark – ultimately having to make just five manoeuvres in the race.

It was a disappointing way for things to end for the Black Foils. The Kiwi crew had already qualified for the Grand Final race before the San Francisco event, so results in the five fleet races weren’t necessary and it was a matter of simply protecting their boat and learning the race course.

Australia were in a similar position, earning their place in the big race – with Spain clinging on to fill the top three out, helped by the French going too aggressively into the final turn of fleet race four and damaging their boat. At that point, France could have knocked Spain out of the final, but they were ruled out of the rest of the regatta due to a damaged rudder.

Had France not made that mistake, they were looking likely to beat Spain out for a spot in the Grand Final.

It was the three-time defending champions Australia who went into the final with the momentum, having sailed the best of the three in fleet racing and appearing to have a handle on how best to navigate the race course where they have won the last three titles.

The start of the six-leg Grand Final was slightly delayed as the Black Foils battled some mechanical issues, and it was level when the three boats did get started.

Spain led things at the first marker, managed to fight off the Australians and New Zealand, and crossed for a remarkable win, capping off a massive day for Spanish sport.

For the Black Foils, it was the final turn in a rollercoaster of a season.

They kicked things off in the best way possible with an event win in the season-opener in Chicago, way back in June 2023. It was the first of five event wins for the Kiwi crew in the 12 regattas prior to San Francisco, while they made the podium race in two other stops.

It was those kinds of performances that saw them head into San Francisco with a 15-point lead on the overall standings for the season; locking them into first place and pocketing the $573,000 prize as the top qualifying team for the Grand Final – the only ones to be going into the final event already with a spot in the three-boat, $3.2m shootout.

That lead was amplified by the Australians being docked eight league points for running into a marker and badly damaging their boat during the event in Christchurch, but was a reflection of how consistent the New Zealand team have been this season.

That all came after disaster at the start of the European leg of the series, when their wingsail collapsed while they were bringing their boat back in following the opening day’s race in France, the season’s third regatta.

That ruled them out of that event, as well as the following one in Italy as the league was unable to have their boat repaired in time. SailGP did award the Kiwis fifth place for Italy, given they couldn’t compete because the league didn’t have the spare parts readily available, but the Black Foils felt they could have earned more had they been allowed to sail, given the success they had already had during the season.

They followed up being unable to sail with top-four finishes in the next five regattas – with three event wins, one third place and one fourth place. Since Italy, the Black Foils’ worst finish was their fifth in Canada last month.

But such is the format of SailGP, there’s only one race in the season that teams firmly set their targets on – and the Black Foils came up short.

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Christopher Reive joined the Herald sports team in 2017, bringing the same versatility to his coverage as he does to his sports viewing habits.