SailGP New York: Black Foils eye last chance for improvement ahead of season finale

The Black Foils come into New York after a fifth-place finish in Canada. Photo / Ricardo Pinto, SailGP

Blair Tuke admits things didn’t exactly go to plan for the Black Foils in at their SailGP event in Halifax earlier in the month.

While their fifth-place event finish was enough to extend their lead on the season leaderboard to 11 points, it wasn’t the most convincing way to do so.

Instead, it was something of a missed opportunity. Likely having already punched their ticket into the three-boat grand final shootout in San Francisco next month, Halifax provided another windy venue at which they could build some momentum.

Ahead of this week’s event in New York, Tuke reflected on where there was room for improvement.

“Around the racetrack, we made some uncharacteristic errors by our standards; decision-making in those conditions and also just our boat speed wasn’t at the level where it has been,” Tuke said.

“We pride ourselves on being able to make the boat go faster than anyone and we’ve been doing that successfully over the last few events. In those conditions, we weren’t able to do that, so there are some areas we want to try and tighten up within those two specifically.”

This weekend’s event in New York is the penultimate regatta of season four, and the last chance for teams to find their rhythm before San Francisco in three weeks’ time.

The San Francisco event hosts the usual five fleet races, however, the regatta itself is decided on the standings from those five races alone. Instead of a podium race, the regatta is closed out with the top three teams from the season contesting a winner-take-all race.

Gaining momentum towards that race is now high on the agenda for the Black Foils, who have been a consistently dominant force throughout the season. So while they expect to be in the final, they have every reason to keep their foot on the gas.

Tuke said the conditions they saw in Halifax gave them plenty to think about on that front.

“These things are never straightforward in sailing or any sport, so it was a combination. The conditions, they were quite hectic and you would have seen that from the TV. But at the same time, they were pretty awesome for racing the F50s; flat water, plenty of opportunities, so we would have liked to have done better there and to race the boat harder and faster.

“I’m not sure if we’ll get those conditions to do that again in New York this weekend, but certainly looking ahead to San Fran where it’s likely going to be windy, there’s some areas that we want to for sure tighten up.”

SailGP season four standings

Black Foils (NZ) - 83 points

Spain - 72

Australia - 71

France - 65

Denmark - 64

Great Britain - 58

Canada - 58

USA - 50

Germany - 35

Switzerland - 28

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