The ITM New Zealand Sail Grand Prix | Auckland kicks off on January 18. Ahead of our Auckland debut, SailGP CEO Russell Coutts reveals his behind-the-scenes insight of the fleet.

 

We’ve arrived in Auckland for the first time and are getting ready to race in front of one of our biggest ticketed crowds ever. The 60m high grandstand is impressive and the view from the top seats is incredible. We’re expecting 25,000 ticketed fans watching from the Race Stadium over the weekend, including a sold-out fleet of 20 superyachts and 380 spectator boats, and more unticketed fans watching from various vantage points around the harbour. Auckland is appropriately known as the City of Sails - it’s an iconic sailing destination.

 

2025 Season // Russell Coutts at Auckland press conference 
Reflecting on the 2025 Season opener in Dubai, I thought one of the standout performances (apart from New Zealand’s victory) was Emirates GBR. It was driver Dylan Fletcher’s first time back in the boat since Season 1 and to come out and finish second was an incredibly strong performance. The U.S. team finished third - their second podium so far, but significantly their two podiums have been in predominantly non foiling conditions where Anna Weis has been grinding and Mike Buckley has been in the coaching booth. They will be looking to add a podium result in the foiling conditions expected for this weekend.

 

The disappointing news is that France won’t be competing because of a problem with their new wingsail. Their F50 is completed and it looks amazing with their new livery, but there was a problem with the installation of the wing connectors and we’ve taken the conservative decision not to allow that wing to be used until the issue is fully rectified. It’s disappointing but our Shared Services team are already working hard to get the French back on the start line as soon as possible.

 

2025 Season // Quentin Delapierre watches Auckland press conference 
The big story of this weekend is the introduction of the new high-speed T-Foils. These are made of titanium and quite a bit thinner than the previous high speed L-Foils and are a huge change to the way the teams are sailing the boats. The boats made pretty significant leeway with the old L foils yet now with the T foils being stiffer and canted outboard, the leeway will be zero or may even be positive at times. The new foils should also give the teams more control and make the boat faster overall, particularly at higher speeds. The onset of cavitation - the water vaporising around the foil - happens at a much higher speed with these T-foils. If we get higher winds, particularly on Sunday, we could see speeds approaching or exceeding 100 km/h. The limiting factor will be the rudders which will begin cavitating at a lower speed than the foils, so I could imagine the teams may intentionally keep the speeds under a certain limit to retain adequate control on the rudders……but then again, they’ll be racing to win!

 

These T-Foils are really changing the game - they require a completely different playbook. The crews have been experimenting a lot to see what combination of cant and rudder differential produces the best result. They’ve been working hard in the simulator to assess the different techniques. So these T-Foils have the potential to mix things up quite a bit because the teams are effectively starting from square one again. Teams are putting in huge effort and analysing the other teams using the shared data to refine their playbooks ahead of this weekend.

 

2025 Season // New Zealand with T-Foil showing in Auckland practice 
Both the driver and the flight controller can control the cant and rudder differential. According to Australia driver Tom Slingsby, while the teams all have their individual ways of sailing the boat, the trend is moving towards trying to use maximum cant, which no doubt implies they are playing more with the rudder differential to modify the downforce to keep the heel stable.

 

We’ve also tested the first set of new low-speed T-Foils in Auckland - these are mainly made of carbon with a central titanium piece and therefore weigh less for use in lighter wind conditions. The Kiwis tested the foils in up to 15 knots of windspeed and apparently the designers were happy with the results. These are now in production and we hope to introduce them to the fleet from New York onwards. They will allow the boats to foil in about 1.5 knots less windspeed than the current light air boards (LABs).

 

We also tested the new high speed rudders, all be it in relatively light winds and they were equally happy with the results.

 

Our principal designer, Paul Bieker, is already thinking of the next generation and it appears new light wind rudder elevators and a new vertical strut for the T foils are also in the pipeline. We are also thinking of a new configuration of light wind wing sails so there’s plenty going on in the design world!

 

Auckland is the tightest racecourse the league will race on in the Rolex SailGP Championship. The course boundaries and current make it difficult to escape disturbed wind - especially if you make a bad start. It’s narrow and relatively short and the current will make the judgement of the laylines and starts much more difficult.

In practice, the Australians have looked the most comfortable of all the teams at this stage. They were the most impressive in terms of sailing stability and overall comfort with the new foils. They’re very happy with the changes and really like the new foils. But it will be interesting to see which teams can get up to speed the quickest when racing begins. With the current weather forecast I’m picking the Aussies, Kiwis, Brits and Danes to be strong this weekend.

The ITM New Zealand Sail Grand Prix | Auckland takes place on 18-19 January, with racing from 4pm-5.30pm NZDT.