The 2023–24 SailGP Championship was the fourth season of the SailGP championship. The season was contested over thirteen sail grands prix held at venues around the world. The season saw Spain SailGP Team win their first season title, with Great Britain SailGP Team winning the impact league. This marked the first season title not won by Australia SailGP Team.
Entries TeamHelmsmanEvents Australia SailGP Team Tom Slingsby1–5, 7–13 Jimmy Spithill6 Canada SailGP Team Phil Robertson1–13 Rockwool Denmark SailGP Team Nicolai Sehested1–6, 8–13 Nathan Outteridge7 France SailGP Team Quentin Delapierre1–13 Germany SailGP Team Erik Heil1–13 Emirates Great Britain SailGP team Ben Ainslie1–6 Giles Scott7–13 New Zealand SailGP Team Peter Burling1–3, 5–7, 9–13 Nathan Outteridge8 Spain SailGP Team Diego Botín1–13 Switzerland SailGP Team Sébastien Schneiter1–8 Nathan Outteridge9–13 United States SailGP Team Jimmy Spithill1–5 Taylor Canfield6–9, 11–13Citations:
Team changes Bernoulli Locke planned to enter the championship as a fan-run team covering the geographical area of Bermuda and the Caribbean. The team failed to gain the necessary funding in time for the fourth season, and pushed their entry goal to the fifth season in 2024.
On May 31, 2023, the creation of the SailGP Germany Team was announced and added to the fourth season roster.
Calendar An additional round was added to this season. The New Zealand round was originally scheduled to be held in Auckland but was cancelled, and later moved to Christchurch. HostTitleDatesWinning team1 Chicago, United StatesRolex United States Sail Grand Prix Chicago at Navy PierJune 16–17, 2023 New Zealand2 Los Angeles, United StatesOracle Los Angeles Sail Grand Prix Port of Los AngelesJuly 22–23, 2023 Spain3 Saint-Tropez, FranceFrance Sail Grand Prix France Sail Grand Prix Saint-TropezSeptember 9–10, 2023 Emirates Great Britain4 Taranto, ItalyRockwool Italy Sail Grand Prix TarantoSeptember 23–24, 2023 Emirates Great Britain5 Cádiz, SpainSpain Sail Grand Prix Spain Sail Grand Prix Andalucía – CádizOctober 14–15, 2023 United States6 Dubai, United Arab EmiratesEmirates Dubai Sail Grand Prix presented by P&O MarinasDecember 9–10, 2023 New Zealand7 Abu Dhabi, United Arab EmiratesMubadala Abu Dhabi Sail Grand Prix presented by Abu Dhabi Sports Council January 13–14, 2024 New Zealand8 Sydney, AustraliaKPMG Australia Sail Grand Prix SydneyFebruary 24–25, 2024 Australia– Auckland, New ZealandITM New Zealand Sail Grand Prix AucklandMarch 23–24, 2024Removed9 Christchurch, New ZealandITM New Zealand Sail Grand Prix ChristchurchMarch 23–24, 2024 New Zealand10 BermudaApex Group Bermuda Sail Grand PrixMay 4–5, 2024 Spain11 Halifax, CanadaRockwool Canada Sail Grand Prix HalifaxJune 1–2, 2024 Emirates Great Britain12 New York City, United StatesMubadala New York Sail Grand PrixJune 22–23, 2024 New Zealand13 San Francisco, United StatesSailGP Season 4 Grand Final SailGP Season 4 Grand Final San FranciscoJuly 13–14, 2024 Australia (event winners)Citations:
Season
Round 1: Chicago The New Zealand team won the Chicago event, with Australia 2nd and Canada 3rd.
Round 2: Los Angeles The Spanish team won the Los Angeles event, with Denmark 2nd and Australia 3rd.
Germany were penalised for clipping the rear of the Switzerland boat at the start of the 4th fleet race. They received a 4-point penalty in the event ranking, and a 2-point penalty in the season ranking.
Round 3: Saint-Tropez Sebastian Vettel participated in practice for the regatta with the German team, which he co-owns. The United States team capsized in practice, but avoided damaging their F50.
Wind for the first day of racing were mainly light, preventing the boats from foiling. Spain and Canada collided during the first race, with the latter receiving a penalty. Moments after the finishing the final race of the day, New Zealand's wing collapsed, leaving doubts as to whether they would be able to participate in the second day of racing.
Round 4: Taranto New Zealand was unable to participate in the regatta due to a shortage of spare parts preventing their F50 from being repaired and were awarded six championship points. Emirates GBR, Australia and the United States teams qualified for the event final but all three were unable to finish the race due to winds dropping to just 7km/h and exceeding the 16 minute race time limit resulting in a win for Emirates GBR based on fleet racing results for the whole event.
Round 5: Cádiz
Round 6: Dubai
Round 7: Abu Dhabi Both days of racing in Abu Dhabi were characterized by light wind. The boats used the largest 28m wingsail configurations, but foiling was not seen in any of the races as teams tried for "H1" at best. The three boat final on Sunday saw New Zealand again win with Spain and the new USA team battling into 2nd and 3rd place respectively.
Round 8: Sydney The return of SailGP to Sydney Harbour saw both days feature stronger winds and full foiling than recent rounds. The final on Sunday saw Denmark, Australia and New Zealand racing for the title with Denmark being the only boat not to break the line at the start. After close racing, Australia won the race and their first round victory in the 2023–24 Season.
Round 9: Christchurch The New Zealand event was originally scheduled to be held in Auckland but was cancelled, and later moved to Christchurch.
The first race day was cancelled due to dolphins on the race course after already shortening the training time. On the second race day three fleet races and the final were held. The British team started the races with a penalty resulting from a collision during training. The first round was overshadowed by a collision damaging the Danish boat, which managed to continue competing, and another damaging the Australian team boat, which had to retire. The event was won by New Zealand which took the overall championship lead by one point from Australia. Later, the umpires penalized the Australian team for colliding with the finish mark while avoiding a collision with the Canadian boat.
Round 10: Bermuda Spain won in a brilliant victory over Australia and New Zealand. It is in this race where the Spanish team did a start in the "Fernando Alonso's style".
The United States team did not compete in Bermuda after sustaining serious damage to their F50 in practice racing.
Round 11: Halifax The second day of racing was affected by strong winds. Due to the winds the boats of Switzerland, USA and Germany were not ready to be launched and were not able to participate in the first round of racing of that day with the latter being able to join in the second round. The boats were launched in the order of the results of the first day. Australia capsized in the fifth round due to a malfunctioning invert button for the wingsail.
Round 12: New York The racing on the first day was heavily affected by thunderstorms leading to light winds. The second round was cut short and the third round was cancelled shortly after the start due to light winds.
Round 13: Grand Final | San Francisco Canada hit a race marker in race two, whilst France sustained foil damage after a collision with Denmark in race four which prevented France from competing in race five. After five fleet races Australia were the San Francisco event winners and the top three season point earning teams (New Zealand, Australia, and Spain) progressed to the Grand Final race. Spain won the start and was first to round mark 1, leading the entire race despite encountering rudder damage on the final leg before the finish line. New Zealand finished third, Australia second, and Spain were crowned champions of the season.
Results
Points are awarded per race for the Event Leaderboard, with 10 points for the winner, 9 points for second place, 8 points for third, and so on.
Each event hosts multiple races, with the three highest scoring teams of the event facing off in an additional final race to decide the podium order. The winner of that final wins the event, with the final standings of the event leaderboard used to award points for the Championship Leaderboard. The winner is awarded 10 Championship points, second awarded 9, and so on.
The three highest scoring teams at the end of the season compete in the SailGP Grand Final with the winning team awarded the championship. TeamCHILOSSTPTRNCDZDUBABDSYDCHRBMUHALNYCSFNPoints12345F12345F12345F12345F12345F12345F12345F12345F123F12345F12345F1234F12345F1 Spain69417632191847223887231634101082DNS91011101241876324761341148717467775641812 Australia15145212421351851211557DNF52162331348229619124581DNFDNSDNS1138238616DNF3691518112883 New Zealand422361451076165DNSDNS458256242411102661351273142134461252455534214443731004 Rockwool Denmark543104315432372466319934211245103554888232442886632486154432851028142765 Emirates Great Britain2786102619828313122312DNF8106765711DSQ7775496765438855773523211725362255746 Canada3155235733410593855464775531387133657510101082513322629733174214235623717 France739938968762499342769179724752439275439125124989327623295331339DNS678 United States910628748529318746831DNF231034189993923433699103999101010WHWH10101099101076529 Germany88779989105796749DNSDNS45699889DSQ5876510328851966558755499WH68978897893810 Switzerland106108110107610410106577688DSQ841097666688491077631077797916987WHWH6186106910434Citation: Notes New Zealand SailGP team were awarded six points in the season championship as they were unable to compete in Rockwool Italy Sail Grand Prix | Taranto. Germany SailGP Team were penalised two points in the season championship for a four-point penalty at the Oracle Los Angeles Sail Grand Prix | Port of Los Angeles. Canada SailGP Team were penalised four points in the season championship for an eight-point penalty at the France Sail Grand Prix | Saint-Tropez. Spain SailGP Team were penalised two points in the season championship for a four-point penalty at the Spain Sail Grand Prix | Andalucía – Cádiz Switzerland SailGP Team were penalised four points in the season championship for an eight-point penalty at the Mubadala Abu Dhabi Sail Grand Prix presented by Abu Dhabi Sports Council Emirates Great Britain were penalised four points in the season championship for an eight-point penalty at the ITM New Zealand Sail Grand Prix | Christchurch Australia SailGP Team were penalised eight points in the season championship for a twelve-point penalty at the ITM New Zealand Sail Grand Prix | Christchurch Rockwool Denmark SailGP Team were penalised four points in the season championship for an eight-point penalty at the ITM New Zealand Sail Grand Prix | Christchurch Germany SailGP Team were penalised four points at the Mubadala New York Sail Grand Prix for a collision with Australia during a training session. Canada SailGP Team were penalised eight points at the San Francisco Grand Prix for making contact with a race marker in round two. France SailGP Team were penalised twelve points at the San Francisco Grand Prix for a collision with Denmark in round four.
Impact League As part of SailGP's sustainability initiatives, the championship runs a second leaderboard on which teams compete to have the greatest improvement in the sustainability of the sport. Teams are externally audited after each round against 10 criteria, with the top three ranked teams awarded prize money to be donated to the teams' sustainability partners.
Standings