The world’s fastest sailing race returns to Auckland this weekend. Curious? Here’s what you need to know.
What’s all this then?
The New Zealand leg of the 2026 SailGP Championship takes place this Saturday and Sunday on Auckland’s Waitematā Harbour. It’s the second time Auckland has hosted the event; previously it was held on Christchurch’s Lyttelton Harbour, until a dolphin showed up, ruining a race day and making Russell Coutts very mad.
How do we watch?
There’s live TV coverage of the racing on Three and ThreeNow from 4pm-5.30pm on Saturday and Sunday.
If you’re in Auckland and want to see the racing with your own eyes, you can either buy a ticket for the massive temporary grandstand (30% bigger than last year!) at the end of Wynyard Point (pros: best view, atmosphere; cons: costs money) or else find a spot with a view of the harbour to the east of the bridge (pros: free; cons: might need to bring binoculars).
Alternatively, there’ll be big screens and plenty of free stuff to do around Wynyard Quarter and the Viaduct.
Is Team New Zealand racing?
Yes, well, sort of… but don’t call them that! New Zealand’s SailGP team is called the Black Foils. Most of the Black Foils crew are, or have been, members of Emirates Team New Zealand as well though.
So this is different from the America’s Cup?
Yes! Think of SailGP as like the T20 to the America’s Cup’s test cricket, in that it was designed to be shorter, faster and more spectator-friendly. The boats with the foils might look familiar – they’re based on the America’s Cup boats from 2017 – but importantly they’re all owned by SailGP and all built to the exact same specs, so the focus remains on which team is the best at sailing, not which team has the best top-secret, cutting-edge sailing technology.
How does the competition work?
Much like Formula 1, the SailGP season is made up of multiple grands prix held in different parts of the world. This season, Auckland is the second of 13 legs – a couple of weeks ago they were in Perth and in a couple of weeks they’ll be in Sydney, then the Americas, then Europe, before ending up in the world’s new sporting capital, the United Arab Emirates, in November.
Each event typically involves seven races where all the boats compete for points, then the top three advance to a single winner-takes-all final. Races are run on a more compact course than the America’s Cup, and each one is usually done and dusted in around 10 minutes or so.
They must go pretty fast?
One of SailGP’s main selling points is that the boats go insanely, thrillingly fast – frequently over 70km/h, and last season Danish team Rockwool set a new top speed record of 103.93km/h.
Sounds dangerous!
Safety could become a bit of a talking point this season – the Black Foils have already been involved in a scary, high-speed crash during the opening race in Perth. Skipper Peter Burling, who was metres away from being wiped out by the Swiss team boat, said the decision to hand down a points penalty after the Black Foils were found to be at fault for the incident “set a worrying precedent for the season and the safety of the fleet”. And with the fleet increasing from 12 to 13 boats this season, it’s probably not the last hair-raising moment we’ll see out on the water.
How’s the boat looking now?
This has been the big talking point of the last two weeks – would the Black Foils even be able to race in their home regatta? SailGP technicians have been under the pump to repair the severely munted catamaran, and they already had their hands full fixing Spain’s stuffed boat after Los Gallos damaged their daggerboard during a practice session in Perth. As of writing, both teams are expected to start this weekend, in what will be SailGP’s first ever full 13-boat race.
Where are the Black Foils in the standings?
Thanks to the aforementioned penalty, the Black Foils are currently dead last on the points table, below Los Gallos, who haven’t even taken to the water yet. At the top are last season’s winners Emirates GBR (Great Britain), just above three-time champions the Bonds Flying Roos (Australia) and DS Team France.
Presumably we’ll bounce back and win it this weekend though?
It’s possible, but far from guaranteed. The TAB has the Black Foils as joint favourites with the Bonds Flying Roos, with the round one winners Emirates GBR close behind. Last year in Auckland they finished fourth, just missing out on the final, which was won by the Australians in what many New Zealanders would describe as a nightmare result.
Who should we go for if not the Black Foils?
Look no further than the rank outsider (or dark horse, depending on how you look at it) Mubadala Brazil. They debuted last season as SailGP’s first South American team, and they’re also the only team with a female skipper – double Olympic champion Martine Grael.
Who’s behind all this?
SailGP started in 2019 as the brainchild of New Zealand yachtsman Russell Coutts and American tech billionaire Larry Ellison.
Coutts skippered Team New Zealand to consecutive America’s Cup victories in the 1995 and 2000 before completing one of this country’s great heel turns by joining Italian rivals Alinghi and defeating his former team. In 2022, he made headlines when he joined the anti-vaccine mandate protest at parliament, having previously called the government a “dictatorship” over Covid lockdowns.
Ellison is the co-founder of software company Oracle and owner of a growing media and tech empire, recently becoming one of the new owners of TikTok US and currently attempting a hostile takeover of Warner Bros Discovery. He’s also a big-time supporter of Donald Trump and has donated heavily to the Israeli military.
