Today's Edition
Kuumar Shyam (Aletihad)
The world’s best sailor athletes representing 10 teams from around the globe are gearing up to unleash their prowess on the waters of Mina Zayed, Abu Dhabi’s historic port, on Saturday and Sunday.
Abu Dhabi will see the return of Australia driver Tom Slingsby, who missed out on Dubai for the birth of his first child. Despite not winning an event this season, Australia remains at the top of the leaderboard, followed by Denmark and New Zealand.
The event will also mark the racing debut of incoming Emirates GBR driver Giles Scott, who replaces Ben Ainslie with immediate effect. Scott, who has been driving team training sessions, will take charge of the team for the first time, going head-to-head against the rest of the fleet.
Ahead of the event on the weekend, it was announced by His Excellency Aref Al Awani that the event is here to stay in Abu Dhabi for two years as part of the international series where the UAE capital follows Dubai as back to back venues as the sixth and seventh legs on the global calendar.
Not only is this a historic moment for Abu Dhabi, but also for the sport as SailGP merges sport and entertainment across the weekend. For the first time, global music superstars Take That join SailGP in the UAE for a special Saturday race day performance immediately after racing, while Sunday will host Saif and Sound, award winning DJ and one of the most established music personalities, combining high-speed action with live music entertainment to create a truly memorable fan experience.
At each Sail Grand Prix, the ten national teams take part in five action-packed fleet races across the two event days, before the winner-takes-all, three-boat final on Sunday featuring the top three-placed teams from the weekend. The winner of this final showdown is declared event champion and awarded 10 points on the championship leaderboard, which is added to a cumulative season total.
Only 2️⃣4️⃣ hours until racing is underway at the @Mubadala Abu Dhabi Sail Grand Prix Presented by @AbuDhabiSC 🙌⛵️🤩#SailGP #AbuDhabiSGP pic.twitter.com/Uv7RmXxkWV
— SailGP (@SailGP) January 12, 2024
The three highest-ranked teams at the end of the 13-event season qualify for the SailGP Championship Grand Final, with the winner crowned SailGP champion and taking home the $2 million prize pot – part of an overall $7 million prize pot available to the top performing teams throughout the season.
Ben Ainslie stepped down as driver of the Emirates Great Britain team to be replaced by Giles Scott, a two-time Olympic gold medallist.
Scott said: “We had a great training day yesterday and excited for the weekend ahead. I think it’s a tricky spot to come in and take over the driver role halfway through a season and I’m certainly green and have a lot to learn and I’ve got to try and make that learning process as rapid as I can. The good news is I have an amazing team and crew and I’ll be drawing on their experience and hopefully we can turn a few heads this weekend.”
Slingsby said: “If you’re the next generation, you’ve got to prove why you’re the best in the world and knock us old guys off the perch. It’s exciting to see what’s going to happen. The new guys have the opportunity, they’re out there and have a boat to drive in SailGP, the top sailing league in the world and they’ve got to take that opportunity with both hands or they’ll be replaced.”
"We have a light wind this weekend but that racing in Dubai showed how exciting light winds can be and you can have a spectacular event even in light airs. Hopefully we have a similar exciting event this weekend.”
Switzerland's Sébastien Schneiter said his team "is in a really good place at the moment with a lot of good energy in the team. Dubai was our first event with a full Swiss crew; we’re looking at the long term and investing in people for the long term.”
