USA won at St. Tropez

The United States SailGP team took their first win at the France Sail Grand Prix event in Saint-Tropez, getting their season three championship campaign back on track. On an incredibly light day with winds in stark contrast to the frantic atmosphere of the first day of racing, the USA defeated New Zealand and Great Britain in a winner-take-all three-team final.

Due to the lack of wind in the Gulf of Saint-Tropez, important changes were made to the regatta program, the fifth fleet regatta ended – no one crossed the finish line within the 14 minute time limit – and the sixth fleet regatta – added from this event to introduce the SailGP “Super Sundays” – was canceled altogether. As a result, the United States won the only naval race of the day before taking the all-important victory in the final.

However, an incident with France during the regatta cost the USA four penalty points in their total for the season, meaning they could not advance in the championship standings after five events and finished seventh.

Defending champions Australia, who finished fifth in Saint-Tropez, continue to lead the season standings with 42 points, although only one point now separates them from second-placed New Zealand, following the Kiwis’ rapid rise.

Great Britain, another of the finalists beaten by the Kiwis in France, is seven points behind in third place, while Denmark (33 points), France (31 points) and Canada (29 points) make up the crowded core of the countryside.

The United States is in seventh place with 25 points, while Spain and Switzerland occupy the rest of the table with 15 and 12 points respectively. The regattas are less than two weeks away from the Spanish Sail Grand Prix | Andalucía – Cádiz will be held on September 24th and 25th.