12 May 2024

SailGP Has Become the NASCAR of Sailing

Come for the speed, stay for the collisions and other mishaps.

Sail Grand Prix is an international organization that races one-design catamarans, known as the F50 class.

F50 foiling catamarans were developed from the AC50 foiling catamarans from the 2017 America's Cup race series. A couple or 3 boats from the 2017 competition were converted to F50s to start the Sailing Gran Prix series. Several more have been built since then.

These boats sail at between 60 and 75 kilometers per hour. That is between 32 and 40 knots, or 37 and 46 miles per hour for the metrically challenged land-lovers in the crowd. Boats in the videos are usually tagged with a graphic showing their speed.

If you saw the 2020 movie Tenet, the sailboats in that movie were F50s, belonging to the American and Japanese teams.

This is Sail GP video The BEST SailGP Moments in Bermuda ⛵️. There are a couple of near misses in the 4 minutes, and one collision.

For a slow-motion look at a capsize, that the American boat suffered during a training race, see this 1 minute video. The injuries were all described as minor.

1 comment:

  1. And yes, I know that landlubbers is an actual word.

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