The sun is shining in a clear, azure sky, and the sea breeze is dialled in just right. Considering the past few days have seen one-digit temperatures, grey overcast skies, and rain that’s expected more of London than it is of Los Angeles, it feels like a miracle that we’re seeing near-perfect weather today. It’s the opening day of the 2025 Rolex SailGP Championship (15 to 16 March), one of the fastest sailing competitions in the world.
The crowd is soaking it all in at the waterfront of the San Pedro Port, which has been transformed into a grandstand area with music bands, food trucks, and merchandise stalls for this adrenaline-filled weekend event.
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For many Angelenos, it’s probably their first encounter with this turbocharged version of sailing. And SailGP is bent on delivering an unforgettable experience with its promise of sport, technology, and national pride. Unlike traditional yacht racing, which often plays out miles offshore, SailGP takes place just metres from the water’s edge for more spectator-friendly views.
And there is a lot of action to soak in: The boats whip past buoys in tight formations, sometimes coming within inches of each other as they jostle for position. And unlike traditional regattas, SailGP’s races are short, intense, and packed with drama. But those are not the only reasons why SailGP is unlike any other sailing competition (or any competitive sport, for that matter) out there.
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Part of what makes SailGP so radically different is its commitment to equality and accessibility. The boats themselves, the F50 catamarans, are designed and manufactured in a SailGP Technologies facility in Southampton, UK, and they are all identical to eliminate any design advantages.
Then, there’s SailGP’s use of real-time data, onboard cameras, and advanced analytics for fans and teams to bring a Formula 1- style experience to sailing.
“We have a central design team that looks to improve the boats all the time and ensure we’re at the cutting edge. But every innovation that’s put on the boats is equal for all teams, so they all have the same kit—that’s one of the ethos of SailGP,” says managing director Andrew Thompson. “And all [the teams] share data so that they all know what [each other’s] settings and moves are. ”
In other words, no competitor has a technological or data advantage over the others, resulting in a tight race that focuses purely on skill, strategy, and teamwork.
Couple all that with the fact that SailGP teams are manned by some of the world’s best sailors (there are over 30 Olympic medals between them), on highly nimble catamarans capable of clocking in speeds of over 100km/h on wind power alone, and what you have is a race that was built for pure adrenaline.
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SailGP's unique and uncomplicated race format is also, to borrow Thompson's words, "really simple and easy to understand". Travelling to multiple locations around the world throughout the season, each event sees the SailGP team compete in a total of seven races over two days. The first six are fleet races, where teams race for points based on their finishing positions. When the fleet races are done, the top three teams then have a showdown in a match race final to determine the event winner.
The Grand Final, on the other hand, sees the top three teams that have accumulated the most points across the season facing off.
To understand just how serious SailGP is about its initiatives, one need only look to its Impact League, a secondary leaderboard that tracks the positive actions taken by the teams to reduce their overall carbon footprint and accelerate inclusivity in sailing. There are 10 sustainability criteria to adhere to, and at the end of the season, an Impact League podium is placed alongside the Grand Final podium to crown two champions.
But for this particular weekend in Los Angeles—the fourth of 12 events for the SailGP season—it’s the Canadian team that emerges victorious. They held off seasoned veterans from Australia and New Zealand in a dramatic final match race that had spectators on their feet and cheering from the shoreline. As the final boat crossed the finish line, and the crowd ambled back onto the promenade, I had the feeling that something had shifted. Sailing isn’t just changing—it’s accelerating. And SailGP is at the helm.
“We’ve come a long way since our first season. Then, we had six teams and five events; this year we’ve got 12 teams and 12 events,” says Thompson. “And the interest is gaining momentum. I’m not sure my team would like to hear this, but we’re only still at the start."
TOM SLINGSBY
CEO and driver, Australia SailGP Team
Named Rolex World Sailor of the Year three times, the Olympic gold medallist has his sights on winning—and eradicating ocean plastics.
How does it feel to be back in LA?
It’s amazing. SailGP coming to bigger cities is important for the brand, and this race track can be really exciting. We generally get plenty of wind here, and it’s a tighter race course than the others. In Formula 1 terms, it’s kind of like a street circuit; overtakes are a little bit harder on a tight race track like this. The only time I’ve sailed here was the SailGP event in 2023, so I’ve got a lot to learn here, and I’m hoping we’ll be able to pick it up pretty quickly.
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You have a new team member. How has that been going for you?
The one big advantage we’ve had for years was that we’ve all sailed together for over 10 years—that makes the difference; that split-second decision-making. It’s literally that 10th of a second to understand what your wing trimmer is saying. I’ve never sailed with Chris Draper, our new wing trimmer, but things are going really well. He has watched all our onboard footage and sat through tens of hours of it just to learn how Kyle [Langford] used to speak to me and what I mean when I say certain things. He has really fast-tracked his progress, everyone has gelled really well, so all positive signs so far.
Can you share your thoughts on the sustainability, inclusivity, and community initiatives that SailGP has?
They’re very important to me, especially [when it comes to] ocean plastics; we’ve partnered with Parley for the Ocean. I feel that, other than maybe surfers, no one else sees this more than us. We’re out on the water every single day, and over the course of my career, I can see the difference. Every year, when we return to certain venues, you can see some getting better and others getting worse. We’re not mega stars in the sporting world, but I think people do listen to our voice because we’re on the water every day, and we see it first hand. So things like that are really important to me, our team, and fortunately, to Rolex.
What does it mean to you to be a Rolex Testimonee?
It’s been amazing. I’ve seen the support that Rolex has had for our sport for so long—whether it’s sponsoring the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, or the Rolex TP52 World Championship—and then they partnered with people like Paul Cayard, Robert Scheidt, and Ben Ainslie. I remember thinking, ‘I’d just love to be a part of that’. And then to be asked in 2023… it’s amazing; you feel like such a family in that group. With them partnering with SailGP, it’s perfect because I plan to be with SailGP for a long time. It’s the best partnership I could ever have.
HANNAH MILLS, OBE
Strategist, Emirates Great Britain SailGP Team
The two-time Olympic gold medallist and three-time World Champion shares about guiding the next generation of athletes on using their voice for good.
How does it feel to be back in LA and how are you preparing for the track?
It’s cool to be back in LA. It’s just such an iconic place and it looks like there’s good wind this weekend—so we should get good racing. On the Thursday before the race, we normally have a full-on prep day on shore to look at [data] from all the last regattas and study the track. Obviously, we’ve done a lot of all this before we get here, but we come together as a group to discuss everyone’s points. Then, Friday is for practice racing, making sure the boats are working, and basically getting in the grips of things again. We also do a lot of purpose projects and work with many schools and sailing clubs in the venues that we go to. So there’s a lot, which is amazing.
Yes, you have Athena Pathway. Can you tell us more about that?
The Athena Pathway programme was set up by Ben Ainslie and myself [in 2022]. When the [UniCredit Youth & Puig Women’s] America’s Cup—the first ever women’s America’s Cup— got announced for 2024, it was a huge moment in our sport. It felt like the perfect opportunity to build a pathway programme for the next generation of female sailors and also youth sailors. There’re so many roles on the shoreside of things, and the engineering roles required for these types of boats are massive. So trying to bring women through that side of the sport was also a really big project for us, because females are really underrepresented.
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Then, there’s also SailGP’s initiatives on sustainability, inclusivity, and community.
Yes, and I’m incredibly passionate about them. My journey with sustainability started back in the Rio Olympics (2016), and seeing how bad the plastic pollution was getting; it woke me up to the crisis we were facing. And off the back of that, I’ve done lots of work in the sustainability space: I started Big Plastic Pledge (2019) to eradicate single use plastic from the sport, started an organisation called Athletes of the World (2021) to educate athletes on the climate crisis and how they can use their voice and feel empowered to do that. Then, obviously, joining the SailGP team was the perfect job for me—to have this purpose driven sport that I could be a part of.
How do you feel about being a Rolex Testimonee?
It’s iconic; I can barely describe it. It’s been three years now. Rolex is such a prestigious brand that’s so globally recognised, and [associated] with some of the biggest athletes around the world. So, to be one of them, it really takes my breath away. I never expected it but I’m just so proud to be a Rolex Testimonee and to have that honour.