Sailing-Bigger and Faster, SailGP Back where it all Began In Sydney
By Nick Mulvenney
SYDNEY, wiki.rrtn.org Feb 7 (Reuters) - SailGP returns to where all of it began in Sydney this weekend and 6 years on from the inaugural race, co-founder Russell Coutts sees a bright future for the innovative global sailing league.
An Olympic champion and skipper of three Americas Cup-winning boats, Coutts partnered with Larry Ellison, the billionaire founder of the Oracle software application company, to release the series with 6 groups all owned by the league.
While the inaugural season which kicked off in Sydney in February 2019 included just 5 rounds, this weekend's race will be the third round of 13 the now 12-strong fleet will object to on the 2025-26 schedule.
"It's simply amazing, really, the uptake and variety of events now," SailGP chief executive Coutts told Reuters at the Sydney Opera House on Friday.
"We're certainly sitting at 13, and aiming to increase that over the next seasons to someplace around 20. If you compare that to Formula One that has 24, that's sort of where we desire to get to. So yeah, the future appearances good."
The idea of Formula One on water is implicit in the league's name and the comparison is not far from the mark when the world's best sailors press the F50 hindering catamarans to their limits at what are spectacular speeds for waterborne vessels.
"We didn't set out to simply attract the avid sailing fan, we attempt to make this sport reasonable and explainable for all sports fans," Coutts added.
"The majority of our fans are not passionate sailors, which is among the reasons we have actually grown so quickly. We are appealing to individuals that much like enjoying a race, they don't have to comprehend anything about sailboats."
A bumper crowd of 25,000 ticketed fans ended up to view Tom Slingsby's Australia team win the second round of the series in Auckland last month.
"I believe you'll see numerous of our events this year now like that, perhaps even topping that," said Coutts, a 62-year-old New Zealander.
"The most essential thing is the fans viewing on broadcast ... however the fan experience on website is likewise extremely important. We desire fans to come and have a fun time and see some great racing."
Technological innovation is important to SailGP and numerous countless data points are passed on from the boats to the Oracle Cloud for using race organisers, teams and to help broadcasters enhance the viewer experience.
360 DEGREE VIEW
Coutts is delighted about some more developments coming online as Artificial Intelligence is progressively utilized to resolve the mountain of information.
"The huge advancement for us moving forward is the 360 degree view from on board the boat, with listening to the group comms," he said.
"The audience will be taken on board and ride along with the Australian team in a race, and have the ability to browse any place they want. That's the future."
There have, naturally, been challenges over the six years with the second season interrupted by the COVID pandemic and race days still often at the grace of wind conditions.
A of F50s indicated the French group was unable to complete at this year's season-opening race in Dubai and damage to the boat once they got it ruled them out of the Auckland leg.
The complete fleet of 12 boats will therefore race for the first time this weekend and among the most pleasing aspects for Coutts is that all however one of the groups are, or photorum.eclat-mauve.fr quickly will be, privately owned or run.
"These groups are now costing $50 million, I would never ever have anticipated that this early on," said Coutts, bybio.co who plans to bring another number of groups on board next year.
"We knew that that was the whole way the design was set up, that group owners would be able to trade their teams and hopefully earn money out of it, however I didn't think we 'd attain it this early. That's been a great surprise." (Reporting by Nick Mulvenney, editing by Michael Perry)