SailGP Sydney analysis


Author: Justin Chisholm March 2, 2026 Duration: 42:33
Podcast episode
SailGP Sydney analysis

On the latest episode of the Yacht Racing Life Podcast Justin Chisholm is joined once again by fellow British yachting journalist Magnus Wheatley to chew over the goings on at the third event of SailGP Season 6, which took place in Sydney, Australia over the past weekend.

The racing may not have been as adrenaline-fuelled as the previous two events, but despite the uncharacteristic drifting conditions that prevailed out on Sydney Harbour, Magnus and I still had plenty to talk about, including:

  • the two starkly contrasting performances from the event winners, Taylor Canfield's US SailGP Team – who strung together their best ever – and Tom Slingsby's hometown heroes, the BONDS Flying Roos – who sparkled at times but ultimately missed out on a place in the final by some margin.
  • the impressive performances of the other two event finallists – Dylan Fletcher's Emirates Team GBR and Diego Botín's Spanish Los Gallos 
  • plus, we debated the thorny question of whether SailGP might be losing its appeal to sailing fans and the wider sporting audience – and asked whether a racing format change could help to spice things up?


Image © Felix Diemer for SailGP


More episodes

Duration: 53:14
Justin Chisholm’s guest on the show this time is British ocean racer Simon Fisher.SiFi – as he is universally known – is one of the world’s most well respected and best liked professional sailors and is very much sought…

Duration: 52:58
The latest episode of the Yacht Racing Podcast sees NYYC American Magic skipper Terry Hutchinson make a return appearance with an update on the US America's Cup syndicate’s response to the Covid-19 global pandemic. Speak…

Duration: 1:06:12
Our guest on the latest episode of The Yacht Racing Podcast is the legendary Dutch ocean racing skipper Bouwe Bekking. Bekking is best known as an around-the-world race campaigner and has eight Whitbread and Volvo Ocean…

Duration: 46:35
Boris Herrmann is highly accomplished ocean racer with an impressive track record that includes competing in two double handed around the world races – the Global Ocean Race in 2014 (which he won with Felix Oehme) and th…

Duration: 53:06
Our guest on Episode 13 of The Yacht Racing Podcast is Danish yachtsman Nicolai Sehested – a sailor who, despite having just reached the age of thirty, has already established himself as a major figure on the internation…

Duration: 34:09
Tom Burnham and Rome Kirby are, respectively, the coach and skipper of the American SailGP team.Burnham is an ex-Olympic campaigner who has been involved in four America’s Cup challenges – one with Young America, twice w…

Duration: 34:13
American sailor Ed Baird is the man who coached Team New Zealand to victory in the 1995 America’s Cup and then two cycles later in 2007 helped defeat the Kiwis as helmsman of the Swiss challenger Alinghi. In the eighties…

Duration: 40:41
On this episode of the Yacht Racing Podcast, host Justin Chisholm speaks to New Zealand solo ocean race skipper Conrad Colman.Colman is probably best known for his participation in the last Vendee Globe around the world…

Duration: 38:45
The glamorous lifestyle of an Olympic campaigner is often described as “living the dream”, but if ever there were two people whose lives match up to that description it is British Olympic 49er pairing Dylan Fletcher and…

Duration: 35:45
British sailor Sir Ben Ainslie is the most successful Olympic yachtsman of all time and skipper and team principal at America’s Cup challenger Ineos Team UK.Ainslie knows better than most what it is like to experience th…

Duration: 36:09
As well as winning countless world championships in a long and illustrious career American yachtsman Terry Hutchinson has also been involved in four America’s Cup campaigns, but is perhaps best known recently for his lea…

Duration: 42:58
On this episode of the Yacht Racing Podcast we get an update on what’s been going on behind the scenes at The Ocean Race – the fully crewed around the world race formerly called the Volvo Ocean Race. Speaking to Yacht Ra…

Duration: 42:45
Our guest on this episode of the Yacht Racing Podcast is British Olympian and ocean race skipper, Ian Walker.Walker has had a broad and illustrious career in professional sailing having won two Olympic silver medals – on…

Duration: 37:12
We talk to 23-year-old Bermudian sailor Emily Nagel on the day she was announced as a member of Dutch Volvo Ocean Race campaign, team AkzoNobel.

Logo
Select station
VOL