Great Britain's SailGP season unravelled at the worst possible time in Rio de Janeiro, with Dylan Fletcher's crew finishing 12th of the 12 teams that raced and surrendering the Season 6 championship lead to Australia.
The result was the stiffest fall of any team in the F50 league's debut South American event on April 11-12, with Fletcher's squad posting a scoreline of 11-6-11-12-12-10-10 across seven fleet races and never looking like a contender to reach the three-boat Final. Great Britain had arrived in Brazil at the top of the standings after victories in Perth and consistent finishes at Auckland and Sydney.
Fletcher's crew wasn't the only British casualty of a tricky Sugarloaf Mountain venue. New Zealand, skippered by Peter Burling, did not take part in the Rio event at all due to boat damage sustained in Sydney, recording a nominal 13th place. Brazil had gear issues that wiped out their first two races, leaving Martine Grael's home crew with little chance of chasing a podium in front of local fans.
The collapse was particularly costly because SailGP scoring rewards event wins heavily. Australia's victory added another big points haul to Tom Slingsby's season and, combined with Great Britain's zero-scoring performance, created a seven-point swing at the top of the table. The Flying Roos now lead with 35 points, with Great Britain second on 28 and the United States third on 27.
Rio's conditions played a central role in Great Britain's undoing. The course, located in the lee of Sugarloaf with the windward gate positioned closest to the 396-metre peak, produced wildly inconsistent pressure that favoured teams willing to gamble on the right-hand side of the track and punished those that sailed the middle of the course. Spain's Diego Botin, who took second overall, repeatedly rolled the dice on the right and was rewarded.
With three North American events coming up in quick succession — Bermuda, New York and Halifax — Great Britain has little time to regroup before the Season 6 calendar tilts back toward the faster, windier conditions that have typically suited Fletcher's crew. The next event in Bermuda runs May 9-10.
For Slingsby, whose Flying Roos have won three of the five previous SailGP seasons, the Rio result quieted critics who had questioned whether Australia's edge had been blunted by the expanding fleet. With six events still to run before the Abu Dhabi Grand Final, the championship is now firmly back on its familiar trajectory.
