Sailing-Bigger And Faster SailGP Back Where It All Began In Sydney

By Nick Mulvenney


SYDNEY, Feb 7 (Reuters) - SailGP returns to where everything started in Sydney this weekend and ratemywifey.com 6 years on from the inaugural race, co-founder Russell Coutts sees a bright future for users.atw.hu the ingenious international sailing league.


An Olympic champ and skipper of three Americas Cup-winning boats, Coutts teamed up with Larry Ellison, the billionaire creator of the Oracle software application business, to introduce the series with six groups all owned by the league.


While the inaugural season which began in Sydney in February 2019 included just five rounds, gratisafhalen.be 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, actually, the uptake and number of events now," SailGP president 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 wish to get to. So yeah, the future appearances good."


The idea of Formula One on water is in the league's name and bytes-the-dust.com the contrast is not far from the mark when the world's best sailors press the F50 hindering catamarans to their limits at what are breathtaking speeds for waterborne vessels.


"We didn't set out to just appeal to the passionate sailing fan, we attempt to make this sport reasonable and explainable for all sports fans," Coutts added.


"Most of our fans are not passionate sailors, and that is among the factors why we have actually grown so rapidly. We are appealing to individuals that just like viewing a race, they do not have to understand anything about sailboats."


A bumper crowd of 25,000 ticketed fans ended up to enjoy Tom Slingsby's Australia group win the second round of the series in Auckland last month.


"I think you'll see numerous of our occasions this year now like that, perhaps even topping that," said Coutts, a 62-year-old New Zealander.


"The most important thing is the fans viewing on broadcast ... but the fan experience on website is likewise critically important. We want fans to come and have a good time and see some excellent racing."


Technological development is essential to SailGP and numerous thousands of data points are relayed from the boats to the Oracle Cloud for making use of race organisers, teams and forum.kepri.bawaslu.go.id to assist broadcasters improve the viewer experience.


360 DEGREE VIEW


Coutts is thrilled about some more innovations coming online as Artificial Intelligence is progressively utilized to overcome the mountain of data.


"The huge advancement for us going forward is the 360 degree view from on board the boat, with listening to the group comms," he said.


"The viewer will be taken on board and ride together with the Australian group in a race, and be able to take a look around anywhere they desire. That's the future."


There have, of course, been challenges over the 6 years with the 2nd season interrupted by the COVID pandemic and rocksoff.org race days still in some cases at the mercy of wind conditions.


A scarcity of F50s indicated the French team was not able to contend 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 full fleet of 12 boats will therefore race for the very first time this weekend and among the most pleasing elements for Coutts is that all however among the groups are, or soon will be, independently owned or wiki.dulovic.tech run.


"These groups are now selling for $50 million, I would never ever have actually predicted that this early on," said Coutts, who prepares to bring another couple of groups on board next year.


"We knew that that was the entire way the design was set up, that team owners would be able to trade their teams and hopefully generate income out of it, but I didn't believe we 'd attain it this early. That's been a good surprise." (Reporting by Nick Mulvenney, editing by Michael Perry)