"The most successful Olympian in sailing's history is also the sport's equivalent of The Hulk: you really don't want to make him angry. So perhaps it's a good thing that there has been plenty to annoy him this year, not least that acrimonious split from his America's Cup team owner, Sir Jim Ratcliffe. In true Ainslie style, it only seems to have made him more dangerous. His Emirates GBR team top the SailGP championship going into this weekend's grand final."
"Launched four years ago, it gave the sport an F1-style calendar, in which a fleet of foiling catamarans race each other over a season of grand prix weekends. Its F50s are the fastest sailing boats on the planet, and the racecourses are close enough to the shore that spectators feel the full thrill of their speed. That short-form fleet racing is not the only revolutionary thing about it."
"SailGP was founded to make sailing more viable as a career in other words, sustainability was a core motivation. Its organisers have embedded that principle within the very competition itself by awarding side-by-side trophies one for what happens on the water, and another for what happens off of it. For the past four years its Impact League has been just as fiercely fought as any of the grands prix themselves."
British sailors are portrayed as belligerent, epitomised by Sir Ben Ainslie, whose recent split from America's Cup owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe has sharpened his competitiveness. Ainslie's Emirates GBR team top the SailGP championship and were named 2025 winners of the Impact League for contributions to social and natural environments. SailGP runs an F1-style calendar of grand prix weekends featuring foiling F50 catamarans that race close to shore, offering intense spectator thrills. Sustainability is a core motivation, with organisers awarding parallel trophies for on-water performance and off-water impact. Teams are measured and judged against criteria including carbon reduction and waste minimisation, and use their platforms to educate.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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