More Exciting Than All Blacks and Warriors Games?

The second SailGP event of the new season will take place in Auckland this weekend. Given the crisp wind forecasts, the Sailing World League is looking forward to possible speed records and a record of more than 20,000 paying stadium visitors at a SailGP event.

More than 30,000 fans are expected at Waitematā Harbor on February 14 and 15. The host of the sailing spectacle on F50 racing catamarans is New Zealand’s “City of Sails”, Auckland: The home of the most successful America’s Cup nation this millennium is considered the most sailing-loving city in the world.

Anna Willcox, former Olympic skier and presenter of the sports show “The Crowd goes wild”, describes the SailGP as more exciting than New Zealand’s national sport of rugby.

Auckland has more boats per capita than anywhere else in the world. Pictures of sailing stars are hung up in supermarkets. You can chat with taxi drivers about sailing. Now the SailGP is coming to the city for the second time after 2025.

The SailGP

And the New Zealand fans can breathe a sigh of relief: the racing catamaran, which was badly damaged in the crash with the Swiss at the season opener in Perth, was repaired in time. Two meters of the left fuselage of the New Zealand “Amokura” was torn off in the collision in January.

The SailGP technical team in England managed to produce a replacement in a race against time. “It was pretty impressive to see how the SailGP Technologies team built the new thing from scratch and shipped it to New Zealand within ten days,” said Peter Burling.

Now the Olympic champion and three-time America’s Cup winner finally wants the SailGP season title with his Black Foils. After the botched crash start to the season, a successful home game should quickly catapult New Zealand from the unfamiliar 13th and last place in the championship standings.

After a bumpy start to the season, Team Germany also wants to advance from ninth place. There was tailwind on the investor front.

Team founder Thomas Riedel (56 percent) and four-time Formula 1 world champion Sebastian Vettel (7.1 percent) were joined by Viessmann Generations Group (3.5 percent) and Bolt Ventures (27 percent) with professional sports investor David Blitzer.

When and where do the SailGP events take place?

The German team license was originally acquired when Schwarz-Rot-Gold entered SailGP in 2023 for 20 million euros. The racing teams’ licenses are now valued at around 50 to 70 million euros.

The new investors mean good news for Team Germany: Driver Erik Kosegarten-Heil and his crew start in Auckland with three motivations: in addition to the financial boost, there is the desire for promotion to SailGP and silver memories.

In 2019, Erik Kosegarten-Heil and Thomas Plößel almost dethroned the high-flyers Peter Burling and Blair Tuke at the Auckland World Cup in the Olympic 49er. After a thrilling final in 2019, the Germans became runners-up behind the New Zealanders.

They have already defeated the Kiwis several times in SailGP. “We always have a chance of beating them here,” says the helmsman. The showdown in the lion’s den this weekend will show how the comparison ends this time.

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