Last weekend the Emirates GBR Team became SailGP season champions. Helmsman Dylan Fletcher talks exclusively to Helen Fretter to explain how\u201cIf someone gave you a lottery ticket with a 33 % chance of winning $2m, you\u2019d snap their hand off!\u201d said Dylan Fletcher, helmsman of the Emirates Great Britain Team during last weekend\u2019s SailGP Grand Finale in Abu Dhabi.
\nAnd certainly for a lot of the Mubadala Abu Dhabi Sail Grand Prix Season Grand Final \u2013 an event title which took almost as long to say as it took the F50s to get to the top mark \u2013 luck seemed to be playing a significant part in results, with zephyr-light winds and exceptionally short course plunging the season\u2019s most consistent performers down the leaderboard.
\nAt first watch even the final looked to come down to a \u2018Hail Mary\u2019 decision when the British team, who were third \u2013 or last \u2013 off the line split from the leading duo of Australia\u2019s Bonds Flying Roos and New Zealand Black Foils to hook into a convenient shift and come out on top.
\nBut, as Fletcher explains, that\u2019s not quite how it happened.
\nPhoto: c\/o Emirates GBR
\nSailGP leaders play it safe
\nAbu Dhabi was a new venue for the SailGP final, previously in San Francisco, and first impressions frankly weren\u2019t great. Racing on the first day took place in very light winds \u2013 often just 5-7 knots \u2013 with the teams deploying the newest 27.5 wing rig, extra large light wind T-foils and just three crew onboard to make racing feasible in the very marginal conditions.
\nFortunately the waters off Port Zayed were undisturbed \u2013 there was a notable lack of spectator boats. The race village was also smaller than some previous venues, with no giant grandstand packed with the roaring crowds of Auckland or Portsmouth. This was not a showcase of the stadium-filling, crowd-pleasing racing that SailGP can deliver \u2013 though it was a marker of the financial appeal of the league, with the event sponsored by the Sports Council of Abu Dhabi.
\nIn the light, sub-foiling conditions and super-short courses, winning the start became everything, with Denmark, Switzerland and Germany having the best of the first day. At the end of four races three of the the top four teams \u2013 Emirates SailGP, Australia and Spain \u2013 were the sitting firmly in the bottom four on the leaderboard. The Kiwis only slightly redeemed themselves in 8th.
\nWhat, I asked Dylan, was going on?
\n\u201cI think, honestly, you could have called it before the event,\u201d Fletcher says.
\nArticle continues below\u2026<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBritish star, Dylan Fletcher on jumping straight to the top of the SailGP leaderboard<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSailGP is about to kick off a US double-header, with back to back events in Los Angeles and San Francisco,\u2026<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDylan Fletcher-Scott Britain\u2019s 2024 America\u2019s Cup skipper<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDylan Fletcher-Scott is no stranger to high-stakes sailing. But even this Olympic gold medalist will be feeling the pressure as\u2026<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was a lot of teams who had couldn\u2019t go up or down in the season championship; the points were basically closed off. Then you also had a bunch of teams changing people. And they were going to take risk. They were going to push it really hard.
\n\u201cAnd I think we were all just so focused on doing what we needed to do to get into the Grand Final. As soon as it was that light, in reality, we want to win the actual Abu Dhabi event itself \u2013 but actually we don\u2019t really care! We just want to make sure that we win the season points. So we inevitably ended up watching the other boats.
\n\u201cWe stopped taking as much risks as you don\u2019t want to crash. We saw that the Kiwis got a rudder written off because the Swiss just sailed into them. And the Italians nearly took our rudder off with their foil. So there\u2019s no wind, and there\u2019s all these other boats pushing it, effectively.
\n\u201cBut it was funny, wasn\u2019t it? It was like, oh, we\u2019ve had a worst day of the entire year, but so have the other top four. So it doesn\u2019t matter.\u201d
\nPhoto: c\/o Emirates GBR
\nThe British had effectively pre-booked their slot in the Grand Final, though there was still a chance for the Spanish to fight their way back in. \u201cI think the Spanish will feel obviously annoyed they didn\u2019t make it, but the opportunity was there. All the other teams are doing terribly. They just needed to have a normal day and they would have been in very good shape!\u201d points out Fletcher.
\nSuper SailGP Sunday
\nOn Sunday there was slightly more breeze nudging the F50s back up onto their foils and four crew back on board. Fletcher and the British squad came out firing, winning the first race. Was there a big team talk to reset the night before?
\n\u201cI think we were very pragmatic about it, as we always are. We know that in reality, not foiling H2 [mode, two hulls in the water] there\u2019s always more jeopardy, there\u2019s more luck. You just got to do things a bit differently.
\n\u201c[For Sunday] we came up with a different starting strategy. And from looking at the data on the other boats, came up with some things to make the boat go faster if we weren\u2019t foiling. Although it was obviously foiling conditions, but we did actually adopt that start approach for the first two starts. I think there\u2019s no doubt that our team is more comfortable when we\u2019re foiling. And I think it showed on that Sunday.\u201d
\nThe teams had sailed with both the larger wings and foils previously, but not together. \u201cIt was new for the event. So we\u2019d got one day. We\u2019d used the foils before \u2013 they were from Geneva, and we used them in Cadiz. So [the change] was mainly the weight and the extra power of the 27.5m wing. You feel the extra weight, and it changes some of the moding. Once foiling, it\u2019s a little more similar. But you do end up sailing a little higher, slower upwinds, and a little lower and slower downwind, basically.\u201d
\nSailing the F50s three-up also requires some ninja-levels of multi-tasking. \u201cThere are certain manoeuvres which you can\u2019t do or it gets exceptionally challenging. And four people is a lot easier than three. Having someone to be able to grind, and then having effectively the pilot back to being a pilot really makes a difference.\u201d
\nPhoto: c\/o Emirates GBR
\nThe $2m lottery
\nOn the live broadcast on Day 2 Fletcher made a comment to his crew about the \u2018lottery\u2019 conditions. The SailGP commentary team took umbrage, but there was clearly a roll the dice element to the course.
\n\u201cI guess there\u2019s always an element of luck, and yes, it\u2019s probably a little bit larger [in those conditions]. But interestingly or not, we had the best finish positions. You could have scored it any way the entire year, and we would have won. So there is a lot of jeopardy in that final race \u2013 and I think I said on the start of the final, \u2018Welcome to the $2 million lottery\u2019.
\n\u201cBut the idea behind that was that, yes, we won the points season. And yes, we\u2019re sailing very well. But just because of that, that doesn\u2019t mean that we are in any better position than the other two boats.
\n\u201cIf someone handed you a lottery ticket with a 33% chance of winning, you\u2019d snap their hand off. So it\u2019s just trying to see it as a massive opportunity and be open to enjoy it, basically. Enjoy it.\u201d
\nPhoto: c\/o Emirates GBR
\nGetting angry
\nBut the fluky conditions didn\u2019t play to everybody\u2019s strengths. How hard was it for Dylan and co to keep their head in the game with this level of unpredictability?
\n\u201cI think that was a real testament to the team on Saturday. We had obviously a challenging day. And we were still the same team. We were still smiling. We didn\u2019t fall out. We weren\u2019t getting angry\u2026 other people from some of the other teams were getting quite angry! And we didn\u2019t get angry.
\n\u201cI think that\u2019s why I think we won, because of that is how our team operates. And we consistently are able to continue to solve the problem. We\u2019ve had bad times this year, in America, where we didn\u2019t do a very good job of that. And the results followed, basically, because we weren\u2019t doing a very good job as a team.
\n\u201cAnd I think that\u2019s what I\u2019m really proud of how the team operated.\u201d
\nFinal showdown
\nIn the final itself it all seemed to come down to one key manoeuvre. GBR lagged off the start, then split at the leeward mark. But that decision was far from a fluke, Fletcher explains.
\n\u201cWe\u2019d been working on it for seven weeks on how to win the Grand Final.
\n\u201cFor the start, we obviously didn\u2019t want to be late, but we did want that approach. We just were trying to be on time. And we were happy to throw some risk at potentially being late. But we\u2019d done a lot of analysis on, \u2018Okay, well, if we don\u2019t lead at Mark 1, what\u2019s our next opportunity?.\u2019
\nPhoto: c\/o Emirates GBR
\n\u201cWe\u2019d already discussed that we wanted to take the right turn at the bottom, if nothing had changed significantly from the racing beforehand. So we set ourselves up deliberately early on that gybe out to get a really good fast layline into the bottom. The Kiwis went round, but they were really slow. And we\u2019d practised that \u2018JK\u2019 [manoeuvre] in some of the races, actually. So we\u2019d set that up.
\n\u201cEffectively we were using some of the fleet racing to try and practise a few things that we might do. So I felt pretty \u2013 not happy, but I felt very much when we went around the leeward and tacked, it was, okay, all the boats are level at this point. It\u2019s completely even.
\n\u201cI was actually surprised we weren\u2019t further ahead. When we tacked back onto starboard, and the Kiwis were on port, I thought we would potentially be ahead. I was kind of annoyed that we weren\u2019t, to be honest! But we also had decided that, again, if nothing had changed, we wanted the right turn at the top. So how we tried to orchestrate that up the beat [was] to be out of phase, set up for the right turn at the top with the other boats probably having to take the left, and they would have a difficult decision to make.
\n\u201cThat\u2019s the key for me. They had a difficult decision if they wanted to take the right turn off us. And to be honest, as soon as we bore away, I was like, \u2018it\u2019s ours to lose\u2019, because we took the bias mark and we were already faster.\u201d
\nPhoto: c\/o Emirates GBR
\nFletcher\u2019s make or break moment
\nTo go from new \u2018driver\u2019 to SailGP champion is a remarkable feat. What were the team performance goals when he took over the wheel a year ago?
\n\u201cIt was to be in the Grand Final. So it was to win, but the actual goal was always get in the grand final.
\n\u201cI\u2019ve still been nicely\u2026 maybe surprised isn\u2019t the right way of putting it, but I always felt like in my career, when I\u2019ve been doing well, you\u2019re not expecting it. You know you\u2019re capable of it, but you don\u2019t think it\u2019s just going to happen. You always feel slightly on edge. I very much felt like that this whole year. And the team has just done a good job of learning all the new kit and giving me the opportunity to make mistakes, having come back in.
\n\u201cI felt as though after America, then when we came to Portsmouth, I thought that was make a break for me, that event. If we didn\u2019t go and get on the podium there \u2013 or maybe not even on the podium, but if we didn\u2019t have a very good event, get the team back together, then that would be it. We would just be in the middle. So delivering there [was key]. And then I think also delivering in Sassnitz after the disappointment of getting the boat cut in half and everything, and the team really pulled together.
\nPhoto: c\/o Emirates GBR
\nThe biggest prize in sailing
\nSailGP\u2019s famous $2 Million final prize is a great headline. But how important is it for Fletcher to be racing for serious cash?
\n\u201cI think it is important, but I also think that we all care more about beating the others than the money. Yeah, the money is great, don\u2019t be wrong. It\u2019s obviously lovely. But the reality is, you just want to beat the others.
\n\u201cI think Jensen Button said one time, all he wanted to be was an F1 world champion, and he\u2019d trade everything. He didn\u2019t care about his salary, he just wanted to win, be a world champion.
\n\u201cI think that it\u2019s a good amount of money in terms of it does raise the stakes, it does change people\u2019s decision making. It adds quite a lot of extra spice effectively to it.
\n\u201cBut I also would probably say I\u2019d like to see a bit more money for the season points because that is the traditionalist in me, that still thinks that valuing the points over the entire season is \u2013 maybe not more worthy because this is SailGP and SailGP has always been about winning that grand final. But the [overall] points to me is also quite important.\u201d
\nFletcher\u2019s winners\u2019 Rolex watch, however, is treasured. \u201cI\u2019ve been trying to win one of these for 37 years!\u201d he jokes as he tried it on.
\nPhoto: c\/o Emirates GBR
\nTransfer season
\nThe flip side of all the money apparently sloshing around is SailGP are trying to ramp up interest in their \u2018transfer season\u2019. Have the Brits guys put a target on their backs for being poached?
\n\u201cPeople have been chasing!\u201d He laughs. \u201cBut Ben\u2019s done a good job and we\u2019re in a really good shape going forward. And I think that as people are getting longer contracts and getting locked in a bit more, to be honest.
\nSailGP now has a brief \u2018off-season\u2019 before the 2026 circuit kicks off in Perth in January.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s six weeks to the next event. It\u2019s less time between the Grand Final and the first event of the season than it was between Cadiz and Abu Dhabi,\u201d points out Fletcher.
\nThough the break is welcome, \u201cWe\u2019d rather be sailing!\u201d He says, adding, \u201cI guess for myself, because I\u2019m still new into it.
\n\u201cExperience means that when you take a break, you come back and you\u2019re still at that same level. So I work quite hard, do what I can between the events to try and ensure that I\u2019m as sharp as I can be. Even before the Grand Final, I was Moth sailing, 49er racing, and just doing anything.\u201d
\nIt\u2019s a fair bet Fletcher will be coming back sharp and hungry in January.<\/p>\n
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The post How the Brits won SailGP: Dylan Fletcher\u2019s full debrief appeared first on Yachting World.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Last weekend the Emirates GBR Team became SailGP season champions. Helmsman Dylan Fletcher talks exclusively to Helen Fretter to explain how\u201cIf someone gave you a lottery ticket with a 33 % chance of winning $2m, you\u2019d snap their hand off!\u201d … <\/p>\n