SailGP: What’s all this criticism about?

Since its launch, SailGP has been on a mission to increase its audience. By using the sport, changes were made to heighten interest beyond the sailing fan. Some of this has been done with the racing format, but it has always been about increasing performance. Speed sells.

However, an undeniable fact is high speed leads to danger, and while the league preaches safety, the 2026 season has had accidents and injury. While great for video clips, collisions reduce the fleet size which reduces interest. Tired of the criticism, SailGP CEO Russell Coutts went on the defense in a five-minute video. Here are some excerpts:

When we started SailGP, we did some engagement studies with an audience using real racing footage, which was from one of our races in Chicago. The understanding of the races was one of the key barriers with attracting new fans. So, the more understandable you can make it, the better.

The first reach after the start to the first turning mark is an exciting part of the race for any fan. You don’t need to be a sailing fan to understand it. Whereas, if you start upwind and the boats hit off in opposite directions, I can guarantee you that to any new sports fan or racing fan that hasn’t actually had any experience with sailing, they’ll be confused.

So really, what’s all this criticism about? It is about a couple of so-called journalists trying to bring down SailGP. Why? Because they think by bringing down SailGP, they’re going to enhance their favorite product called the America’s Cup. (But) to enhance the America’s Cup is to improve it. Is to fix it. Is to make it better.

The way to enhance the America’s Cup is not to bring SailGP down, and even if they tried, they’re not going to be successful anyway. SailGP has grown too big for that now. So, either way, their criticism is going to basically fail and they should actually try and think through their (opinion) if they want to be considered experts in the sport, they should try and think through things a little bit more deeply than what they have.

The key to (avoiding collisions) is that the teams maintain a good look out, that they know that other boats are there. That was the main reason for the collision in New York, and that’s one of the fundamental rules of basically any seafaring. … If you’re racing under the racing rules, you’re obligated to keep a lookout and that was really the problem. So, we are going to take steps to make sure that the teams will be keeping a lookout in the future.