Britain comes from behind to beat Canada and Australia in Sydney

Dylan Fletcher, driver of Emirates Britain SailGP Team, runs across the boat towards strategist Hannah Mills, wing trimmer Iain Jensen and grinder Neil Hunter on Race Day 2 of the KPMG Australia Sail Grand Prix in Sydney, Australia, yesterday

Britain lost the lead and regained it to beat Canada and Australia in a thrilling three-boat final in the Sydney leg of SailGP, stretching its overall lead after podium finishes in the first three events of the season.

Australia came into yesterday’s final as favorite after winning the previous event in Auckland and winning three of seven fleet races in Sydney to top the points table with 63 points ahead of Britain with 51 and Canada with 43.

Britain had a win and two seventh placings in the three fleet races on the second day of the event Sunday and Canada had a second and two fourth placings to claim an unexpected finals place.

Australia had set the pace in its home event with exceptional performances off the start line, winning two of four races on day one.

But the Australians incurred a start line penalty in the final, were forced to drop back behind Britain and Canada and were unable to recover. Britain hit the start line at pace and led at the top gate.

Canada picked up a shift on leg 2, passing Britain to lead by comfortable margins at the second, third and fourth gates, looking set for a shock victory.

But Britain found a shift in the lee of Shark Island, the rocky outcrop in the middle of the racecourse, to pass Canada on the fifth leg and hold on for the win.

“Absolutely buzzing to get the win,” England driver Dylan Fletcher said. “We won the start and after that we made mistakes but it was a great race.”

Canada driver Giles Scott had mixed feelings after the race, happy with his team’s performance throughout the Sydney event but disappointed a win in the final had slipped away.

“I think we’ve had an amazing day today. We have to be super happy with second place,” Scott said.

“I’m certainly sitting here with a few what-ifs. We were obviously in a great spot with an amazingly big lead almost all of that race but that final upwind the Brits did a great job of picking up a big shift on that right-hand side.”

Britain now leads the overall series standings with 27 points from Australia with 24 and Spain and New Zealand with 20. New Zealand improved after a disastrous first day in Sydney to post first, second and fifth placings on Sunday.

The SailGP series now moves on to events in Los Angeles and San Francisco next month, Brazil in May and New York in June.

SailGP teams race identical 50-foot foiling catamarans. The foils allow the boats to “fly” across the surface of the water at speeds of up to 90 kmh. Sydney was expected to see the first-ever race involving 12 boats but only 11 boats were able to race because the United States withdrew after incurring damage in a capsize in practice. MDT/AP