On a weekend when the Baltic delivered both chaos and opportunity, the France SailGP Team claimed the three‑boat final at the Germany Sail Grand Prix in Sassnitz and set an all‑time championship speed record of 107.63 km/h.
A record carved from a wild opening day
The record run came in the sixth and final race of Saturday. With offshore westerlies gusting hard and the fleet running the small 18‑metre wingsail, France’s F50 tore past the previous benchmark of 103.93 km/h. Two other crews also bettered the old mark in the same race, but it was Quentin Delapierre’s boat that broke clear and stayed upright.
“I was definitely on the edge and it was quite scary on that last bear‑away,” Delapierre told reporters afterwards.
A tactical final decided by a gust
Sunday’s podium race pitted France against Emirates Great Britain and Australia. The British crew owned the start and led through the first two legs, holding a precise position at the favoured leeward end. On leg three the wind dropped sharply, forcing Britain to sail a low, slow angle straight into the path of France, who carried almost 30 km/h more speed as they swept past.
The telling moment arrived near the top mark. Delapierre and his crew spotted a puff, accelerated again, and tacked cleanly while Australia and Britain briefly lost their foils. From there the French boat stretched away to finish ahead of Australia, with Great Britain in third.
Wing trimmer Leigh McMillan returned for this event — his first since the team’s collision with the Black Foils in Auckland in February — and the boat handling across both days suggested a cohesion that had not been there earlier in the campaign.
Six races, five different winners and one mark that nobody had ever reached before. In Sassnitz, the French crew found a speed that leaves a quiet, durable imprint on a season still being shaped.
