Spain’s Diego Botin stunned heavyweights Tom Slingsby of Australia and Peter Burling of New Zealand by brilliantly steering Los Gallos to victory in SailGP’s $2 million, winner-take-all Grand Final on San Francisco Bay on Sunday.
Botin’s thrilling victory in the dash across the tops of the waves for sailing’s biggest cash prize snapped Slingsby’s three-season run as champion of tech titan Larry Ellison’s global league and denied Burling a breakthrough victory.
Spain qualified for the Grand Final thanks to a mindboggling error by French skipper Quentin Delapierre and his crew in an earlier fleet race that knocked them out of the regatta.
Botin took full advantage of that gift and never let trans-Tasman Sea rivals Australia and New Zealand engage in an anticipated showdown between skippers with deep America’s Cup and Olympic pedigrees.
Botin hit the starting line first and led his more accomplished rivals all the way around the course in front of the Golden Gate Bridge aboard his foiling 50-foot catamaran with a red outline of a rooster on the wingsail.
“I cannot describe the feeling now,” Botin said before heading ashore for a Champagne shower with his crew. “It was an amazing race. We nailed the start and we managed to keep it up. We were lucky because we broke a rudder or something on the last downwind but we managed to stay in front.”
The Australians had a technical issue as well as they were chasing down the Spanish but they didn’t recover. One of their foil boards didn’t lock into place and they buried their bows in the water.
“It was a normal tack, but somehow the board came off the lock,” Slingsby said. “We’ve done thousands of tacks this week and it hasn’t happened at all, then today it happened in the final $2 million dollar race. What do you do? It’s just unlucky.”
After dominating the day’s two fleet races, the Aussies seemed locked in.
“Honestly, the team sailed the best we’ve sailed, almost ever, today,” said Slingsby, an Olympic gold medalist who helped Oracle Team USA to an epic comeback victory in the America’s Cup on these same waters in 2013. “We had that mentality the whole race, even when we were behind, so I’m so proud of this team and the way they sailed. I’m honored to be part of it all.”
Botin noted that it was his country’s fourth big victory on Sunday. Spain won a record fourth European Championship in soccer, Carlos Alcaraz won his second straight Wimbledon men’s championship and Sergio Garcia won in LIV Golf.
“Beating the Kiwis and Aussies in the Grand Final here in San Francisco … we’re over the moon,” Botin said. “It’s been a big grind and we’ve been through a lot in this league. Last season we were last in the scores, and look, this season we win. I think we have an amazing team. Let’s see if we can keep it together and keep the ball rolling.”
Slingsby won both fleet races Sunday to claim the San Francisco regatta that preceded the Grand Final.
Burling is a three-time Olympic medalist, including one gold, and as helmsman of Emirates Team New Zealand will pursue a third straight America’s Cup victory in the fall.
“We’re all feeling the pain at the moment, but we’re really proud of the way the team has gone about their business,” Burling said.
Late in the fourth fleet race of the San Francisco regatta, France approached the final turning mark on port and needed to keep clear of Denmark on starboard, but turned too close and made contact. The impact snapped a rudder and sent the catamaran up on its port hull, where it hung precipitously for a few heart-stopping seconds as the crew avoided a capsize.
Botin dashed ahead to finish in front of France in the 10-boat fleet. France was hit with an eight-point penalty and the damage kept it out of the fifth fleet race, opening the door for Spain’s big victory.
“Sometimes you prefer to stay at home, and today I think that was the case,” Delapierre said. “At the last tack I just didn’t see the Danish and we crashed with them. We didn’t finish the job and that’s really painful for everybody on board right now.”
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Bernie Wilson has covered sailing for the AP since 1991.
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