A windless Dubai leaves the Spanish SailGP team at the bottom of the standings

November 12 () –

The Spanish SailGP team started the Dubai Sail Grand Prix presented by P&O Marinas this Saturday in last position after the first day, with 10 points, a start dominated by Great Britain, ahead of the United States and New Zealand.

The Spanish team, despite a brilliant practice race yesterday in which they nailed all the maneuvers and catapulted them to the first position, punctured the starts due to a strategy error since the wind conditions were not as expected.

The day’s races were slow and the teams were on the line at the starts, something that also penalized overall leader Australia, while Great Britain claimed two close victories. Jordi Xammar’s Spanish team fell in the first two races and in the third, a new configuration forced Jordi Xammar, Florian Trittel, Diego Botin and Paula Barceló to stay only on the F50 Victoria, finishing fifth.

“It has been a very difficult day, especially in the starts. Not being able to fly after the starts has hurt us and we have not been able to identify it. We are angry with ourselves, especially considering the level with which we sailed yesterday. We will certainly work to ensure that this does not happen again,” Xammar said in a team statement.

“The most difficult decision is knowing when to fly or not because these boats are designed for just that and it’s such a fine line that it makes it very complex,” he added, hoping for better conditions on Sunday.