Britannia rules the waves: Sir Ben Ainslie’s team win $2m SailGP final

Great Britain’s SailGP team have won the global sailing series for the first time, clinching the title with a stunning manoeuvre in the grand final.

Sir Ben Ainslie’s squad have also netted a cool $2m by winning in Abu Dhabi on Sunday.

Dylan Fletcher’s crew, reduced from six crew members to four in the light winds in the Middle East, were staring down the barrel after arriving last to the line in the three-boat final. After that slow start, GBR were behind three-time champions Australia and level with New Zealand at the first mark. They were then behind both their rivals after splitting on leg two.

But a brilliant manoeuvre from Fletcher – who had two-time Olympic champion Hannah Mills and Australians Iain Jensen and Luke Parkinson on board – ducking under Australia when they arrived back at the top mark, staying on the foils and getting into phase with a left shift, proved decisive (see video below).

GBR ended up streaking away, winning by 55 seconds from Tom Slingsby’s Australia, with New Zealand, helmed by multiple America’s Cup winning skipper Pete Burling, third over the line two seconds later.

It was a stunning final, and a lucrative one for GBR who scooped the $2m first prize, making it $4.4m in total prize money for the season. GBR, who won three of the 12 rounds this year, will split the money between the sailing team.

“It was an unbelievable final wasn’t it?” said Fletcher, who has had quite a journey to reach this point, having driven for GBR back in Season 1. “All the three teams are amazing. Any one of us could have won. Just over the moon right now. Really proud of the team.”

Fletcher found himself out in the cold when Ainslie took over the franchise, and the helm of the British boat, in Season 2. Even after Ainslie relinquished the wheel in Season 4 to focus on the America’s Cup (Ainslie remains as team principal and chief executive), it was Giles Scott who took over driving duties. But when Scott announced he was moving to Canada for this season, Fletcher, who by this point had taken over as co-helm of Ainslie’s America’s Cup, got the nod.

GB win the treble

SailGP’s slightly controversial format means the 12 teams sail against each other in fleet races all year, with the top three then competing in a one-off match race on the final day. Britain have been the most consistent team all season and headed into the final weekend in Abu Dhabi top of the standings and hoping to win a “treble” of the Grand Final, the overall series and the Impact League, which “tracks teams’ positive actions on and off the water, celebrating social and environmental impact alongside sporting performance”.

“I’m so proud of this team,” said Ainslie. “It’s a long season, plenty of ups and downs but on and off the water the team has just delivered and this is such a great day for the whole team. The racing at this level we know is incredibly tight but they really deserved it, I think the fact that they won the Grand Final, won the overall season in points and won the Impact League is a serious achievement on and off the water, and it takes some doing, so I’m really proud of everyone. It was a classic final, the Aussies had the lead off the line but we made some really smart choices which won the race.”

Fletcher added: “We had a strong start to the seas, then it went downhill a bit in the US events, but we dug deep and finished it off with the treble, an unbelievable year. I think the Grand Final race is an incredible testament to how the team operates, we stayed calm, kept chipping away and then took the opportunity when it got presented to us.”

“It was wild and tense,” said Mills. “We knew it was going to come to the wire and we knew even if we did start last, there was always a chance to keep doing the right thing, keep putting the boat in the right place and wait for others to make mistakes and luckily we managed to do that and it came good in the end. Honestly, I literally can’t believe it. SailGP is so hard to win, it’s so much jeopardy and it’s one race, and the expectation was that we could win but we might not do, so it’s actually unbelievable.”

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