Sail GP mania: Mbappé, Real Madrid star investing in sailing

If Kylian Mbappé, the world’s highest-paid soccer player, has just invested in the French team and Rolex, the most famous and coveted watch on the planet, gives it its precious name, then the Sail GP flying world sailing circuit is serious. And it is poised to become the most watched sailing event on the planet. In defiance of the America’s Cup, which until now has held this record.

In the beginning, in 2018, only Russell Coutts, winner of five America’s Cups, and Larry Ellison, patron of Oracle, a $50 billion revenue technology megamultinational, believed in the Rolex Sail GP. Together Coutts and Ellison had achieved one of the greatest sporting feats in history.

It had all started in 2013, with the AC 72 Oracle catamaran. The Coutts&Ellison pairing had managed to turn around a desperate situation, going from a score of 1-8 in favor of Emirates Team New Zealand to winning the America’s Cup 9-8.

The two, set out to create sailing events on a global scale, reserved for professionals, that would reach a wider audience, made up not only of passionate sailors but of fans. They were inspired by Formula 1 and Moto GP, but also by the America’s Cup itself.

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HOW ROLEX SAIL GP WAS BORN

A series of regattas around the world with stage winners and a progressive ranking that decrees at the end of the year the overall winner, Sail GP world champion. The World Cup inspired them to choose national teams. From the America’s Cup they retrieved the design of the AC 50 catamarans that were renamed the F 50 (15 meters long and capable of 50 knots of speed, F stands for Foil) with which they then raced the 2017 Copp, lost to Oracle.

They simplify it with the “one design” system, where the boats are all the same for all participating teams and they mix the one-on-one formula (match race), but only for the final of each event where the top two in the leg standings clash. For the rest, fleet racing, all together. The top two in the final standings of the various stages compete at the end of the season, with $1 million up for grabs. The Rolex Sail GP stages take place in beautiful locations, where the public can watch the races of the adrenaline-fueled flying multihulls from the shore as they do battle just a few meters out to sea. The races (three or four a day of 14 minutes over a weekend) are as short as a video game, the crews are constantly maneuvering. As in any top professional sport, you don’t have to be present at the event to follow it; the races are broadcast live on Youtube and with the Sail Gp APP, as well as television channels around the world.

FROM FLOP TO SUCCESS

In the early years the Rolex Sail GP struggled, few boats but sprattled few sponsors, economic fodder to keep up a professional circus of this commitment.

Then the formula took off, money and teams came in. This year the Rolex Sail GP is serious business, destined for success. There are 12 teams from around the world, the likes of which have never been seen all together in the America’s Cup. For the first time there are also Italians with Red Bull Team Italy, at the helm the two-time Olympian Ruggero Tita with in the role of coach one of the helmsmen of the last Luna Rossa, James Spithill. The world’s top sailing professionals are participating; there is also Ben Ainslie who was at the helm of Ineos Britannia in the last Cup final against the New Zealanders.

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But there is a surefire way to tell if an event is working-just go through the list of sponsors. There are prestigious brands in the Sail GP, besides Rolex of course, Oracle, but also the Emirates airline and the very powerful Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund Mubadala. Prestigious names associate their names with the teams such as Red Bull for Italy, Oreal for France, Deutsche Bank for Germany. Which means the companies believe in it.

The unrealized dream of sailing becoming a popular sport with a large fan following can become a reality with the Rolex Sail GP. It was created for just that, and this year it gets serious. Follow it. It is not traditional nostalgic sailing, but it is still sailing. In other sports the change has already happened, it is only right that it happens in ours.

Luca Oriani