After a break of almost three months, the SailGP in New York is entering its next round. Since the last race weekend, a technical innovation has been introduced and two famous personalities have joined as investors.
The last race in San Francisco was a talking point for a long time. Not just because of the racing itself, but because of an incident involving the Australian boat. Shortly before the start, the mast suddenly collapsed. Fortunately, the crew were uninjured, but according to driver Tom Slingsby, they were in shock.
This incident had consequences. The entire fleet was inspected and certain defects were found in the sails, which is why the races in Rio de Janeiro at the beginning of May had to be canceled for safety reasons.
For the race weekend in New York, a new sail was designed for all boats to ensure greater safety. SailGP CEO Russell Coutts expressed his confidence in a press release: "The new sail components are made of aluminum Nomex, which should make them twice as strong."
Hugh Jackman and Ryan Reynolds join the Australians
In addition to the technical innovation, the SailGP team also has new celebrity investors to announce. The two actors Hugh Jackman and Ryan Reynolds have joined the Australian team and are now co-owners.
This is not Reynolds' first investment in a sports team. He has been co-owner of Welsh football club Wrexham AFC since 2020 and has been part of an investor group that has invested around 200 million euros in Formula 1 team Alpine since 2023.
"It's incredible to think back five years to when we started this new adventure. Now, five years later, here we are. (...) It's a great chapter that we're starting," says the driver of the Australian boat Tom Slingsby.