Australia has won the Cadiz Sail Grand Prix in Spain after a dramatic day that saw two boats capsize in windy conditions.
The winner-takes-all finale between Australia, United States and Great Britain became a lottery after the Ben Ainsle led Great Britain capsized early, nearly taking out Jimmy Spithill’s US boat.
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“I think we had the best seats in the house for Ben’s capsize,” said Australia’s Tom Slingsby.
“They were going so quick and then we saw them go into a huge pitchpole right in front of us. We had to dodge Ben and then we saw Jimmy nosedive trying to avoid the Brits, we had a moment going, is this race still on?
“It was a game of survival out there today and I’m really proud of our team. We were able to stay calm and collected during racing, which helped us to know when we needed to push and back off in those tricky conditions.”
A consistent weekend for the Australians – they only won one race prior to the final but never finished lower than fourth – sees them on top of the standings after six of the eight rounds.
For the home nation it was a disastrous day. After taking out race two on Saturday, Spain capsized on Sunday, damaging the boat beyond repair and forcing the team to sit out the final two races.
The series continues in Sydney in December, with Slingsby promising a spectacular weekend of racing.
“The team and I cannot wait to get back to Australia after spending so many months away from home,” he said.
“Seeing eight F50s racing on Sydney harbour is going to be epic and with the calibre of sailors that we have this year, it’s going to be action fuelled racing.
“We lost to Ben Ainsle’s British team last year at the Sydney event, which was a tough pill to swallow for our team. We managed to get our revenge, Beating him at his home event this year in Plymouth and now at this event. I can say that all of our team are very focused on delivering that same result for Australia, in front of a home crowd.”
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