![]() While the professionals might tolerate this attempt to generate synthetic excitement, most sailors have more respect for the skippers and crew who establish their winning credentials over a whole series. In an apparent attempt to counter that predictability Messrs Ellison & Coutts imposed a ‘winner-take-all’ final that apes the equally silly ‘Medal Race’ conclusion to championships in the Olympic classes. After that, barring catastrophes, it’s usually a procession. The courses are so abbreviated the boat that wins the start is invariably ahead at the first mark – a leg that takes less than a minute to sail. 99% of us) the problem is the racing itself. They could be racing Cape Cod catboats for all most of us might care. It’s not about the boats – the outmoded AC carbon foilers. So why does that business model now start to look shaky? Let us count the ways. Beyond that, each team is expected to support itself financially. It seems that Larry ‘The Oracle’ Ellison is only prepared to fund his traveling foil-fest for the first few years. ![]() What this reveals is the unpleasant commercial underbelly of the whole SailGP enterprise. They failed to raise the level of sponsorship money the SailGP business now demands of its participants, so they have been forced to give up their boat to a new team that can accumulate the required pile of cash. The skipper, Nathan Outteridge, and his crew weren’t jettisoned because of poor performance. – SS.Ĭould the whole SailGP circus be beginning to fall off its foils? The overnight announcement that the Japan team – consistently one of the event’s better performers – has been dumped from the tour is extraordinary.Įven more dumbfounding is the stated reason for the sacking. (N ote: the SailGP Series seems to be a bit of a house of cards, and just does not seem to be built on sustainability – ed)įrom the statement, SailGP does not expect Team Japan’s financial situation to change anytime soon. Sailing has been fortunate that one of the world’s top 10 richest people has been willing to spend his money in an attempt to get a professional sailing league off the ground but from the get-go it was very clear that teams would be expected to become self-funding. Reading between the lines, the team is likely broke and no one in Japan was ready to step up and fund the team.īy the way, I am not knocking Ellison at all for this. Season 3 will continue with nine teams racing for the remainder of the season.” The league would like to thank Nathan Outteridge and all of the athletes and staff involved in the Team for their outstanding performance in the first two seasons of SailGP and wish them the very best for the future. “After much deliberation and taking into account logistical and commercial considerations, SailGP has made the difficult decision to pause the participation of Japan SailGP Team indefinitely. The statement released regarding SailGP Team Japan reads as follows: It was always known that the financial support from major Oracle shareholder and founder Larry Ellison was not open-ended and Team Japan becomes the first casualty of that.
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