Nov 30 : Britain won the 2025 SailGP Championship on Sunday, beating New Zealand and Australia in a thrilling three-way final in Abu Dhabi to lift the trophy and a $2 million prize.
"It was an unbelievable final," said Emirates GBR skipper Dylan Fletcher. "All the three teams were amazing, any one of us could have won, but I'm just over the moon right now. What a team, what a year… I'm stoked".
As they bore down on the finish line, the British crew celebrated their first SailGP championship win beneath the towering "wing" sail of their bright red and white F50 catamaran with cheers, laughter, whoops and wild fist pumping.
Three-times winners Australia led off the start in Sunday's grand final, with Britain and New Zealand in hot pursuit as the at times fluky winds provided enough power for the crews to get their boats up on to their foils and "flying" above the water.
The lead changed hands several times, before Fletcher and strategist Hannah Mills were able to get clear water by reading tricky wind shifts on Abu Dhabi's compact course, where teams used SailGP's new 27.5-metre wing for the first time.
SailGP, backed by Oracle billionaire Larry Ellison, runs grand prix events in cities around the world each season, with cumulative points determining who makes the final shootout.
CONSISTENCY COUNTS FOR AINSLIE'S BRITISH TEAM
The British team founded by Ben Ainslie, who is also aiming to win the America's Cup in Naples in 2027, had gone into the final event of the SailGP season topping the leaderboard as the most consistent of the global league's 12 crews.
New Zealand's Black Foils, led by Peter Burling, had also been looking to win their first championship, while Australian Tom Slingsby's Flying Roos were aiming to regain the
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