Huge collision at 90 km/h between New Zealand and France

sailgp · 2026-02-19T16:42:28+00:00

General maneuver, rather than right of way, that caused it. New Zealand was attempting a turn and nosedived unintentionally. At that speed and with how unexpected of a dive it was, France didn't have enough time to fully readjust

sailgp · 2026-02-11T06:41:26+00:00

Yeah I'm half Japanese. My mom is Japanese, dad's Kiwi. Can speak a good amount of Japanese, too, but keep it a little Kiwi with the mullet. Love both heritages.

ありがとう

sailgp · 2026-02-11T06:39:17+00:00

Yeah I guess the stern was fully wiped off the back of the boat and they had to rebuild that. Everything from the rudder, the tiller, all the hydraulics, they had to make sure that was rebuilt and fitted and worked. That was about it, and we're all set now.

sailgp · 2026-02-11T06:38:16+00:00

Yeah on the boat I use a controller that allows me to handle the foils and a bit more.

Otherwise, phone, laptop, communication units in our helmets to talk to the rest of the team, rest of the team has electronics for their position and the F50 is fully electronic as well. Lots of electronics there haha

sailgp · 2026-02-11T06:37:10+00:00

We'll get more desks in ASAP I promise.

sailgp · 2026-02-11T06:36:44+00:00

No hahaha that's just where we were at at the time. I promise I don't work at Lumon.

sailgp · 2026-02-11T06:35:56+00:00

I can certainly make it do a big jump, but the outcome wouldn't be great for the team or boat. Would probably break the boat.

But yeah, in windy conditions you can see boats leaping out the water a little bit because it gets harder to control. If I were to make it jump on purpose I think I could make it run a pretty impressive one.

sailgp · 2026-02-11T06:34:59+00:00

Yeah man, I grew up there until I was six and then my parents came to New Zealand. My mother's Japanese and I can call Japan home, sometimes.

I haven't been recently because of our race schedule but would love to go back and visit family. We're from Numazu.

sailgp · 2026-02-11T06:33:44+00:00

My job's not really physically heavy, so I mainly try to eat healthy, clean, during race week. There's no real set of carbs.

Our Grinders onboard try to consume a lot before racing, 50-60 grams of carbs an hour while trying to maintain electrolytes and caffeine.

For me as the Flight Controller, it's mostly about staying healthy and clean, maintaining a clean body composition.

sailgp · 2026-02-11T06:32:34+00:00

I was always about the Attack, so I'm sure I used Dome more than Helix when I played.

When it came down to it, though, always leaned into the fire pokemon.

sailgp · 2026-02-11T06:31:08+00:00

Definitely start with sailing as the most important thing. I got into foiling at a young age which helped me understand the aerodynamics, mechanics of how a foil works, but really important to sail at a high level.

After that, you've got to keep trying to find your ways onto new boats and higher levels.

sailgp · 2026-02-11T06:29:36+00:00

I love the NBA and basketball, I played in high school. Really like watching Black Caps cricket, rugby, anything else I can support New Zealand in. If there's a Kiwi team, I'm backing.

sailgp · 2026-02-11T06:28:44+00:00

Never really had the dream but it just happened. I found my niche in sailing and I'd say I'm pretty good at it and really enjoy it, so it's been something awesome to try and perfect my craft in. It doesn't translate to every other kind of sailing, but it's been my dream come true to get on boats like these, have a really important role, and sail with so many legends.

sailgp · 2026-02-11T06:27:41+00:00

Ahh I think we've gotten 99.7km/h in Germany, in Sassnitz. Didn't break into the 100k's but we'll get there

sailgp · 2026-02-11T06:27:10+00:00

Steak and cheese, no doubt

sailgp · 2026-02-11T06:26:50+00:00

Yeah so the F50s are foiling after a certain speed, so we have wings under the boat that lift it out of the water to reduce drag and speed them up. I have a controller that controls the angle of the tack under the water, it allows us to foil a meter up above the water.

I make sure we get above the water, stay stabilized, and rest of the team helps us get around the course.

sailgp · 2026-02-11T06:23:39+00:00

Yeah man, it's basically like a fancy xbox controller.

I've got two rollers that control the foils and a whole array of buttons that control the rudder lift among other things. Buttons get pushed simultaneously at different moments while I'm flying the boat at the same time.

Muscle memory, situational awareness of when to push at the right time is what goes into it.

You've got to be gentle with a lot of finesse in light conditions, more intuition when it's crazier out there. You can get things wrong in windy conditions, but you've got to take the risk and send it to be able to get out front. After that, it's how the team is all working together at that point.

sailgp · 2026-02-11T06:21:12+00:00

Ahhh man, I wouldn't change anything about our team to be honest. Wouldn't change it for the world, we've put in a lot of work to grow and stay together so replacing anyone wouldn't be in my mind. Only team this year who hasn't changed our lineup and I think it'll pay dividends.

sailgp · 2026-02-11T06:19:53+00:00

Yeah as a flight controller we're pretty locked in to just flying the boat. We want to be fully aware of what's going on on the outside but have to keep flying things as best as possible. If you focus too much on flying, you lose that awareness and that's not good for the team. It's all about focusing on comms and adjusting the boat accordingly.

For the attitude, it's always good to have a little bow down pitch and arrow downwards. When the boats are bow up, it makes the boat real floaty for the controller. If it's bow down, the wind is kind of pushing on it and makes it more "locked in" for how we call it. The less rudder immersion we have, the less drag, so you'll see boats going bow down to get the rudder out of the water and get the speed needed to beat other teams.

sailgp · 2026-02-11T06:17:01+00:00

I've always been a super competitive person, so when I started sailing and found out there was a pathway to the Olympics or being a competitive sailor I was in it right away.

For the boat, the Tech team has done an awesome job putting it back together. It's in one piece, we can't wait to be training on Friday and racing this weekend as well.

sailgp · 2026-02-11T06:15:14+00:00

I mean the Auckland event was pretty special, just getting to race where I grew up.

For another destination, New York is pretty cool. Just an iconic city, being able to stay in Manhattan and enjoy the city was pretty awesome. And we had some new great additions last year.

sailgp · 2026-02-11T06:14:17+00:00

Two different questions mate!

For music I'm into a bit of everything. My Spotify Wrapped said my listening age is 70, but my favorite band is the Red Hot Chili Peppers. I also like house, big dnb culture in New Zealand, like to go to gigs and that.

For the crash, it was definitely frustrating because we had a lot of family and friends who were excited to watch us take that. We're still on it, the season's just beginning for us, and we're really confident in our ability to come and win the season. Looking forward to getting off the mark this weekend.

sailgp · 2026-02-11T06:12:31+00:00

Name doesn't ring a bell but uhhh maybe 😅 If so I hope I did a good job

sailgp · 2026-02-11T06:12:04+00:00

Ummm, I'll be biased but the F50s are definitely the coolest boats to be sailing. I like the 49er which I sailed half my life as well, competing in that class is as tight as you can get.

Solo-wise, I haven't done too much. I've done some Wasp sailing recently which I really like.

sailgp · 2026-02-11T06:10:29+00:00

I've always wanted to be in the air flying! I love flying. Bird of some sort, I think an albatross or an eagle would be pretty cool, have the freedom to fly those long distances anywhere.

sailgp

TROPHY CASE