How Spain beat Australia and ROCKWOOL Denmark across key metrics

Spain sealed its first ever event win by performing the fewest manoeuvres and sailing the shortest distance in LA’s three-boat shootout against Australia and ROCKWOOL Denmark.

Data provided by the F50 fleet compares the performances of all three teams in the six-leg Final and shows that Spain was beaten across many key metrics by its competitors, including fly times and starting stats.

It was Australia that picked up the top speed of the race with 51.1 km/h against ROCKWOOL Denmark’s 44.5 km/h and Spain’s 43.4 km/h. Spain beat Australia on average boat speed (24.1 km/h vs 23.6 km/h) but it was Nicolai Sehested’s crew with the highest average speed of 24.3 km/h. Denmark also had the highest fly time, foiling with 16.5% of the Final versus Spain’s 14.7% and Australia’s 10.9%.

Although Spain gained the all-important inside track to Mark 1 and was in first position at the mark rounding, it was ROCKWOOL Denmark that was positioned closest to the line and Australia that made the quickest start.

Spain was located 54.5m away from the line at the gun versus Australia’s 85.4m and ROCKWOOL Denmark’s 22.4m, and was traveling at a speed of 20.8km/h in comparison to Denmark’s 27.2 km/h and Australia’s 27.6 km/h.

But Diego Botin’s crew trounced its competitors across the key metrics of manoeuvres and distance sailed.

Spain performed a total of just nine manoeuvres across the six-leg race – 4 jibes and 5 tacks. By comparison ROCKWOOL Denmark performed 12 manoeuvres (7 jibe sand 5 tacks) and Australia performed 16 (10 jibes and 6 tacks).

The Spanish also sailed significantly less distance than its competitors – a total of 5,175m against ROCKWOOL Denmark’s 5,389m and Australia’s 5,540m.

It was a successful event for Diego Botin’s young Spain team – who claimed their first ever SailGP win

Despite trailing in the start, ROCKWOOL Denmark’s metrics allowed Sehested’s team an opportunity to overtake Australia – which they did on the fourth leg of the race, pushing Tom Slingsby’s crew into third place overall.

Powered by Oracle, SailGP Insights is an online dashboard which provides fans with huge amounts of data from our cutting-edge racing F50 catamarans.

For more information visit sailgp.com

To keep up to date with all marine industry news visit www.marinebusinessnews.com.au