SailGP: Kiwis tipped for home town success

New Zealand, which has three event wins under its belt in Season 3 so far, is currently second in the overall leaderboard. The Kiwis sit behind two-time defending champions Australia, which has also been tipped to reach the three-boat, winner-takes-all Final alongside Quentin Delapierre’s France.

In SailGP.com’s pre-event poll. 31.5% of fans voted for New Zealand to reach the Final, while the Aussies picked up 26.5% and France had 16.2%.

Fans voted Spain least likely to make the Final, with Diego Botin’s team picking up just 0.87% of the vote, below Switzerland with 1.4%.

Peter Burling’s New Zealand team is gearing up for its first ever home event on Whakaraupō, Lyttelton Harbour. With the team hanging onto its second place position on the overall Championship leaderboard by just one-point, it’s make or break in Christchurch. Passionate Kiwi crowds are expected to show out in force this weekend, but will their home support buoy New Zealand to victory?

As the penultimate event of Season 3 gets underway, the stakes couldn’t be higher. The congested Championship leaderboard sees just seven points separating New Zealand in second and Denmark in fifth. Christchurch is set to host a crucial showdown as the fight for the last two places in the three-boat Grand Final begins.

With high winds forecast on Friday and a recently repaired SailGP fleet, the decision was made to cancel practice racing. This means the only teams that will have trained ahead of racing (albeit briefly) are New Zealand and Spain. This means the rest of the fleet will lack familiarity with the course when they hit the water on Saturday.

The ITM New Zealand Sail Grand Prix | Christchurch takes place on March 18 & 19, with racing kicking off at 15:00 NZDT. Full broadcast information and How To Watch details are HERE.

Text and images courtesy of SailGP.com.