Isle Of Wight SailGP Event Suspended

SailGP has announced its racing season for 2020 has been suspended - which includes the Cowes, Isle of Wight leg which was scheduled for August. Two of the four impacted events have new dates for 2021 – San Francisco on April 17-18 and New York on June 4-5. SailGP said it intends to return to the UK and Denmark during the rescheduled Season 2, replacing racing previously planned for August 14-15 and September 11-12 of this year. Season 2 is set to be expanded from five to a minimum of seven events during the year-long period beginning in April 2021, spanning to the early months of 2022. [caption id="attachment_1276229" align="aligncenter" width="640"] SailGP[/caption] Results from 2020 Sydney SailGP – the first and only completed event of the year – will be null and void. Two months ago in Sydney, teams representing Australia, Denmark, France, Great Britain, Japan, Spain and the United States took to the water in the world’s fastest sail race boats for what was anticipated to be the first of five events in 2020. There, four-time Olympic gold medalist - and Isle of Wight resident - Sir Ben Ainslie led the British entry to victory in his SailGP debut, overcoming the local favourite and defending season champion Tom Slingsby and his Aussie crew. Sir Ben said: “This has of course been a huge challenge for the entire world, and in particular for healthcare workers on the frontline of this crisis. At the end of the day, this is sport, and we’ll get back out there when it’s safe for everyone involved. Of course, it’s tough not to be out on the water, especially after I got my first taste of SailGP in Sydney a couple months ago. "Racing these boats is a privilege, and I know we’ll have that moment again. In the meantime, I’ll be looking to find ways to be even better when we are up and racing again next year.” SailGP CEO, Sir Russell Coutts, said: “This terrible pandemic has led to the tragic and ongoing loss of hundreds of thousands of lives, and first and foremost, our thoughts go out to those victims, and their grieving families and friends. “The global nature of our league is one of our strongest characteristics, as we bring together top talent from all over the world to both organize and compete in a new form of professional racing. As we face this health emergency, our geographic diversity unfortunately becomes a potential liability both to ourselves and those around us. “Our focus must necessarily shift to returning at a time when our events do not present undue internal or external risk. “We’ll use the coming months to focus on important initiatives to make both our racing and broadcast even more attractive – including through further development of our F50 catamarans, simulator and gaming platform, as well as enhanced data integration via artificial intelligence – while continuing to work toward our ambitious target of carbon neutrality by 2025. I’m confident that our rescheduled second season will go beyond what we would have been able to deliver this year, and we’re extremely fortunate to have the ongoing support of partners including Rolex, Oracle, ROCKWOOL and our many broadcasters to help us get there.”