New Zealand\u2019s Black Foils head into the Spain Sail Grand Prix this weekend looking to build on a steady run of improvement throughout the European leg.<\/p>\n
The team followed a fifth-place finish in Portsmouth with fourth in Sassnitz, where it reached its first event final of the season.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been building each weekend and came very close in Sassnitz,\u201d said Black Foils co-CEO and wing trimmer Blair Tuke. \u201cIt\u2019s nice to make the final, but it\u2019ll be great to make one stick. Everyone\u2019s pretty motivated to put a complete weekend together.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Black Foils used Thursday\u2019s light sea breeze to get their first feel for the new Valencia racecourse, before lining up against rivals in Friday\u2019s official practice racing.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s my first time sailing in Valencia. I\u2019ve watched some pretty important sailing here over the last 20 years, so it was really nice to get out,\u201d Tuke said.<\/p>\n
The forecast points to light winds on Saturday and a light to moderate sea breeze on Sunday, a sharp contrast to the record-breaking speeds seen in Sassnitz.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of SailGP is built on the work you do between events, how quickly you can adapt to new conditions and how you prepare without actually being on the boat,\u201d Tuke said. \u201cYou want to capture the lessons from a windy event like Sassnitz, then pretty quickly we park it and concentrate on these conditions.\u201d<\/p>\n
The fleet again splits into two groups, with the top two from each contesting Sunday\u2019s four-boat final. The Black Foils race in Group A alongside championship leaders Australia\u2019s BONDS Flying Roos, Artemis, Explora Journeys Swiss, Emirates Great Britain, Red Bull Italy and Mubadala Brazil. Home team Los Gallos race in Group B.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s going to be really interesting to see what is probably the first proper light-wind event since we\u2019ve been in group racing,\u201d Tuke said. \u201cI think that\u2019ll show a more open racecourse than what we\u2019ve seen, thinking back to the Middle East events or other light-to-medium regattas.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thursday\u2019s session ended with strategist Liv Mackay driving the F50 for two practice races and reserve strategist Kate Stewart taking Mackay\u2019s usual seat.<\/p>\n
\u201cProbably the highlight was a couple of races at the end with Liv driving and Kate in the strategist role,\u201d Tuke said. \u201cIt\u2019s great to see their growth in those roles and have them ripping the boat around. To have people in other areas builds confidence for the whole group.\u201d<\/p>\n
Valencia is also the final event for shore crew manager Finn Henry, who is leaving the Black Foils after more than four years with the team. Henry and his wife, Amy, are expecting a baby. Henry joined the shore crew in March 2022 and took over as shore team manager in June 2023, helping lead the operation through the loss of Amokura in Auckland and the build of Manawat?t? in Southampton this year.<\/p>\n
A reserve grinder as well as shore manager, Henry also raced for Spain at Taranto in 2023 and for New Zealand at the Season 4 Grand Final in San Francisco in 2024.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been a hell of a ride with this team,\u201d Henry said in the team\u2019s farewell video. \u201cYou\u2019ll never be in a team like that again. It\u2019s a unique thing, it\u2019s special and it can\u2019t be repeated.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tuke also highlighted the breadth of Henry\u2019s contribution to the team.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s been right at the centre of the Black Foils over the last four years, from his role in the shore team through to shore manager and reserve grinder,\u201d Tuke said. \u201cHe\u2019s right in the engine room of the Black Foils. We\u2019re definitely going to miss him, but we wish him very well and I\u2019m very grateful for his contribution to the team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Racing runs from 1.30pm to 3pm local time on Saturday and Sunday, 11.30pm to 1am NZT, live on ThreeNow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New Zealand\u2019s Black Foils head into the Spain Sail Grand Prix this weekend looking to build on a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":81084,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[15738,95],"class_list":["post-81083","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-valencia","tag-sailgp","tag-valencia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81083"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81083\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}