Black Foils, New Zealand SailGP Team during a New Zealand Sail Grand Prix, Auckland practice session on the Waitematā Harbour, Auckland, New Zealand on Friday 17 January 2025. Photo: Alan Lee / www.photosport.nz
New Zealand were left feeling frustrated after failing to qualify for the final of the San Francisco SailGP round, to now sit fourth on the overall championship standings.
The Black Foils came eighth in Monday's first fleet race before finishing strongly with a third and first in the final fleet races, to finish fifth overall.
On the first day, slow starts cost them with the New Zealand crew coming fourth, eighth, sixth and third.
Coming into the San Francisco round, New Zealand were third in the overall championship but Spain have jumped ahead of them after winning today's final.
Canada came second today and sit fifth on the standings. Australia now lead the standings, just ahead of Great Britain, despite coming unstuck in the final fleet race.
As they approached the starting line, the wingsail of their F50 foiling catamaran collapsed on top of the Australian team, sending them into salvage mode and ruling them out of the event.
There have been five different winners across the same number of events in the season so far.
The New Zealand SailGP team did not have any problem with pace, picking up the prize for fastest speed in San Francisco but need to work on their starts.
Black Foils driver Peter Burling said it was disappointing that it took until the last two races to put out strong performances.
"We're a little frustrated to be honest. When we put it all together, we were there this weekend, but not quite enough to get into the final. It wasn't meant to be," Burling said.
"The team did a great job working through the issues yesterday [frozen wing screens] and staying in touch with the leaders. After a poor first race today we really rallied."
The next regatta is in Rio De Janeiro in May.
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