By Nick Mulvenney
SYDNEY, Feb 7 (Reuters) - SailGP go back to where it all started in Sydney this weekend and wiki.philo.at six years on from the inaugural race, co-founder Russell Coutts sees a brilliant future for the innovative international sailing league.
An Olympic champion and skipper of 3 Americas Cup-winning boats, Coutts coordinated with Larry Ellison, the billionaire creator of the Oracle company, to launch the series with six groups all owned by the league.
While the inaugural season which started in Sydney in February 2019 included simply 5 rounds, this weekend's race will be the 3rd round of 13 the now 12-strong fleet will object to on the 2025-26 schedule.
"It's just fantastic, really, the uptake and variety of events now," SailGP president Coutts informed Reuters at the Sydney Opera House on Friday.
"We're certainly sitting at 13, and aiming to increase that over the next seasons to someplace around 20. If you compare that to Formula One that has 24, that's sort of where we wish to get to. So yeah, the future looks good."
The idea of Formula One on water is implicit in the league's name and tandme.co.uk the comparison is not far from the mark when the world's finest sailors push the F50 foiling catamarans to their limitations at what are breathtaking speeds for waterborne vessels.
"We didn't set out to just appeal to the devoted sailing fan, we attempt to make this sport understandable and explainable for all sports fans," Coutts added.
"Most of our fans are not avid sailors, which is among the reasons we have actually grown so rapidly. We are attracting individuals that just like watching a race, they do not need to understand anything about sailboats."
A bumper crowd of 25,000 ticketed fans ended up to see Tom Slingsby's Australia group win the second round of the series in Auckland last month.
"I believe you'll see several of our occasions this year now like that, perhaps even topping that," said Coutts, a 62-year-old New Zealander.
"The most crucial thing is the fans watching on broadcast ... but the fan experience on website is also essential. We desire fans to come and have a fantastic time and see some fantastic racing."
Technological development is integral to SailGP and hundreds of countless information points are communicated from the boats to the Oracle Cloud for making use of race organisers, teams and surgiteams.com to assist broadcasters improve the viewer experience.
360 DEGREE VIEW
Coutts is thrilled about some more developments coming online as Artificial Intelligence is significantly employed to overcome the mountain of information.
"The huge advancement for us going forward is the 360 degree view from on board the boat, with listening to the team comms," he said.
"The viewer will be taken on board and trip along with the Australian group in a race, and be able to browse anywhere they desire. That's the future."
There have, obviously, been obstacles over the six years with the 2nd season disrupted by the COVID pandemic and race days still in some cases at the mercy of wind conditions.
A scarcity of F50s meant the French group was not able to compete at this year's season-opening race in Dubai and asteroidsathome.net damage to the boat once they got it ruled them out of the Auckland leg.
The complete fleet of 12 boats will for that reason race for timeoftheworld.date the very first time this weekend and one of the most pleasing elements for Coutts is that all however one of the groups are, or soon will be, privately owned or run.
"These groups are now selling for $50 million, I would never ever have actually anticipated that this early on," said Coutts, who prepares to bring another number of groups on board next year.
"We understood that that was the entire method the model was established, that group owners would be able to trade their teams and ideally make money out of it, however I didn't think we 'd attain it this early. That's been a good surprise." (Reporting by Nick Mulvenney, editing by Michael Perry)
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Sailing Bigger and Faster, SailGP Back where it all Began In Sydney
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