Sail GP Portsmouth
It was an unforgettable weekend of high-speed, close-to-shore racing and world-class entertainment for around 20,000 ticketed fans across the two days of action.
Set on the waters of the Solent, Southsea Common transformed into the ultimate waterfront Race Stadium party – roaming music, country flags flying high, and F50 fly-by’s only meters from the shoreline. The Emirates Great Britain Sail Grand Prix | Portsmouth kicked off the European leg of events and marked the seventh stop of the 2025 Season calendar. The event featured two days of 12-team fleet racing, culminating in a winner-takes-all, three-boat Final.
Serving as Portsmouth’s debut, all 12 national teams took part in the global racing championship’s return to the UK after a three year hiatus.
Unforgettable waterside entertainment didn’t end after the racing concluded, SailGP’s Après-Sail experience featured bespoke performances from British popstar Tom Grennan and DJ Pete Tong on Saturday and Sunday respectively.
Spain, Australia and New Zealand topped the championship leaderboard as the weekend of racing started.
After a disappointing eighth-place finish in New York, Emirates GBR Driver Dylan Fletcher said the team would be looking for redemption – and a welcome boost from home crowd support. “We didn’t bring our A game [in New York and San Francisco] and we’ve spent a lot of time analyzing and working on that,” said Fletcher. “The SailGP season is long and we said at the start that it’s going to be up and down. Hopefully we’ve had our bad events, put them under the rug and from here it will be all the way to the top.”
Day one result for Emirates GBR – First, second, third, second.
Emirates Great Britain SailGP Team driver, Dylan Fletcher said: “The team’s been working really hard, obviously there have been some really disappointing results in the last events – and it’s really nice to have a good Saturday. It was a tricky race course, but it seemed like if you knew what way to go, it was easy. It was a really good job by the team today, and nice to finally have a good day for everyone.”
Reflecting on the electric grandstands, Emirates GBR SailGP Team strategist, Hannah Mills said: “It’s so cool to have a home event, and just have all your friends and family come and see in real life what it is to do, rather than on a TV screen. It’s really, really special when you come off the water and you’ve got your family there to say well done or commiserate with it’s amazing.”
Before racing officially began, Quentin Delapierre’s France SailGP Team suffered a setback with a wing incident during practice, ruling them out of the day’s racing.
Watch back day one racing on the Sail GP YouTube channel.
Emirates GBR clocked top speed of the day at over 83.5 km/h.
Day two results for Emirates GBR – third, sixth, seventh then second in the race final.
It was not to be for Dylan Fletcher’s Emirates Great Britain SailGP Team though as Peter Burling’s Black Foils cinched victory in Portsmouth, bumping New Zealand to the top of the 2025 Season leaderboard.
Emirates GBR came away with a respectable second-place, while Sebastian Schneiter’s Swiss SailGP Team finished third in the team’s first-ever event final.
Emirates GBR Hannah Mills reflected: “Obviously, we’re pretty gutted not to win. We felt like this weekend, everyone was sailing so well, so to not quite manage to do it in the final is obviously super disappointing. But I think as a team, we’re just so proud of how we bounced back after a couple of rough events. And just to do it here, we’re so very proud – we hear how loud it was, it was amazing.”
Watch back day two racing on the Sail GP YouTube channel.
Emirates GBR is led by the most successful Olympic sailor of all-time, Sir Ben Ainslie, as CEO.
Sail GP is high-speed, high-tech racing with teams all using identical 50-foot foiling catamarans that can reach over 60mph. Seven races take place over two days – four on day one and three on day two. The top three then enter a winner-takes-all race to determine the finalist.
For all the latest details on the 2026 Portsmouth event – plus access to behind-the-scenes content, members-only offers, and exclusive competitions – sign-up to SailGP+ at SailGP.com. Existing & new members can then log in to SailGP+ via the red button top right of SailGP.com.
The most exciting racing on water heads to its next European destination for the first-ever Germany event in the global championship’s history – taking place in Sassnitz on August 16-17, 2025. With just under one month until the inaugural Germany Sail Grand Prix | Sassnitz – tickets are available for purchase at SailGP.com/Tickets. A top prize of USD$12 million is at stake, as well as national pride.
The event will return to Portsmouth in July 2026.
