Ace knows racing won’t be breeze

ONE of Australia’s most decorated sailors, Tom Slingsby, likes big weather, but the storm front facing the SailGP fleet at Cowes this weekend may pose a few problems.

Slingsby, who skippers the Australia F50 catamaran in the $1 million SailGP series, is vying with fellow Australian, Nathan Outteridge, who heads the Japan boat for overall honours, with just this weekend’s racing off the Isle of Wight and the Marseilles finale to wrap up the season.

Outteridge heads the leaderboard on 140 points with Slingsby on 139.

The two would be tied if not for a one-point penalty Slingsby received for contact with Outteridge at the New York event.

The Cowes forecast is for winds of 60km/h and gusts much higher. If the racing goes ahead the fastest time set by the boats in training will be under threat. Earlier this week at training the British team, with Dylan Fletcher at the helm, were the first to smash 50 knots, clocking 50.22 knots — equivalent to 93km/h.

“We’re always trying to push the boundaries, and to be honest, it feels pretty wicked to get a notch up on Tom Slingsby,” Fletcher said. Slingsby thought he had broken the mark in San Francisco, where he outfoxed Outteridge by just one point.

The 34-year-old said the racing at Cowes promised to be extremely challenging.

“There will be a lot of wind, potentially too much, though competitively I don’t mind, it makes the racing even more exciting,’’ he said. “At the moment Nathan and I are head to head and there are two more events to sort it out.’’