SailGP: Northstar Continues to Face Challenges

April 23, 2026

Canada’s NorthStar SailGP Team finished 10th overall after a challenging weekend of racing on Guanabara Bay at the Enel Rio Sail Grand Prix held April 11-12.

While NorthStar demonstrated some moments of strong boat speed the team were unable to string together the consistency required to climb the leaderboard. The competition continues to be tough; fine margins across the fleet meant that any errors proved costly over the course of the event.

Driver Giles Scott said: “We’ve put a lot of changes in place, but  this ended up being a pretty frustrating weekend.  We’ve got a bit of a deadlock in the run of results we’ve had lately and although we have implemented some positive changes, they have not come to fruition and shown on the scorecard yet. We just have to try to break that deadlock next time.”

BONDS Flying Roos SailGP Team driven by Tom Slingsby ahead of Red Bull Italy SailGP Team driven by Phil Robertson ahead of United States SailGP Team driven by Taylor Canfield and NORTHSTAR SailGP Team driven by Giles Scott as they sail past Christ the Redeemer and the Rio de Janeiro skyline during a practice session, ahead of the ENEL Rio Sail Grand Prix in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Friday 10 April 2026. Rolex SailGP Championship Event 4 2026 Season. Photo: Jason Ludlow for SailGP. Handout image supplied by SailGP

The Rio event presented a shifty racecourse, conditions placing a premium on clean starts and decision-making. CEO and Team Principal Phil Kennard stated: “This wasn’t the result we were aiming for, but it’s part of the process of building a competitive team. We know we’ve got a road ahead of us, we will debrief and aim to come back stronger at the next event.”

The team now turns its focus to Bermuda, the next event on the SailGP calendar on 9-10 May, After that the next stop is a home game, the Canada Sail Prix on 20-21 June in Halifax.

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