With just 50 days remaining until the Canada Sail Grand Prix in Halifax, the NorthStar SailGP Team is eagerly anticipating the opportunity to compete in front of Canadian fans and race in home waters for one of the marquee events of the 2026 Rolex SailGP Championship.
Most people who lined the Halifax waterfront in June 2024 had no idea how close Canada came to not having a team to cheer for at all.
When SailGP prepared to expand its roster ahead of Season 5, the league was running out of equipment. Something had to give. One of the league-owned teams had to be dissolved. Canada was on that list.
What happened next is the kind of story that sounds like it was written for a documentary.
Phil Kennard, who would become NorthStar’s CEO, knew sailing. He knew SailGP. And he knew an opportunity when he saw one.
Greg Bailey, a Toronto biotech entrepreneur and former emergency physician, had been shopping around the biggest sports properties in the world. Formula 1. The NBA. The Premier League. He was looking for the right fit, something he could own and shape, not just invest in passively.
“I think SailGP is going places,” Kennard told Bailey. “It’s genuinely differentiated. It’s not a new form of boxing or a racket game. This is new and exciting.”
Bailey was interested, but he wasn’t interested in being a silent partner.
“He said, I don’t really want to be a minority partner. I want to have a say in how a team is run,” Kennard recalled. “So I said, why don’t we go and speak to SailGP themselves and see what’s available?”
What was available was the Canadian team. For Bailey, a proud Torontonian, the decision was straightforward. They started the offer paperwork the day after the 2024 Halifax race, with the energy of 50,000 fans still hanging over the harbour.
Canada had a team. NorthStar was born.
“All the stars — the NorthStars — were lining up, if you like,” Kennard said. “It’s been a wild ride ever since.”
The team that almost didn’t exist returns to Halifax Harbour on June 20 and 21, 2026. Tickets are available at sailgp.com/halifax.
Haligonia is not a media outlet, and we do not employ journalists.
#00
