Spain’s Los Gallos won the Canada Sail Grand Prix in Halifax on June 21, claiming the first four-boat final in SailGP history before a near-capacity crowd of about 6,000 ticketed fans on Sunday, with many more packed along Halifax Harbour. The win marked the first event victory of the season for Los Gallos, the 2023-24 series champions, who beat Sweden’s Artemis Racing in a final that went to the wire. The Explora Journeys Swiss team took third and Australia’s Bonds Flying Roos finished fourth.
Canada’s NorthStar team gave the home fans plenty to cheer, led by driver Giles Scott, strategist Annie Haeger and Halifax native Billy Gooderham, the team’s flight controller, racing on his own harbour. Scott, who won the 2024 Halifax event while sailing for Britain, steered the crew to seventh overall in front of more than 12,000 ticketed spectators across the weekend, who gave the team one of the warmest welcomes on the SailGP calendar.
Thirteen teams raced identical F50 foiling catamarans capable of more than 100 km/h. Expecting strong wind, the race committee made a late call to split the fleet into two groups seeded by championship standings, fitting the smaller 24-metre wing and the heavy-weather boards and rudders. Points were awarded on a 5-4-3-2-1-0 scale within each group, with the top two from each advancing to the final. The strong wind never fully arrived, so much of the weekend’s racing was non-foiling, and one race had to be abandoned and rerun. Group A held Australia, Spain, France, Denmark, Canada, Brazil and New Zealand, while Group B held Britain, the United States, Sweden’s Artemis, Germany, Italy and Switzerland.
Day 1, Saturday June 20
Light, shifting wind set the tone. Group A could not make the finish time limit at its shortened first attempt and had to come back for another go. On the rerun, Tom Slingsby’s Australian Flying Roos won ahead of Diego Botín’s Los Gallos, with Peter Burling’s New Zealand Black Foils third. The Black Foils’ pace stood out, since they were back after a layoff of about four months following a February collision with the French team in Auckland that injured several crew members. Australia then won the second Group A race as well, this time ahead of New Zealand and France, after Brazil’s Paul Goodison started well and the lead changed hands several times.
Group B produced a standout run from Switzerland. Sebastien Schneiter’s Explora Swiss team won the opening race ahead of Artemis and Germany, after the United States and Switzerland both started strongly. In the second Group B race, Nathan Outteridge’s Artemis took the win, with Emirates GBR second after finishing sixth in the first race, and Switzerland third. By the end of Saturday, Australia had swept Group A, and Artemis and Switzerland had split the Group B wins.
Day 2, Sunday June 21
Sunday brought the conditions the teams had been waiting for. The breeze began at around 27 km/h, right on the upper limit for the 27.5-metre wingsail and light-air foils, with the fleet balancing outright speed against survival. Each group ran two more races before the final.
The day had its share of damage. Emirates GBR did not compete on Sunday after its boat was damaged in pre-race practice laps. Brazil also bowed out, crashing into a leeward gate mark in Sunday’s racing and taking a four-point penalty for the damage.
Artemis kept its form on the water, winning the opening Group B race of the day, its second victory in three Halifax starts. The real drama came in the fight for the last spots in the final. Peter Burling’s New Zealand Black Foils overtook Spain on the water to keep their own hopes alive, but Los Gallos did just enough, holding off a charging ROCKWOOL Denmark by barely half a metre, to claim the last place in the final ahead of New Zealand. The Black Foils ended the weekend fifth overall, collecting their first points of the season.
That set up the four-boat final between Australia, Spain, Sweden’s Artemis and Switzerland. Spain rounded the first mark just ahead of Switzerland before the boats split on a tactical upwind leg. Artemis surged into the lead on leg five, only for Botín to strike back immediately, with a decisive pass on leg six that Artemis could not answer. Explora Swiss took third and the Flying Roos were fourth.
Los Gallos driver Diego Botín, quoted in a SailGP release, said: “It feels amazing. The team has really good momentum with every decision, every race we’ve been able to sail. We need this confidence going forward and we’re improving all the time. It’s been a long time coming, obviously. Not easy. The risk was high, but it paid off.”
Spain’s win ended the Flying Roos’ bid for a fourth consecutive event victory, though Australia still leads the 2026 season, 18 points clear of Spain and Emirates GBR, who are tied.
NorthStar came away from its home regatta on a high, lifted by the energy on the waterfront. Speaking in the same SailGP release, NorthStar driver Giles Scott said: “I’m just so, so glad for everyone in Halifax that the weather played ball today and that we were able to have an epic day of racing. It was amazing to be a part of. It’s a bit disappointing that we couldn’t climb any higher given our result yesterday, but it is what it is. We’ve ended on a high today.”
NorthStar strategist Annie Haeger added: “The support we’ve had for this event has been unbelievable. There were people on every level of the buildings all along the waterfront. Everybody is so excited to support us, and we really feel that energy. There’s a lot of pressure to perform at a home event because you want to put on a good show, so we’re happy that we were able to do that.”
With the Canada Sail Grand Prix already confirmed to return to Halifax on May 15 and 16, 2027, Scott, Gooderham and the rest of the crew will be back for another run at a home result, in front of a crowd that has clearly taken to the team.
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