Tom Slingsby returned from paternity leave to find himself as the senior statesman of SailGP, ready to keep pushing Team Australia toward another big payday while also challenging the younger skippers to step it up in the global league. Slingsby is back at the wheel of Team Australia's “Flying Roo” foiling catamaran for SailGP's debut in Abu Dhabi on Saturday and Sunday at the midpoint of Season 4. Since that regatta, star skippers Jimmy Spithill and Ben Ainslie have announced their retirements from racing in the 10-team league.
Fill-in skipper Jimmy Spithill steered Team Australia's “Flying Roo” foiling catamaran to finishes of third, first and third Saturday and into the lead of the Emirates Dubai Sail Grand Prix. The three-time defending SailGP champion Aussies are in position for their first regatta win of Season 4. Despite not having a victory this season, they came into this regatta with a seven-point lead in the season standings of tech tycoon Larry Ellison's global league.
Spithill is filling in as helmsman of Team Australia's “Flying Roo” foiling catamaran while friend and countryman Tom Slingsby is on paternity leave. Spithill left Team USA two weeks ago ahead of the announcement that it had been sold to a private American group whose investors include Alabama linebacker Dallas Turner and actress Issa Rae. “No question, I’d love to go out and absolutely smoke those guys,” Spithill said Friday.
Former Team USA CEO and skipper Jimmy Spithill will take the wheel of Team Australia's “Flying Roo” foiling catamaran in SailGP's Dubai regatta on Dec. 9-10 while friend and countryman Tom Slingsby is on paternity leave. Slingsby's wife, Helena, is expecting the couple's first child. Spithill, a two-time America's Cup champion, is available to fill in for Slingsby after leaving Team USA prior to its sale to a private American group on Wednesday.