Boats that fly 100 kilometers: this is the Formula 1 of the sea

Nine ships challenge each other in the waters of the port of Copenhagen.

They are F50 flying catamarans, an adaptation of the AC50s that sailed in 2017 in the Bermuda Islands America's Cup, designed to reach 100 kilometers per hour and quadruple the wind speed.

Soon they will measure forces if nature allows it.

Yesterday they tried, but the wind never came, and the nine teams competing in SailGP (New Zealand, Sweden, Denmark, Spain, USA, France, Australia, Great Britain and Japan) had to return to land.

Today, for everyone's peace of mind, the windmills that surround the port do not stop moving and everything indicates that there will be a regatta.

At his home in Madrid, the journalist Nico Abad puts on his headphones and prepares to narrate an almost unknown competition.

People who are not expert in sailing, but love speed, are won over by telling them that it is the formula 1 of the sea.

“You don't have to know how to enjoy SailGP because it's a speed competition.

We are all learning."

Abad has had to study to be the voice in Spanish for this Grand Prix.

“If in MotoGP you have to know trauma because they are always on the ground, here you have to learn fluid physics and aerodynamics”, he points out.

Abad receives the signal from London and puts a voice to the images that a filmmaker punctures, then everything is sent back and broadcast in Spanish through SailGP's geolocated YouTube channel.

"No big chain is betting on this event and I think it's a mistake,"

The competition takes place very close to the shore, so that the public can even hear the shouts of the crews.Jordi Adrià

Start the race.

They don't want to be called a regatta.

They do not speak of knots, but of kilometers;

there is no rudder, but a wheel, and they prefer to call the sail a wing.

The crew, almost all Olympic medalists and America's Cup competitors, get the terms wrong and self-correct all the time.

Later, Russell Coutts, CEO of SailGP, will explain to

: "We want to be

and for that we have to speak their traditional nautical language, but to grow we have to make this sport more understandable."

SailGP was created by Russell Coutts and Larry Ellison, co-founder of Oracle.

The first season was held in 2019 with six teams and Spain entered the second (2021-2022), replacing the Chinese team.

Coutts says that to create it he was inspired by other great competitions such as the NBA and the UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship).

"We like its short and agile formats, more aligned with the consumption habits of young people."

In their heads they had a great global sailing competition, with maximum audience and in spectacular locations.

This year they have already passed through Bermuda, Chicago, Plymouth, Copenhagen and Saint-Tropez.

Jordi Xammar (on the right), driver and leader of the Spanish team, and Florian Trittel.Jordi Adrià

The Spanish crew goes in the F-50 Victoria —a tribute to the ship that made the first circumnavigation of the world—;

Jordi Xammar, the pilot, has managed to bring together the scattered talent of a generation that competed separately in Olympic sailing.

"Until now, Spain was not among an elite that seemed exclusive to the Anglo-Saxons," he says with satisfaction.

In this "Anglo-Saxon" elite there are authentic sailing legends like Tom Slingsby, in the Australian team, or Ben Ainslie, in the Great Britain team.

María del Mar de Ros, CEO of the Spanish team, recalls that in 2017 the Spaniards traveled to Bermuda for the Red Bull Youth America's Cup. “They hitchhiked, slept eight in a bed and asked for autographs from those idols who five years later became their rivals."

Among the objectives of María del Mar is to seek solid sponsorship.

In SailGP the boats are not owned by the teams, but by the organization.

This means that they are all exactly the same.

“No one can say that they have lost by the boat.

Here the human factor, the strategy and the skill of the crew decide,” says Cyrille Douillet, performance analyst at SailGP.

He is an expert in interpreting navigation data and this event is a luxury for him.

“In the America's Cup the boats are secret, here everything is uploaded to a shared cloud, from the speed and height of the flight to the conversations of each crew”.

The foils make the boat take off.

Mounting and dismounting them is a ritual shared by the entire crew.Jordi Adrià

Xammar is one of those who do not sleep consulting the data of those who manage to make the podium, especially from Australia, the great favorite.

On the one hand, he analyzes the strategy: how to find the best point to exit;

on the other, he copies the tactic: where to position himself to go faster and annoy the others.

Thus he has designed the good exits from Spain in Bermuda and Chicago.

Xammar won a medal at Tokyo 2020, but insists: "This has nothing to do with Olympic sailing, it's like taking a spaceship, and I have less experience piloting ships that fly, although data is a brutal tool, you learn a lot quickly watching the elite sailors”.

The Spanish ship, in Copenhagen.Jordi Adrià

Diego Botín is the flight controller of the Spanish team.

"The boat takes off and my job is to get to fly faster and higher, I have to find the best angle to get as little friction as possible with the water."

Diego is runner-up in the 49er class world alongside Florian Trittel, crew wing trimmer.

He is in charge of the numbers of a parallel league that is played in this World Cup, the one with low environmental impact.

Each team must achieve carbon neutrality;

In addition, they must advance inclusion and diversity.

Spain has incorporated three women.

“Ideally, we should be vegans, but at the moment we are conscious consumers”, explains Trittel, who did not want to get his hair wet the day before the race because he had to weigh himself.

"We can't get over 1,000 pounds between the six of us."

They weigh them before each championship;

if they don't give the measures, they have a second chance with one night every other to correct it.

"That night you don't eat," she warns.

Another method is to ask who has not been to the toilet.

"There can be up to 1.4 kilos of difference because someone has not gone to the bathroom," she says.

During the race, Trittel is seen jumping from one side of the catamaran to the other.

They talk to each other all the time, but insults are prohibited.

Your mission is to trim the wing;

that is, to adjust the profile of the sail to the flow of the wind, which is usually very unstable.

Trittel is seen jumping from one side of the catamaran to the other.

They talk to each other all the time, but insults are prohibited.

Your mission is to trim the wing;

that is, to adjust the profile of the sail to the flow of the wind, which is usually very unstable.

Trittel is seen jumping from one side of the catamaran to the other.

They talk to each other all the time, but insults are prohibited.

Your mission is to trim the wing;

that is, to adjust the profile of the sail to the flow of the wind, which is usually very unstable.

Sir Russell Coutts, CEO of SailGP.Jordi Adrià

Spain has not done well in Copenhagen.

They have allied all possible enemies, including a huge cruiser that left them without wind.

Nico Abad did not see the Spanish ship on the international signal.

“You also have to know how to tell that you're last because that's the beauty of sport, people who have problems and have to solve them”.

This weekend they compete at home.

Cadiz will be the next destination.

The technical base of the Spanish team is installed in some containers that will serve to transport the boats.Jordi Adrià

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