RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil, April 11 (Reuters) - Sweden's Artemis won the first-ever SailGP race in South America on Saturday but struggled later and finished third after day one of the Brazilian event behind current SailGP leaders Australia's Bonds Flying Roos and the U.S. SailGP Team.
Helmed by America's Cup winner Nathan Outteridge, Artemis won the opening race in Rio de Janeiro's Guanabara Bay, with the Sugarloaf Mountain providing the backdrop, and finished second in the next race. The Swedish newcomers, though, struggled in the second half of the day, finishing sixth and ninth.
"Today was very tricky. It wasn't as windy as we thought it was, and if you could get the boat foiling you were away," Outteridge told Reuters.
"Our first two races were awesome, but then we struggled with the starts in the next two races and then had to battle from there. But overall, a good day,"
Three-times SailGP champions and current championship leaders Australia finished the day in first place despite not winning a race, posting a second and two thirds as their best results. Spain's Los Gallos, Red Bull Italy and Germany's Deutsche Bank won the other races of the day.
The Rio event will be decided on Sunday, when three more fleet races will be held before the top three teams from the weekend face off in the event final, a deciding race that crowns the stage winner.
The Brazilian boat, helmed by twice Olympic sailing champion Martine Grael — who won one of her gold medals in the same Rio waters in 2016 — had a tough home debut, sitting out the first two races due to a telemetry issue before finishing the day in 10th place among 12 competing teams.
Last year, SailGP cancelled the Rio event scheduled for May after identifying a defect in select wingsails in the F50 fleet. The issue emerged after the Australian boat's wing collapsed in San Francisco, prompting further testing and analysis.
SailGP is an international competition featuring high-speed races in identical F50 foiling catamarans capable of exceeding 100 kph (60 mph). The league pits national teams against each other in a series of regattas at iconic locations worldwide.
(Reporting by Pedro Fonseca; Editing by Ken Ferris)
