May 9 (Reuters) - Australia's BONDS Flying Roos won two of four fleet races on Saturday to share the lead with Spain's Los Gallos after the opening day of the Bermuda SailGP, the fifth round of the 2026 season.
Racing on the Great Sound in SailGP's fourth visit to Bermuda, Australia and Spain finished the day level on 32 points, with the U.S. SailGP Team third on 28. Germany by Deutsche Bank and Canada's NorthStar are tied on 25.
Taylor Canfield's U.S. team won the opening race with a commanding performance from start to finish, ahead of NorthStar and Germany.
Australia, coming off victory in Rio de Janeiro, made a poor start to the day when Tom Slingsby's crew were penalised for fouling Spain and dropped down the fleet.
But the three-times SailGP champions responded by winning race two, ahead of ROCKWOOL Racing and Spain, before Diego Botin's Los Gallos hit back with victory in race three.
Slingsby's crew then won race four to make it two victories from four and move level with Spain at the top of the event leaderboard.
"We had a good day in the end," Slingsby said. "It was a tough first race, but we were able to get back in it. We're happy with a good day. It feels like we're in the hunt at the top."
The Australian team had high-profile support in Bermuda from Ryan Reynolds, who attended the event after becoming a co-owner of the BONDS alongside fellow actor Hugh Jackman in June last year.
Slingsby described Reynolds as "a new member of our family".
France had a difficult day. Stand-in wing trimmer Glenn Ashby was injured while crossing the trampoline at the start of race two, after which they retired and missed race three. However, France made a comeback with Australian reserve Tom Needham stepping in for the last race.
The event concludes on Sunday with more fleet racing before the top three crews contest the final.
(Reporting by Angelica Medina in Mexico City)
