Canada’s NorthStar looks to make its mark Down Under as SailGP starts sixth season

The 2026 Rolex SailGP Championship opens this weekend in Australia, kicking off a five-continent, 13-race season that includes a June 20-21 stop in Halifax.

NorthStar carries Canada colours in the field of 13 F50 catamarans chasing a total purse of US$12.8 million. Each stop features seven races with the top three crews then facing off for podium positions.

The Canadian entry, which is entering its fourth season on the circuit, had a roller-coaster 2024-25 campaign. NorthStar finished seventh in the opening race in Dubai after an equipment problem and had to settle for 10th in Auckland, missing the last three races of the event after flight controller Billy Gooderham was injured on the water.

The team then rebounded to finish second in Sydney, first in Los Angeles and second in San Francisco before dipping to place seventh in New York, eighth in Portsmouth, England, eighth in Sassnitz, Germany, 10th in Saint-Tropez, ninth in Geneva and 10th in Cadiz, Spain.

The team rallied to finish fourth in the season-ending stop in Abu Dhabi.

NorthStar finished sixth overall with Britain’s Emirates GBR topping the season standings and winning the Grand Final, ahead of Australia’s Bonds Flying Roos and New Zealand’s Black Foils.

Canadian grinder Tom Ramshaw is optimistic about NorthStar’s outlook this season.

“During the back half of last season, we are actually improving quite a lot,” he said Wednesday from Perth. “We just kind of made a few little errors here and there that just kept our results from showing (it).

“And I think we’ve done a really good job of adjusting that. We can feel that in the team. We feel like we can be a top team any time we can put it together … I think we’re in a really good place.”

The six-person SailGP crews feature a driver, flight controller, wing trimmer, strategist and two grinders.

Together they control a 15-metre catamaran that can reach 100 km/h thanks to hydrofoils that allow the boat to reduce drag by flying above the water.

“It’s a wild experience,” said Ramshaw. “I remember the first time I got on the boat. You’re lifting high up above the water and the water’s passing by super-fast. But you get desensitized to it and that just becomes your regular racing.”

This weekend could be especially wild thanks to the Fremantle Doctor, a powerful summer sea breeze seen every afternoon (the doctor nickname comes from the relief it offers from the summer sun.)

Such high winds — in excess of 20 knots on the first practice day — take a toll. 

“The waves make it extremely challenging, very bumpy,” said Ramshaw. “Much like skiing down moguls versus a nice groomed track.”

NorthStar’s driver is Giles Scott, who won gold for Britain in the Finn Class at the 2016 and 2020 Olympics but also holds a Canadian passport, having spent part of his childhood in Canada.

As a grinder, Ramshaw has the back-breaking job of turning the winches that create the energy for trimming the wing sail. A two-time Olympian in the Finn Class, the Toronto native has been a constant with the Canadian team entering its fourth season.

The team with the most points at the end of the season wins $400,000. But the big prize sees the three highest-scoring entries at the end of the season competing in the SailGP Grand Final, with the winning team awarded the championship and a $2-million prize.

The circuit returns to Canada after selling out the 2024 Halifax race in just 12 minutes,

SailGP’s field is filled with sailing’s elite.

“It’s the best of the best,” said Ramshaw. “For a sailor, I think it’s the most fun high-level sailing you can do. So if you’ve got a top-level sailing resume, this is where you’re going to want to put yourself. It attracts the best sailors and you get some super high-performance racing in these incredible boats.”

The boats are identical, putting the onus on the crews to differentiate themselves.

The Canadian entry’s future ahead of the 2025 season was in doubt until bought by Toronto’s Greg Bailey, a former emergency physician turned biotech entrepreneur.

Each stop is essentially a series of seven sprints, with the top three crews competing for the podium at the end. The boats compete in 90-minute windows, which normally fits in some four races (averaging around 10-11 minutes). Length of the course depends on the wind.

Starts are all-important, with specialist coaches looking to help their teams get the best jump.

“That’s a huge part of the race, because once you get ahead, you don’t have to deal with avoiding other boats as much. So the path becomes a little easier, barring any mistakes,” said Ramshaw.

The SailGP circuit has grown from five teams and six stops in the inaugural 2019 campaign to 13 teams and 13 stops.

Sweden’s Artemis Racing will make its debut in the weekend opener, officially known as the Oracle Perth Sail Grand Prix presented by KPMG. It marks SailGP’s 50th race since its inception in 2018.

The boats are broken down, packed into containers and shipped to the next race.

Like Formula One, “it’s pretty much a travelling circus,” said Ramshaw.

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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 14, 2026.