The United States has been taking full advantage of the league’s pre-season training camp in Bermuda, resulting in ‘massive gains’ throughout the team, said driver Taylor Canfield.
The team, which debuted a fresh crew line-up last season after an ownership change, is one of four select teams gaining valuable hours on the water in Bermuda. These include the U.S., ROCKWOOL DEN, Germany and Brazil, the latter of which will debut next season. Only one F50 is being used in Bermuda, with teams splitting time on the water.
Canfield said the camp had allowed the team to focus on a number of goals, including testing out the in-development T-Foils, which will be introduced to the whole fleet next season.
The T-Foils require the F50s to ‘be sailed quite differently’, Canfield said, resulting in ‘a lot of processes and settings on the boat changing drastically’.
The team has been ‘splitting time’ between ‘race training and boat handling’. Race training consists of ‘sailing around the track with boundaries’ and focusing on ‘getting around the course in the best tactical way possible’. During boat handling training, the team shifts its attention to ‘sailing the boat most effectively in all possible maneuvers’, as well as ‘testing different modes’.
The experience, Canfield said, is ‘unbelievably valuable’.
“Our growth trajectory is still much greater than the other teams. There is no doubt we will be even stronger after this camp, but also know that we have a lot more to learn and to come,” he said. “So we have a process and a plan in place to make sure we are continuing to push forward each day we get sailing.”
Elsewhere, the team has been using the training camp as an opportunity to expand its crew roster and ‘give some young Americans the opportunity to start getting their feet wet in SailGP’.
This has seen 2024 Olympic bronze medalist Hans Henken, Scott Ewing, Malcolm Lamphere, Leo Boucher, Stephan Baker, Justin Callahan, and Tommy Sitzmann train alongside last season’s full time on-water line up; Taylor Canfield, Anna Weis, Mike Buckley, Mac Agnese, Jeremey Wilmot, and Peter Kinney.
“This will allow us to plan for the future of the team and have contingencies if we need to make a change during the season,” Canfield said.
Alongside the pre-training camp, the team continues to follow ‘strict physical training plans’ provided by its head performance coach Craig McFarlane and team sponsor Red Bull, as well as ’mental coaching, nutrition and team building’. As well as this, the team continues to have weekly calls analyzing past on-water performances. “There are huge gains to be made analyzing some of the teams that have been sailing these boats for over 10 years,’ Canfield said.
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