Australia beats Spain and Germany to win SailGP Bermuda final
Slingsby’s Roos won Bermuda by 14 seconds and opened a 10-point lead, with the final decided by cleaner starts and tighter boat handling than anyone else.
Australia did more than win the SailGP Bermuda final. Tom Slingsby’s BONDS Flying Roos turned the Great Sound into a template race, beating Spain’s Los Gallos and Germany by Deutsche Bank in the winner-takes-all final and crossing 14 seconds ahead of Spain. It was Australia’s third event victory of the 2026 season, and the second straight weekend they have left the fleet chasing their wake.
The key was not top-end speed alone. Australia owned the start from the middle of the line, then kept building the margin around a compact course that punished any small mistake. In lighter air, the F50s were less forgiving, and that made clean execution the separator. Slingsby said the turnaround came down to better starts and sharper execution, and the conditions, 13 to 17 knots with flat water, were exactly the sort of environment where every lane choice and every angle on the foils mattered.
That matters because the standings now show a real gap, not just a hot streak. Australia moved to 45 points after Bermuda, 10 clear of Emirates GBR on 35 and three ahead of Los Gallos on 34. Bermuda was event 5 of 13 on the 2026 calendar, with New York up next on May 30-31 before the circuit moves on to Halifax, Portsmouth, Sassnitz, Valencia, Geneva, Dubai and Abu Dhabi. The early-season message is obvious: Australia is not just winning races, it is controlling the championship shape.
The rivals had chances and did not cash them in. Emirates GBR, which entered the weekend second overall, missed the final and said it “left a lot on the table,” with unstable breeze and manoeuvre errors blunting strong starts. Hannah Mills said dirty air made it difficult to stay on the foils, a familiar problem on a course where one bad decision can pin a boat in the wrong lane. NorthStar Canada hovered near the mix but finished sixth, while the United States faded badly on day two after a strong opening, with Taylor Canfield pointing to poor speed and poor manoeuvring.
That is the real blueprint for Australia’s run: starts that put Slingsby’s crew in control, boat handling that keeps the F50 flying when the breeze gets tricky, and a crew that rarely panics when the race tightens. Slingsby also had something extra in Bermuda, where he lived for three years while preparing for the 35th America’s Cup with Oracle Team USA. Spain had already won a Bermuda final in an earlier season, so the venue has never been a pure speed test. It has been a pressure cooker, and right now Australia is handling it better than anyone else.
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