Slingsby's Australians set pace at Bermuda SailGP

Team Australia’s Flying Roo leads the way during day one of the SailGP event in Bermuda.

Tom Slingsby has lauded the character of his Australian crew after they rebounded from a horror crash to be the early pacesetters at the Bermuda SailGP.

Slingsby’s Flying Roo won twice and finished third on the opening day in Bermuda, a return to form after their Christchurch disaster.

In late March, Australia’s boat suffered damage when hitting a mark to avoid a collision in the waters off New Zealand.

Slingsby’s team incurred the most severe penalty in SailGP history, docked 12 event points and eight season points.

The contentious punishment, coupled with major repairs to the Flying Roo, put the pressure on the Australians leading in to Bermuda.

But Slingsby said his crew overcame any possible nerves in true Australian style.

“Christchurch was upsetting for us,” he said.

“It’s the first time we have ever had a collision like that so it probably affected us more than other teams.

“It would have been easy for us to go out there today and hesitate at times and take our foot off the accelerator after what happened.

“But it was quite the opposite, in that whenever we saw an opportunity we took it.

“We didn’t back away and I’m so proud of the team for that.”

The Flying Roo won the opening two races after slick starts.

“It felt like the Australia of old where we get good starts and are then hard to catch,” Slingsby said.

But Slingsby was shoved from second spot to third in the final race by an aggressive move by Denmark’s Nicolai Sehested, who pushed the Australians out of the finish line to snatch the runners-up spot.

“It was a bit odd from Nicolai, you don’t normally really see that sort of aggression from him,” Slingsby said.

“It could be a new side to him. Let’s see.”

Slingsby said while the Australians were in pole position entering the final day’s winner-takes-all podium final they were not taking anything for granted.

“The event is far from over and we need to make that final and work on what we need to do to be effective in that race,” he said.

“New Zealand has had our number this season and we are all aware of that. We are not shying away from that or making excuses.”

The United States team was ruled out of racing, failing to recover from a capsize in official practice racing and suffering significant wingsail damage.