SailGP returns to Southsea Common this July for its second Portsmouth race weekend. Beyond the racing, the event brings expanded hospitality, live music from Jess Glynne and Craig David, and a wider push to bring new audiences to the sport. Sir Ben Ainslie, Dylan Fletcher and Hannah Mills discuss what the weekend means for the team, the sport and the city.
For Sir Ben Ainslie, success in Portsmouth is not just measured by what happens on the water. Of course, the British team wants to win. Racing in front of a home crowd brings a different kind of expectation, and few athletes understand that pressure better than Britain’s most decorated Olympic sailor. But as SailGP prepares to return to Southsea Common this July, Ainslie believes the event represents something bigger than another weekend on the calendar.
The question is no longer whether people will come to watch. It is whether SailGP can build an event people return to year after year.
Last summer, tens of thousands of spectators lined Portsmouth’s waterfront as the championship made its debut in the city. This year, organisers expect another strong turnout, supported by larger spectator areas, expanded hospitality, live entertainment and headline performances from Jess Glynne and Craig David after racing concludes each day.
For a championship that is only six seasons old, Portsmouth has become one of its most important stages. Britain is home to one of sailing’s most successful teams, but the city also gives SailGP a chance to show what it believes the future of the sport looks like.
“SailGP has really been on a huge growth trajectory,” Ainslie says.
“This is now the sixth season, and it has been incredible to see the number of new teams, the number of new events, and the growth in the fan base, both online and at the events themselves.
“So we are really excited by that development and the continued growth of SailGP. It has been brilliant to see it right up there now among the top international sporting competitions.”
The championship now features 13 national teams competing across an expanding international calendar, backed by global partners including Rolex, Emirates, Oracle, DP World and KPMG. Inside the British team, however, the league’s progress is best understood by those who watched it develop from the beginning.
Dylan Fletcher, driver of the Emirates GBR team and Britain’s original SailGP driver back in 2019, still remembers the early conversations.
“I remember in 2018 when we did an announcement at London Bridge with Russell and Andy, and Russell set out the vision of what SailGP would look like,” he says. Russell Coutts is SailGP’s co-founder and CEO, while Andy Thompson, who joined as CFO at launch, is now Managing Director of the league.
“There were a lot of doubters at that time.”
He pauses before reflecting on how much has changed.
“But to be sitting here now, looking at the Portsmouth event with hopefully 20,000 fans in attendance, it is unbelievable to see the rate of growth and to see that vision come to fruition.”
For Fletcher, the changes extend beyond the crowds. The boats have become faster. The calendar has expanded. The opportunities for sailors have grown.
“What I have really seen change is that, although the boats look largely similar, they are actually much faster than they were,” he says.
“For a sailor, racing 13 or 14 times a year is exactly what we want. We want to do more racing. I know Larry’s vision is to have even more events, around 24 a year, just like Formula One.”
Sailors want more racing, and SailGP has grown to think about audiences as much as athletes. Broadcast, digital engagement, commercial partnerships and live experiences have become as much a part of the conversation as performance on the water.
For Ainslie, those strands are impossible to separate.
“Portsmouth is our national race on home waters, so racing in front of a home crowd is massive,” he says.
“For our commercial partners, it is a great opportunity to activate with us and to engage with the people of Portsmouth, the team and the fans.
“That continued growth in the fan base and broadcast audience is really important for any commercial sporting league to be successful.”
There is another side to racing at home, however.
Expectation.
“Always,” Ainslie says, laughing when asked whether the occasion brings extra pressure.
“You always want to perform in front of your home crowd.”
Last year’s event proved that point.
“Portsmouth became a turning point.
“We finished second there, and that set us off on a really strong run of results, which eventually led to us becoming champions at the end of the season.”
Fletcher remembers the atmosphere just as vividly.
“You really can feel the energy,” he says.
“Last year, Hannah and I were saying how much it added to the pressure, but we really felt like we thrived under that pressure.
“Seeing all the fans shouting and screaming, you could hear them from the water, and seeing this huge grandstand was really unbelievable. It is something I never thought I would see or be involved in as a sailor.”
Even before the starting horn sounds, the home crowd has an effect.
“I think it is twofold,” Fletcher says.
“Before the start of the race, it definitely adds to the nerves, but once we get into race mode, it is like the blinkers come on and we are just focused on the racing ahead.”
For Hannah Mills, Emirates GBR’s strategist and one of Britain’s most decorated female Olympic sailors, the feeling immediately brings back memories of another home Games.
“The first time I really experienced racing in front of a home crowd was at the London 2012 Olympic Games,” she says.
“It was one of the most magical experiences I have ever had as an athlete.”
She sees the same feeling in Portsmouth.
“With SailGP coming to Portsmouth last year, we had thousands and thousands of people in the grandstands. There really is nothing like it.
“It adds a lot of pressure because you want to go out there and deliver for the home fans and give everyone something to cheer about.
“But as athletes, we love that.
“There is honestly nothing as special as a home event.”
For SailGP, that home event has become more than an opportunity to race. It has become the place where the championship can demonstrate what it wants to become: a sporting event that people travel to, spend the weekend at and return to each summer.
SailGP’s biggest investment is happening on land as much as on the water.
Sport has become increasingly competitive away from the field of play. Fans are no longer simply buying a ticket to watch a race or a match. They are buying into an experience. Formula One has concerts. Cricket has festivals. Golf has hospitality villages. SailGP is finding its own place in that space, and Portsmouth is where that ambition shows most clearly.
Across the weekend, Southsea Common will become more than a race venue. Alongside the racing, spectators will find waterfront grandstands, hospitality lounges, food and drink outlets, live DJs, interactive fan activations and the official SailGP simulator, while Jess Glynne and Craig David headline the championship’s Après-Sail concerts after racing concludes each day. The VELA Beach Club, introduced this season, adds another layer to the event, combining premium hospitality with race viewing in a more relaxed setting.
This is a deliberate shift in how SailGP wants people to experience the championship. Rather than asking fans to watch a race, it wants them to spend the day, and perhaps the entire weekend, in Portsmouth.
For Sir Ben Ainslie, that thinking is fundamental to the league’s growth.
“We need to make sure we engage with the fans, that they have a great experience, enjoy the racing and enjoy being at these venues,” he says.
“We have many different hospitality options and opportunities for fans to watch the racing in a comfortable environment.”
The venue itself also does much of the work. Unlike many sailing competitions, where the racing often takes place far offshore, SailGP’s racecourses are designed to sit close to land. From Southsea Common, spectators can watch the hydrofoiling F50 catamarans skim across the Solent at speeds of more than 100 kilometres per hour, often passing only metres from the shoreline, so spectators feel part of the race rather than distant observers of it.
“Southsea is an amazing place to watch the racing,” Ainslie says.
“The history of sailing in Portsmouth is huge, so the local community really gets behind the event. The atmosphere is really strong, and all the bars and restaurants are going to be supporting it.
“We also have our team club, called The Fleet, which is a great opportunity for SailGP fans and supporters of Emirates GBR to access more information about the team and enjoy some special benefits.”
For Dylan Fletcher, the atmosphere is something the team feels as much as the spectators do. The racing does not require spectators to understand tactics, wind shifts or boat handling before they can enjoy the spectacle.
For Hannah Mills, SailGP’s biggest success is measured by who turns up, not just by attendance figures or television audiences.
For much of its history, sailing has carried a reputation, fairly or unfairly, as a sport that can feel distant to those without access to clubs, equipment or family connections. Mills believes SailGP has begun to challenge that perception by making the sport easier to follow and easier to experience.
“SailGP has completely transformed the sport,” she says.
“Foiling has really reinvigorated it, especially for young people. SailGP has been a huge part of that transformation with the F50s, the speed and the foiling.”
The biggest change, she says, has happened in the audience.
“We have seen such a huge increase in fans who are not necessarily sailors but who can really relate to and get behind SailGP because it is easy to understand.
“The racing is short, sharp, fast and really engaging. It is close to shore, so people can watch it live, and I honestly think once you have seen it live, you are a fan for life.”
Fletcher agrees.
“I think SailGP has really brought sailing to the mass market,” he says.
“Traditionally, people think of sailing as little white sailboats travelling five or six miles an hour.
“Then you bring these huge wing-sailed boats that travel at more than 100 kilometres per hour, with 13 boats racing together.
“As good as it is on television, seeing it up close at an event is next level.”
The race format helps too.
“You have four races a day, each lasting around eight to ten minutes, which keeps everything exciting and interesting. There is a little break between races too, so it just feels like a really good format for a sport.”
The league hopes that curiosity does not end when spectators leave the venue. Through its Better Sport strategy, SailGP says it has engaged more than 34,000 young people worldwide through participation and education programmes. By 2030, it hopes to reach 100,000 through its Next Generation initiatives while increasing female participation and building a younger audience.
For Mills, those ambitions are already beginning to feel tangible.
“As someone who has grown up sailing, I know what the sport can do for young people,” she says.
“When something goes wrong or the wind changes, you are often on your own in the boat and have to figure things out.
“The resilience, confidence and problem-solving skills you build are incredibly valuable.”
She sees SailGP’s role as extending beyond race weekends.
“We all feel a responsibility to use this platform to encourage and inspire more young people to get out on the water.
“Whether that is sailing, windsurfing, paddleboarding or something else, just getting out on the water is such a unique experience.”
She points to one example that has stayed with her. An inner-city north London school developed its own sailing programme through the determination of one teacher. After connecting with the school, the Emirates GBR team has already welcomed several students for internships and is now looking to expand the programme further.
“The more we can get people from different backgrounds and different parts of the country seeing what is possible,” Mills says, “the more we are going to encourage young people to get out on the water.
“I think that is so important, not just for the sport, but for young people’s wellbeing and mental health, and for showing them what is possible.”
She has already seen attitudes begin to shift.
“You go down to sailing clubs and meet young girls who want to compete at the Olympics, but now they also want to race in SailGP.
“Those opportunities simply were not there when I was growing up. It was just the Olympics.
“Now there are professional opportunities beyond that, and that is amazing to see.”
Portsmouth has become the place where the league tests its biggest ideas. Can sailing pull in a whole new audience? Can a race weekend become somewhere people actually want to spend their time? And can young people who have never seen themselves in this sport start to picture a place for themselves in it?
For Mills, that is ultimately the measure that matters.
“The more we can get people from different backgrounds and different parts of the country seeing what is possible,” she says, “the more we are going to encourage young people to get out on the water.”
As SailGP’s ambitions come to life, visitors will remember more than who won the racing. They will remember the atmosphere along the seafront, the crowds on Southsea Common, the music once the boats come in, and perhaps a sport they had not expected to enjoy.
For a championship trying to reach beyond its traditional audience, that might be the biggest win of all.
The Emirates Great Britain Sail Grand Prix returns to Portsmouth on 25 and 26 July. Tickets are on sale now at TicketsSailGP.com/Portsmouth
