COME next January, the waters of East Coast Park will come alive with an action-packed sailing event never before seen in this part of the world. Singapore is the first country in Asia to host a leg of the Sail Grand Prix (SailGP) hydrofoiling series, with the Republic being the venue for the eighth stop of the 11-leg season.

The event, supported by the Singapore Tourism Board, marks the start of a 3-year deal that will see the league’s hydrofoiling F50 catamarans hit the waters in Singapore for the first time. The 9 teams in this third and current season are from Canada, Switzerland, Australia, Britain, Denmark, France, New Zealand, Spain and the United States. The sailors race one another at speeds of nearly 100 km/h, with the overall winner set to scoop up a US$1 million prize at the grand finale in San Francisco next May.

The Singapore Sail Grand Prix - as the event is known - will take place on the weekend of Jan 14-15, 2023. It will be broadcast live in 186 territories through SailGP’s broadcast partnerships, as well as across various digital platforms including the official SailGP mobile app.

Earlier this week, BT Weekend had coffee with SailGP’s chief executive officer Russell Coutts. The 60-year-old former world champion yatchsman from New Zealand was on a whistle-stop visit to Singapore to do a recce of East Coast Park, and he explained why this unique competition will be a “must-watch” in Singapore’s sporting calendar.

What’s the thinking behind picking Singapore for SailGP’s Asia debut?

We are a global property and we are always looking to expand the number of venues. Our first season in 2019 had 5 venues, and we grew to 8 venues in the second season (in 2021/22). We are now in our third season with 11 venues.

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It’s a natural decision to look for somewhere in Asia. We will be in Dubai later in the season, and in terms of the geography, Singapore is a good choice for us to make a stop. We ship over 100 containers to every event, and logistically, things worked out nicely for us to come to Singapore after Dubai. This is an exciting place to be in. It’s safe and fun, and the conditions at that time of the year (in January) are very favourable for sailing.

Sailing is not one of the most-watched sports in Singapore or the region, so why do you feel this event can be a success?

When you think about sailing in its traditional format, it’s perhaps hard to understand that what we offer is something completely different. We bring the action up close to the spectators, and our races are high-speed. The boats go up to nearly 100 km/h, and on water that is pretty fast.

Besides the sports, there is also plenty of entertainment and food and beverage options for a fun day out. I’d say the typical reaction when someone attends a SailGP event for the first time is one of amazement. 

They might be used to thinking of sailing as just white triangles on a blue background, and sometimes with a gin and tonic in your hand. But our version of sailing can’t be further from that. It is high-adrenaline, high-speed and high-technology. We are looking forward to bringing all of this to Singapore.

Tell me more about the catamarans.

These boats are really more like spaceships than actual boats. There’s an immense amount of electronics and technology involved. And the speed at which they go, they even sound like an aircraft because of the sound the foil makes when it cuts through the water. In each boat there are 800 sensors producing 3,000 pieces of data every second, or a billion data points a day. I think people will be surprised and amazed when they see the race for the first time. This is not conventional sailing. Yes, it is sailing, but it’s a new dimension of sailing. I would describe it as edgy, fast and cool.

What sort of turnout are you expecting in Singapore?

We’re going to stage the event on a beach, and we will build all the facilities such as corporate hospitality, a big screen to watch the races, there will be music and entertainment, and much more.

There will be an area that is open to the public for free viewing, and a ticketed experience where it will be more comfortable and you will be much closer to the race. We are also planning an area where spectators can be on boats on the water, and that is something which is quite unique.

Sailing of this scale and type has not been seen and done in Singapore before. I’d say perhaps a few thousand people might turn up for the first year, and this number can grow when we return for the second and third years. As with all new things, it’s all about creating the awareness in the first year, and then building up the fan base so that it becomes a regular event on the sporting season calendar.