SailGP 101: What Does The Head Coach Do In SailGP?
We’ve looked at the athletes, now it’s the turn of the Head Coach. So, what does Evan Aras do for the U.S. SailGP Team?
Published 04/29/2025
How do you coach a team that only comes together every few weeks and does not have access to an F50 the rest of the time?
That is the challenge facing SailGP head coaches – and it’s no different for the U.S. SailGP Team’s own Evan Aras. SailGP owns the unique F50 catamarans raced by the 12 teams throughout the season but the vessels also spend a lot of time disassembled, traveling from venue to venue.
On top of that, the athletes on each team have their own pursuits, interests and schedules outside of SailGP. All of which means time is precious and when teams are able to come together, there is a lot to get through and highly focused work is the order of the day.
The U.S. SailGP Coaching Team is led by Evan, who coached Team USA’s 49er team at the 2016 Olympic Games, led the American women’s 49erFX team to qualify for the Paris 2024 Olympics and has coached winning teams at the 2025 Melges 24 World Championships and 2025 J70 World Championships.
U.S. SailGP Team Data Analyst Ivan Bulaja
Evan is assisted by Data Analyst Ivan Bulaja, who boasts more than 35 years of experience in competitive sailing and has coached teams in six Olympic Games, securing multiple World and European Championship medals.
Completing the U.S. SailGP Team coaching staff is Craig ‘Oz’ McFarlane, the team’s Head Athletic Trainer. With more than 23 years of expertise in fields including triathlon and rugby - as well as sailing - he has previously worked with Oracle Team USA during the America’s Cup.
In the weeks between races, coaches rely on technology to bridge the geographical gap between themselves and the athletes. This means a lot of video calls across different time zones, as well as plenty of self-directed deep learning for the athletes.
In the case of U.S. SailGP Team and Evan, the team will use those calls to zero in on topics they have decided offer the biggest opportunity for improvement. Between race weeks, the team will target three acute aspects of performance. In a large country with several time zones, even finding a time that suits everyone is easier said than done.
Even when the teams come together for a race week, their time is not their own. Teams have commercial or league-mandated obligations, such as press conferences and partner events. There are a number of important briefings that all teams must attend and this means that time together is regularly interrupted.
As outlined in our SailGP 101 article on the role of the Shore Team
, even getting the boat on the water is not a quick or straightforward process. When the athletes and boat are eventually on the water, their practice time is limited to the Friday before race weekend. However, for a couple of events during the 2024/25 calendar, teams will be assigned additional practice days.A typical race day for Evan and the U.S. SailGP Team starts at 5am to factor in all the necessary briefings. These include an umpire briefing to go through the previous day’s penalties, a race management briefing to discuss administration, the course, seamanship, navigation, safety and anything else the teams need to be aware of.
U.S. SailGP Team Head Coach Evan Aras
Approximately two hours before sailing, the athletes will begin their pre-sailing activations and workouts, led by Oz. It’s at this point Evan will begin to take a backward step, whilst being on hand if required. Some venues have bigger footprints than others. It can mean the coach’s booth is far from the race stadium, which can mean a long Uber or ferry ride to chaperone the coaches to where they need to be. In the booth, relations between coaches are friendly and there is a sense of camaraderie between the different teams. While they compete fiercely on the water, there is a healthy respect and appreciation of the difficulties such a high-intensity sport poses.
Between races, the coaches will relay quick key messages to the athletes. However, the tight turnaround between fleet races - which can be as little as three or four minutes depending on finishing position - means time is of the essence. The crew also need to refuel on electrolytes, water and carbohydrates.
Once the day’s racing has finished, the head coaches go straight into reflection mode. Evan will have a capture meeting with the crew to get anything that needs covering committed to paper - however big or small. While the crew then help the Shore Team hose down the F50 in preparation for the next day, Evan’s focus turns to analysing everything at his disposal to prepare for the following day. This can mean a late night taking a deep dive into the data, which is one of the key weapons in every coach’s arsenal.
Read More: The Evolution of the F50
Owing to the democratization of this data across SailGP, each team has access to every other member of the fleet’s data. This includes performance metrics from each boat and measures for key settings, as well as real-time positional information of every boat in the fleet. All of which means Evan and Ivan can dissect how other teams tackled conditions and the course, and look at technique changes they might wish to make the next day. One advantage the U.S. SailGP Team has is Ivan being based in Croatia. The different time zones mean one of the coaching team is almost always ‘online’.
Naturally, with wind conditions playing such a significant and temperamental part in sailing, a big part of the role is reacting in real time and there is a constant dialogue between Evan in the coach’s booth and the F50. While the coaches have a plethora of data at their fingertips throughout the race weekend, there is no substitute for being out on the water. It is the coach’s job, therefore, to support what sailors see and feel with facts gleaned from the data.
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