Jeremy Relishing ‘Complex’ Portsmouth Racecourse
Wing trimmer Jeremy Wilmot looks ahead to the Emirates Great Britain Sail Grand Prix in Portsmouth with relish…
Published 07/15/2025
U.S. SailGP Team wing trimmer Jeremy Wilmot is familiar with Portsmouth, the venue for next week’s Emirates Great Britain Sail Grand Prix, and is relishing the prospect of tackling a ‘complex’ course again.
Fresh from finishing fifth from a field of 60 alongside U.S. SailGP Team crew-mate Anna Weis at Lake Garda in the J70 Mixed Plus World Championship, Jeremy knows what to expect on the Solent – and he can’t wait to test his mettle in challenging conditions once more.
He said: “I did some sailing there with Abu Dhabi on the Volvo 70 with the great Ian Walker. That was awesome. I think I spent about a month training in Portsmouth.
“It was really fun and I loved every minute of it. Great guys, great experience. So I feel like I know what I’m walking into. I’ve got a good understanding of the area, though we wouldn’t have raced a Volvo 70 where we’ll be racing this time. But still – helpful context.
“I love the Solent. I love tricky, challenging conditions.”
So, what makes the conditions on the South Coast of the UK so testing?
Jeremy explains: “There are more variables than most venues. The breeze is unpredictable, the tide is complex. You’ve got Cowes and the Isle of Wight on one side and the mainland on the other, and they influence each other in weird ways.
I love a complex racecourse – that’s just me. It takes more strategy, and there are more passing lanes, which makes it better for the viewer than a straightforward track.”
The Great Britain Sail Grand Prix will give Jeremy and the U.S. SailGP Team the chance to put into practice some of the things they worked on last time out in New York, too.
“We worked on a couple of specific things over that weekend,” he explained. “One was being more aggressive in the pre-starts – really throwing the boat around. We also focused on being more aggressive overall.
“If you watch the Sunday races back, we were back in the pack and managed to fight back to a seventh, seventh, and eighth. That’s not easy in this fleet – everyone is a top-level sailor. It’s hard to pass boats. Usually, where you round the bottom mark is where you finish.
“So just getting out of phase, being aggressive, making an extra maneuver with confidence – that was something we worked on. It paid off in some moments and we want to take that forward with us to the UK.”
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