Grinder Mac Agnese discusses the end of the European leg of the season and the benefits of time spent together
Published 11/6/2025
Three SailGP events in just 29 days gave the U.S. SailGP Team valuable time to strengthen teamwork and help new athletes and coaches build cohesion, says grinder Mac Agnese.
The European leg of the Season 5 calendar took the fleet to Saint-Tropez, Geneva and Cádiz and afforded teams lots of time together over several weeks.
“It’s always good to spend more time with the team and be on the water more,” Mac explained.
“We feel like we’ve made good progress because of that. Of course, every team gets that same opportunity, so our goal is to use that time as efficiently as possible, and I feel like we’ve done a pretty good job.
Mac Agnese says the U.S. SailGP Team has benefitted from time together recently
“At the end of the day, it’s about executing on race day, and that’s what we need to keep focusing on.”
Winger trimmer Michael Menninger and strategist Andrew Campbell were among the newest additions to benefit from that stretch.
Mac said: “With the new people we’ve integrated over the last few months, getting them up to speed with communication on board and working together as one unit has been a big area of focus.
“That’s always a work in progress, but we’re getting better there. Starting has also been a big focus for us and we’ll keep working on that as well.
The European portion of the season concluded in Spain where the U.S. SailGP Team went 3-12-11-6-8-5-4 and Mac was pleased with how the weekend unfolded in Andalucía.
He said: “I’d say we sailed maybe our most complete regatta yet, or at least in a while.
“It was good to come from Saturday and make some adjustments, then execute those a little bit better on Sunday. We came away with an improved result.
“We’ve been very targeted with our focus and working on a lot of little things. When you go out and have some good races, it definitely gives you some confidence that you’re at least improving in some of the right areas.
“So we’re definitely looking forward to drilling in on that for the last event of the season in Abu Dhabi.”
