Andrew: I Prefer Our Gear Smelling Like Champagne Rather Than Soap!
U.S. SailGP Team strategist Andrew Campbell reflects on the win in Sydney
Published 03/13/2026
It feels good to be writing to you all after a win! The team is really excited to have that result in Sydney. We’ve been talking about it since I’ve been back with the team: that we want to be focused on the process and not the results.
I said at one point that if we’re not going to be defined by our losses, then we shouldn’t be defined by our wins either. We’re trying to be defined by how committed we are to the process and getting better every time we go out sailing and learning in the conditions that we have.
At the same time, we need to get to the point where when opportunities present themselves, we need to be able to finish and execute on those opportunities. That’s what Sydney was. We had a couple of races where we were out front and could win the race, and we have to be able to finish those races like we did in Auckland and like you saw in Sydney. We won a couple races at both events, and I think that’s something this team was struggling to do a year ago.
The team is just excited to have some of that hard work pay off. But we’re just as quick to say that we left a lot on the table and still have a lot to learn. Maybe it’s best deserved by the shore crew and everyone that helped prop this team up in the background over the last couple of years - there are a lot of people who’ve stood behind the squad steadfast, knowing that we’re still on the right track. To give those guys a result is something that’s well deserved by that crowd.
Our fans deserve to see this team do well. So that’s worth celebrating, worth being excited for, and worth being fired up for.
READ MORE: U.S. SAILGP TEAM WINS SYDNEY SAIL GRAND PRIX
The team that we have here benefits from having great moments like that, and we have to celebrate the wins when we get them. But we also have to pick them apart and ask whether we got them because we were doing things right or because we were lucky - and know the difference so we can figure out how to do it again.
Why not us?
Saturday was a really solid day, barring that collision that put us in a fragile spot. That’s been the tale of this team a bit - like, “Hey, we’re right there, but just this.” You start to wonder if that’s going to be the thing that prevents us from getting there.
When I first joined the team in Portsmouth last year, our goal was simply to finish every race of the weekend. That was a high priority. Then it became, “Okay, let’s have one good day on the weekend and see if we can start bridging some of these things together.” More recently it’s been, “If we can have six or seven good races, then we’re capable of making a final.”
Sure enough, when the pieces come together, if you’re capable of making the final, you’re capable of winning the final. So - why not us?
Getting through that collision and trying to understand why it happened and how we can avoid those kinds of things is really important. That’s been a major part of our debrief - trying to understand how we can clean things up so we don’t have race killers or event killers in those moments.
There’s no team that has it locked the whole time, but trying to find ways to claw back those one or two points so it’s not quite as critical all the time - that’s the goal.
Staying disciplined
The final was as tricky as the rest of the day had been. The conditions are never like that in Sydney, with the rain and the light air, it’s just not the classic Sydney look, so we had to be ready for anything.
The guys had a very clear plan about how we wanted to execute the takeoffs, the timing, and the boat speeds. We stayed really disciplined. We didn’t force the boat to foil, and the momentum we built through the first reach set us up for a very long, drawn-out positive consequence.
We didn’t quite roll the Brits as we wanted - they popped sooner than we did - but maybe the momentum of our acceleration was what set us up for a nice maneuver on the boundary there. Pulling off that maneuver was the event-winning move.
It’s an area we’ve been focusing on a lot: off the start line, down the first reach, how we manage Mark One, and then pulling off that first maneuver. That’s 90% of a SailGP race. The rest is just executing basic maneuvers.
If you can pull off that first turn and get to the leeward gates ahead, you’re in a really strong spot to win the rest of it. The team did an outstanding job getting everything around the track from there.
Eyes forward
It’s way better to have the gear come out of the container smelling like champagne rather than just hot water and soap. We’ll take that every day, every event we go to - no problem.
Celebrating with the whole team on Sunday night was a huge bonus. The entire squad deserves it. We’re trying to act like it’s not our first time - because it isn’t - and I can assure you it won’t be our last.
We’re looking forward to a new event in Rio next month and building on this win. Speak soon,
Andrew
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