Taylor: At Our Best We’re Competitive And Fighting For Podiums
With five SailGP events down, Driver Taylor Canfield assesses the U.S. SailGP Team season so far…
Published 05/28/2025
Driver Taylor Canfield insists the U.S. SailGP Team can fight for podium positions ahead of the resumption of the 2025 SailGP Season in New York.
The unplanned cancelation of the ENEL Rio Sail Grand Prix – which should have taken place between May 3 and 4 – means there hasn’t been an event since the end of March. But with less than two weeks until the season restarts in New York on June 7-8, all eyes are on a third straight event on home water.
Asked if the U.S. SailGP Team set targets prior to the season, Taylor said: “It’s definitely more about the process and growing together as a team. We haven’t focused on hitting a specific number or chasing a set number of podiums. It’s more about maintaining a growth mindset and continuing to improve.
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“It’s easy to look at the current results and think we’re not where we want to be. But we’ve had some really strong moments, and we’re often sailing the boat well. It’s just those big, costly mistakes in key moments that have been setting us back.
“When we sail at our best, we’re competitive and in the fight for podiums. The challenge is doing that consistently. That’s tough without more time on the water to refine everything.
“But we have a great team – not just on the water, but also off it, with our coach Evan Aras and our data analyst Ivan Bulaja. They’ve been instrumental in our growth between events and in making sure we’re prepared for each one.”
A big part of the process has been adapting to the new T-foils introduced for Season Five of SailGP. They replaced the old L-foils and Taylor says that while the differences are subtle, they have taken some getting used to.
“Early on, we thought we knew how to set everything up, but as the rest of the fleet progressed and learned more, we had to adjust our mindset too,” he explained. “That’s been a positive shift, and we hope it’ll help make the boat more forgiving – especially in that tricky post-maneuver phase where we’ve been looking to improve.
U.S. SailGP Team Driver Taylor Canfield met former NFL wide receiver Nate Burleson in New York in Season Four of SailGP
“The T-foils are definitely twitchier, but they become much more forgiving once the boat reaches a certain speed. It takes discipline to hit that speed where the foils really come into their range and outperform the old L-foils.
“Below that threshold, they’re less forgiving, so you’ve got to be super attentive – especially about not getting too high on the foils early on. It's all about getting up to speed quickly so the foils can start working with you instead of against you.”
Another change has been the addition of Michael Menninger, who was added to the roster after the Oracle San Francisco Sail Grand Prix in March. He might be new to the U.S. SailGP Team, but Menninger and Taylor go back a long way.
Taylor said: “We’re the same age and have grown up racing against each other. We started out sailing dinghies, then competed through high school and college, and eventually won a match racing world championship together.
“It’s been about 20 years of racing against and alongside Michael. We’ve always pushed each other to improve, which is awesome.
“He’s an incredible sailor and a huge asset to the team. His experience in the America’s Cup and with foiling on T-foils has already paid off – especially in debriefs and in helping us extract as much knowledge as possible from his background.”
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