During sea trials in January ahead of the inaugural SailGP season, Olympic champion Tom Slingsby and his Australia crew set a record of 49.7 knots in their F50 catamaran, a 15-meter sailboat that is powered by a 24-meter wingsail and a hydrofoil that lifts much of the boat’s surface area out of the water so it slices through waves like a shark’s dorsal fin. Seven months later, Slingsby’s crew set a new record off the southern coast of England—and touched the much-anticipated 50-knot threshold—in conditions so extreme that three other boats violently nosedived and the U.S. boat capsized.
Last weekend in Marseille, France, Slingsby’s crew put the finishing touches on a championship season, winning $1 million in prize money and celebrating by spraying champagne on their deck as they hoisted the trophy skyward.