SailGP Cadiz Season 4, Cadiz Season 4, ROCKWOOL SailGP Team, F50,
“We’re proud to be flying the flag for Denmark. It is something special to represent your country on a global stage like SailGP – and it gives us even more confidence to know that we’re going into battle with Holger Danske on our side.”

Nicolai Sehested

Denmark
Helmsman

Everything you need to know about the supercharged SailGP boats

Forget everything you know about sailing – SailGP is like nothing else in sport. Prepare to experience the fastest on-water racing on the planet, in some of the world’s most iconic major cities.

The Denmark SailGP Team presented by ROCKWOOL supercharged F50 catamaran is a state-of-the-art racing machine capable of flying above the water and is built for one purpose: pure speed.

Is it a bird, is it a plane? Nope, it’s an F50 sailboat – but yes, it does have wings! The flying F50s may not resemble any other boat you’ve seen before due to the cutting edge foiling technology that allows the boats to lift out of the water and achieve such mind-bending speeds.

Foils work in a similar way to aircraft wings. In simple terms, they create a lift force that works against gravity, raising the boat out of the water, which reduces drag and allows our sailors to reach even faster speeds!

Designed with cutting edge technology and craftsmanship, these F50 boats are strictly one-design and identical – that means that every team lining up on the SailGP start line has exactly the same equipment, with the only difference in performance coming from the skill, teamwork and strategy of the athletes on board.

Striking the balance between existing technology and new evolutions is key – and uniquely, the F50 is an active development one-design class. That means that a shared design team continuously researches and implements innovations to ensure that the F50 class remains at the cutting edge of the sport, and where new components are introduced the will be applied equally across the fleet.

And the best part? Sailing is one of the most environmentally-friendly sporting disciplines there is. These boats have no engines – instead, they’re fuelled only by their hard-working crews and nature.

F50 vital statistics:

  • Strict one-design, development class rule
  • Length overall: 15 meters (50 feet)
  • Beam (width): 8.8 meters (including foils) (29 feet)
  • Wing Height: currently 24 meters (78.75 feet), evolving to a 18m (59.05 feet) heavy air wing and a 28m (91.86 feet) light air wing
  • Crew: 5, consisting of helmsman, wing-trimmer, flight controller and two grinders
  • Crew weight limit: 438 kilograms (that’s an average of 87.5 kg per sailor)
  • Top speed: 53 knots
  • On board cameras: 3
  • On board microphones: 3

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