Three Poole based sailors: Stuart Bithell MBE, Hannah Mills OBE and Ellie Aldridge, were part of the winning Team Emirates GB sailing team in the first SailGP Race of the competition in Perth.
GB defeated the Bonds Flying Roos (2nd) and DS Team France (3rd) in a Fremantle day that left no margin for error.
The SailGP boat holds six crew members, made up of: A Driver, Wing Trimmer, Flight Controller, two Grinders and a Strategist.
Dylan Fletcher, Emirate GB driver, said the weather conditions were: “Absolutely incredible. This is why we came to Perth.”
Heading into the Final, Emirates GB held off the French crew as the Bonds Flying Roos crew were forced to start further back, due to a penalty.
Fletcher said: “I was really proud today how we were digging through every race and kept overtaking boats.”
“I feel absolutely on cloud nine it was an incredible day for it.”
Despite the French crews attempts at advancing, GB stayed ahead of their rivals, and gained a considerable lead to come across the line first.
Former Olympic silver medalist Hannah Mills OBE, from Poole said: “Honestly best day ever, it’s insane, it doesn’t get much better than this.”
“We’re really proud of how the team has come together this week – we kept a learning mindset and then put it into practice when we went racing.”
Ellie Aldridge, the Emirates GB’s development athlete, has joined the team this year, after a successful Paris 2024 getting a Gold medal in kite surfing.
“It’s been brilliant getting Ellie on board,” Said Mills.
Aldridge has joined the team with a dedicated training programme, and the tole of the reserve female athlete for the entire SailGP fleet.
Emirates GB Wing Trimmer of the team Stuart Bithell, who replaced Iain Jensen after he joined his home team Bonds Flying Roos.
Bithell’s signing reunited him with driver Dylan Fltetcher for the first time since they won Gold in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
“We’ve had Stu come on board as wing trimmer which is a big dynamic shift,” said Mills.
Home side Bonds Flying Roos, Co-owned by Hugh Jackman and Ryan Reynolds, missed out on their home victory to the Emirates GB team.
Despite this, driver Tom Slingsby still said the day was “amazing.”
“It was phenomenal racing.”
The next race for Team Emirates GB against rivals like Bonds Flying Roos and France in Auckland on the 14th and 15th February.
This will be the second event of the thirteen, and Emirate GB will hope to keep their winning streak going.
The championship will return to Portsmouth at the end of July for one of the biggest events of the competition.
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