Canfield shuts the door on Slingsby as USA steal the Valencia final

SailGP 2026 Valencia, final race — Tom Slingsby had the speed. He just didn't have anywhere to put it. Taylor Canfield's U.S. SailGP Team trailed BONDS Flying Roos for almost the entire winner-takes-all final in Valencia, needed two manoeuvres to the Australians' one on the run to the line, and still found a way to close the door on the inside when it mattered, denying Slingsby any passing lane at all. USA win the Spain Sail Grand Prix, their second event victory of the season, and it came down to metres.

Italy's dream start turns into a scramble

Red Bull Italy arrived at their first-ever event final off the back of three wins in four Group A races, and it went wrong before the boats had even settled. Phil Robertson was caught early at the line and called OCS, a penalty in a four-boat final that leaves almost no room to give anything away. BONDS Flying Roos had their own wobble at the start, popping onto the foils too soon and dropping straight back down, but recovered in time to take the hole shot at Mark 1 regardless. USA settled into second, Rockwool Denmark third, Italy fourth and still working off their penalty.

Nicolai Sehested chose to sail deeper into the boundary on the first upwind leg chasing clean air, a call that looked conservative even as it happened and left his crew sitting nearly ten seconds down, buried in disturbed wind off the boats ahead. Italy, recovered from the penalty, sailed straight past them for third by the DP World Gate. From there, with BONDS Flying Roos leading and USA in close attendance, the final became a two-boat race.

The manoeuvre count that should have decided it

At the second run through the DP World Gate, Slingsby rolled up on Canfield in an aggressive positioning move, the kind of thing that draws a penalty call more often than not, but the lead changed hands in the same instant and whatever obligation existed washed off with it. From there the course split, and the numbers were brutally simple: Australia needed one more manoeuvre to reach the finish. USA needed two.

In a four-boat final in patchy 13 to 14 km/h breeze, that should have been enough on its own. Australia struggled to find the 40 km/h needed to pop back onto the foils and stalled trying, buying USA time they had no right to expect. Canfield's crew, doing the harder job with an extra manoeuvre to complete, still found a gain on the final approach.

Canfield shuts the door

It came down to the last turn. USA tried to hold the foils through it, stalled, and dropped to a single hull, the kind of moment that usually costs a boat the race in a breeze this light. It didn't. Canfield had already taken the inside line, and with it, the only route past him. Slingsby had the speed to make a real challenge and nowhere at all to use it, forced to give way with the finish line in sight. USA held the position they'd taken and sailed it home.

"They stayed in second for almost the entire race," was how the broadcast team put it afterwards, "and it came down to that penultimate leg. They rolled the dice and it came up." A brave read, and one that only worked because it kept them on the foils while the boat they were chasing wasn't.

What it means

It's USA's second event win of Season 6, and by the numbers it's a significant one. Taylor Canfield's crew went into Valencia fourth overall, tied with Emirates GBR and seven points outside the championship's top three. The win here lifts them to 56 points and third in the standings, pushing both Emirates GBR and Nathan Outteridge's Artemis back a spot each in the process. Artemis's own event in Valencia had already ended in Group A, missing the final by the narrowest of margins to BONDS Flying Roos; watching a rival leapfrog them in the overall standings on the same weekend will sting.

BONDS Flying Roos remain well clear at the top of the championship on 85 points, still yet to lose a race after leading at the first mark all season, a stat the broadcast team called remarkable. Los Gallos hold second on 68 despite their own miserable finish to this event, eliminated from Sunday's final on home water after leading Group B for most of the weekend. Red Bull Italy's Phil Robertson, a Kiwi driving for the Italian team, took his crew to their first-ever final and a podium finish to show for it, even after an OCS penalty that could easily have ended their day early.

Three events remain in the 2026 season: Lake Geneva next, then a UAE doubleheader in Dubai and Abu Dhabi to close it out. Geneva is another light-air venue, and on this weekend's evidence, that suits Taylor Canfield's crew just fine.

Result

Final result: 1. U.S. SailGP Team (Taylor Canfield), 2. BONDS Flying Roos (Tom Slingsby), 3. Red Bull Italy (Phil Robertson), 4. ROCKWOOL Racing (Nicolai Sehested)

Season 6 standings after Valencia (Event 10 of 13): 1. BONDS Flying Roos 85pts, 2. Los Gallos 68pts, 3. U.S. SailGP Team 56pts, 4. Artemis 55pts, 5. Emirates Great Britain 51pts, 6. NorthStar 41pts, 7. DS Automobiles FRA 41pts, 8. Germany by Deutsche Bank 35pts, 9. ROCKWOOL Racing 32pts, 10. Explora Journeys Swiss 32pts, 11. Red Bull Italy 30pts, 12. Black Foils 21pts, 13. Mubadala Brazil 8pts