SailGP is officially training in Pensacola Bay, launching the new 50-foot foiling catamaran, Strive, from the American Magic High Performance Center.
Strive is identical to the F50 boats used in SailGP races by all 13 teams and will be based in Pensacola as the league's shared training boat.
In January, American Magic and SailGP announced a partnership for Pensacola to serve as the sail racing league’s off-season training base, and in February, American Magic announced it was buying the Danish Rockwool Racing SailGP team for $60 million.
"Pensacola was a clear choice for SailGP's permanent home," SailGP Managing Director Andy Thompson told a small crowd gathered at American Magic on Oct. 19 to witness the launch. "It's a premier sailing hub. We have world-class facilities here. It's a great town. It's great sailing conditions. It's a great central location for all of our global teams to get to. This is not a temporary pop-up, nor is it a campaign. We've committed to at least six years in Pensacola. It's a permanent foundation. We want to develop a home here for many years to come."
SailGP is a professional sailing league using high-speed foiling catamaran sailboats that began racing in 2019. The league was founded to be a commercially viable sail racing league on the same level as the America's Cup. Unlike the America’s Cup, it happens every year, and all of the teams use the same boat design, cutting down on development and maintenance costs.
The league has attracted high-profile investors like actors Hugh Jackman and Ryan Reynolds, who announced last year that they had purchased the Australian SailGP team. It's unknown if the two actors will visit Pensacola when the Australian team takes a rotation at the helm of Strive.
For Strive's first run across the water, the Emirates Great Britain SailGP team put the boat through its paces.
The high-tech boats have to be broken down and shipped between destinations after every race, often over thousands of miles, so teams often can't practice for weeks at a time. While they have a high-tech simulator, SailGP wants to give teams more real-world sail time, so it built a shared boat that all the teams can travel to Pensacola to train on. Thompson said there may be a second training boat that comes online later, which could lead to practice races.
SailGP's Pensacola partnership: Pensacola is now the North American training base for entire SailGP league
Thompson said SailGP wants to support the local economy, not only by bringing members of its teams to Pensacola to patronize local businesses, but also by recruiting local talent for potential jobs in the league, as American Magic has done.
"We want to bring jobs to the local community here," Thompson said. "We want people to come down, whether it's engineering, communication, or other jobs, and really get into the sport of sailing. So having this year-round base will enable that."
American Magic Chief Operating Officer Tyson Lamond said that as the operation grows toward its goal of 170 jobs, 34% of those hired so far are from the Pensacola area.
"This is something that we're proud of and something that we're working extremely hard on," Lamond said. "The partnerships that we have with (the University of West Florida, Pensacola State College), the Children's Home Society, and our newest one with George Stone Technical College, are something that we are investing a lot of time and effort into because we know that is the future of our team."
This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: SailGP launches Pensacola training base, bringing jobs, tourism and prestige