Team Australia have begun the fourth season of the SailGP competition the same way they finished the first three: at the head of the fleet.
Skippered by the peerless Tom Slingsby, who along with his crew has dominated this event since its inception in 2019, Team Australia crossed the line first in two of the three races to get the new season off to a winning start in Chicago.
Slingsby, a gold medallist at the London 2012 Olympics and winner of the 2013 America's Cup, rebounded from an embarrassing error at the start of the second race to take a 26-25 lead over trans-Tasman rival Peter Burling of Team New Zealand.
Phil Robertson has Canada in third with 24 points, while Nicolai Sehested steered Denmark into fourth with 21 in the fleet of identical 50-foot foiling catamarans.
After further racing on Saturday, the top three boats will advance to the grand final in the first of 12 regattas.
“It feels amazing. We sailed really well today," Slingsby said.
"It feels like we took off where we left off in season three.
"A lot of confidence, everyone was having a great time, we were all laughing and joking and it was great to to get a good day on the board.”
The Australians outgunned the Kiwis in a drag race to the finish of race three, just as they did in the dramatic grand final of season three in San Francisco in early May.
That series-clinching win signalled a third successive triumph for Australia, bringing with it the $US1 million ($A1.5m), winner-takes-all prize money from tech titan Larry Ellison's global league.
Misjudging the approach and missing the start line in the second race, Slingsby and his crew showed their experience by keeping calm and sailing through the fleet to finish fifth.
“I had a shocker in that one," Slingsby said. "I just got a bit chicken-winged up.
"We were trying to kill time before the start and I wasn’t able to kill the time well.”
In danger of hitting the mark, Slingsby bailed out and had to circle back as the rest of the catamarans sped away.
“It was a beginner’s error, but it was good for us,” Slingsby said. “In two of the races we had great starts and sailed out in front of the fleet.
"It was nice to have a race where we were in the pack and having to battle through. That's really good practice for us.”
Fellow Australian Jimmy Spithill, a two-time America's Cup winner, was a disappointing ninth with Team USA.
“You’ve just got to keep going back," a frustrated Sp[ithill said.
"We’ve got to take the lessons from it, come out and try and get a few good ones.”
- with AP
