SailGP – the international sailing competition – lit up San Francisco Bay last weekend in a two-day marathon of excitement at the Marina Yacht Harbor.
For more, stream KCBS Radio now.
Australia finished first and captured the $1 million grand prize, but the allure of the race isn't just money — it's innovation. SailGP is hoping to transition the sport into clean energy, which would make sailing one of the most sustainable competitive sports in the world.
Cate Lawrence, a writer, and editor of "The Next Web," a Berlin-based tech publication, said that the organization's sustainability mission is what inspired her to come to the Bay Area for SailGP.
"They are doing energy conservation in the way boats are designed," Lawrence told KCBS Radio's "Bay Current" on Tuesday. "The thing that has interested me is they have a race where one of the competition categories is based on sustainability, and I’ve never seen another sport do that."
Despite the overwhelming number of male sailors, Erica Kerner, communications director of SailGP, said that they are hoping to inspire more young women to join the competition.
"Right now we have one woman on every boat," Kerner said. "But we have a program called the women's pathway program, where we are trying to build the next generation of sailors. I think it's going to attract a whole new generation of people, and I hope more people become SailGP fans."
SailGP will host its third season in Bermuda this spring and will return to San Francisco in the summer of 2023.
LISTEN to KCBS Radio
FAVORITE KCBS Radio
Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
Related
