Tom Slingsby, CEO and driver of Australia SailGP Team, and Kyle Langford, wing trimmer of Australia SailGP Team, celebrate as they win the KPMG Australia Sail Grand Prix in Sydney, Australia. Saturday 25th February 2024. Photo: Felix Diemer for SailGP. Handout image supplied by SailGP Photo: Felix Diemer for SailGP
For most of four years, Aussie Kyle Langford has become used to sitting at or near the top of the SailGP pecking order, helping driver Tom Slingsby win back-to-back-to-back titles in the professional sailing league.
Last year, the former world champion and America's Cup winner decided to shake things up, leaving his mates to join crafty chief executive Jimmy Spithill and his fledgling Red Bull Italy in their first year on the circuit.
"There were a couple of motivations for that," explained Langford, as he prepared for SailGP Auckland this weekend.
"With the Aussies, we'd been one of the top teams for a number of years and I'd sailed with those guys for the best part of 10 years. They're still my best mates off the water, but I think just needed a new change, something professionally to challenge myself and try something different.
"When I got the opportunity to join Jimmy with the Italians… it's a big challenge to start something new and leave the comfort zone of sailing with my mates in a successful team. Just to build something from scratch was an opportunity you don't get very often… to be an instrumental part of a new team."
Through Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli, Italy has a strong traditional in America's Cup sailing, without quite capturing the 'Auld Mug', twice taking out the challenger series, but both times bowing to Team New Zealand for the silverware.
Last year, Luna Rossa won the Youth America's Cup and when he stood down as skipper of the senior team, after losing the challenger final to INEOS Britannia, Spithill noted the ample ability on tap for future campaigns.
"There's a huge amount of talent in Italy and it's probably one of the strongest youth sailing nations in the world," said Langford. "Australia and NZ have always been really strong, but Italy is coming through and showing that talent.
Jimmy Spithill and Kyle Langford celebrate America's Cup victory with Oracle Team USA. Photo: Chris CAMERON
"A lot of it has come from Luna Rossa and they've really provided a pathway for the young sailors to get involved in professional sailing, which will feed into SailGP. I guess the big challenge is how do you translate those skills from America's Cup and other foiling boats into SailGP, because it is different.
"The teams that have been in SailGP for a long time, like the Aussies and the Kiwis, they're on top for a reason, because they have experience in the boats. It's really hard for new teams to come in and make an impact."
That's where Spithill and Langford come in, although they were immediately put in their place by the rest of the fleet at Dubai last November, when Italy, driven by double Olympic champion Ruggero Tita, finished last of 11 boats, with France absent from the season opener.
"It's a big change leaving the Aussie team and Dubai was a big reality check," admitted Langford. "It's been a challenge and probably a lot more work than I anticipated, starting a new team with the ambition to become competitive.
"Finishing last in Dubai was tough, but I think the big thing we need to work on is just racing skills and execution of making decisions around the racecourse. In every race, there were one or two critical moments when we lost the race or we went backwards, and we just need to use our intuition a bit more.
"The communication was there and we were talking about the right things, but we just failed to execute. If we can just work on making quicker decisions and executing those decisions, we can be a bit more competitive."
Through his long history as an America's Cup and SailGP skipper, Spithill has a reputation of not suffering setbacks well, but seems prepared to allow a little leeway for his enthusiastic charges to learn from their mistakes and build their own style.
"After Dubai, we just talked about how we're going to develop and, with a new team, you have to commit to who you have on board," Langford said. "We've got a lot of talent and it's a matter of unlocking that potential the team has.
"We're spending a lot of time going through historical footage SailGP, looking at how other teams do the starts and trying to figure out our own style, because it's no sense just copying the Aussies, which is what my experience is. We're a new team and we're going to have our own style, so we need to figure out what works for us."
While the Italians have high hopes of competing for titles, Langford is realistic enough to understand they are starting a long way behind their rivals, even with the introduction of new T-foils that potentially level the playing field this week on the Waitematā Harbour.
"So far, we haven't seen any new teams win events - it's always the same teams on top, with the odd surprise every now and then. It just takes time for the new teams to learn this type of racing and learn the boats."
