Hannah Mills calls for GBR reset after SailGP struggles

After a rollercoaster first day for Team Emirates GBR at their home SailGP event, Hannah Mills believes a team debrief is necessary to turn things around. The 38-year-old is the team’s strategist, but was left frustrated with fourth and sixth place finishes at the Emirates Great Britain Sail Grand Prix in Portsmouth, before a desperately needed victory in the final race of the day. It put the British team fourth in the Group B standings, four points off second place, the final qualification spot for Sunday’s final, with work to do to satisfy the 20,000-strong crowd on the south coast. She said: “We'll probably go out as a sailing and coaching team and chat it through over dinner. And then we've got a lot of time in the morning to regroup with fresh thoughts and see what we can do tomorrow. “We wanted to go out there and put on a good show for everyone. So after the first couple of races, we were definitely feeling a bit disappointed in ourselves that we hadn’t managed to do that. “In the last race, it was definitely a bit of relief to get a win for everyone.” It was Swedish team Artemis who were the dominant force in Group B, sitting top of the standings with 13 points, closely followed by the USA SailGP Team. With the fleet set to be split into two groups for the remainder of the season, there may be more space for overtakes, though Portsmouth’s course contained some tricky obstacles. The Brits struggled to get a good start in the first two races and found themselves at the back of the pack on both occasions, but eventually nailed it third time around. Mills said: “It's such fine margins between getting off the start line and not getting off the start line. In the first two we didn't, so it was really a couple of handling things that we talked about how to improve, as well as the start strategy and trying to improve on our pre-entry positioning, which we did a much better job in that last one. “You always know that the starts are going to be a big part of the racing. There weren't tons of overtaking opportunities. There were some, but it was a fairly stable breeze. The fort and different obstacles made it a little bit of a procession at times. So we knew if we didn't get the start line, it was going to be tough.” In SailGP, boats exceed 100km/h in close-to-shore, stadium racing. EGBR are reigning world champions - and will be looking to get a home win in front of a sold-out crowd. The German boat almost flipped onto its side after running alongside the Brits, while the Spanish and Canadians almost collided in the second race in Group A. But it is the Swedes, Americans, and Swiss that Mills and her teammates need to pass in tomorrow’s racing. She said: “They both had solid starts and boat handling. They got around the course really cleanly. So we just need to look at ourselves and what we can do differently to see if we can put it together tomorrow.” The Emirates Great Britain Sail Grand Prix returns to Portsmouth on 25-26 July. Limited tickets are still available via //SailGP.com/Portsmouth.