It’s not how you start, It’s how you finish

United States SailGP Team driver Taylor Canfield teamed up with Laura Grondin (USA) at the 2025 Melges 24 World Championship on September 23-27 in Trieste, Italy. After finishing second, Canfield reflects on the achievement:

What a whirlwind of an event! We started the event getting holed in race one, not allowing us to race the first two races of the regatta. After a quick fix overnight, the hole in the boat was repaired well enough to get us on the water for a single light air race on day three, but returned straight to the crane for a second night of repairs.

With big breeze ahead for the final day, we were not sure what to expect out of the boat. The 7am dock out started with 20-30 knots for the first two races of the day, with the wind laying down a bit for the final two races. We fought hard and battled ourselves into a position to have a shot at the podium in the final race but still sitting in 7th going into it.

Winning the final race with about a 1 minute 30 second margin was enough to get us to the podium with our final score being calculated from an average of our scores for race 2 that we missed (see jury decision).

Getting to the dock after day one, we were not even sure if we would be able to continue racing in the event. A huge effort from the team and so many more that got us back on the water. Thank you to all involved. And of course, a congrats to the new world champion Peter Karrie’s Nefeli.