Kyle Langford, the Australia wing trimmer, is thrilled to resume racing in the supercharged F50 but admits his team have their work cut out defending their SailGP title against star-studded competition.

The Australians will officially launch their title defence today in the Bermuda Sail Grand Prix presented by Hamilton Princess in the Great Sound.

“It’s good to be back racing again to defend our Season 1 title,” Langford told The Royal Gazette.

“The competition is at another level this year with the inclusion of New Zealand [Peter Burling] and Jimmy Spithill with the Americans, so we know we need to step up our game if we are going to beat those guys.”

The champions, led by Olympic gold medal-winner, multiple world champion and America’s Cup winner Tom Slingsby, have retained all but one cast member from the team that won the inaugural SailGP series in 2019.

Grinder Nick Hutton, who hails from Britain, has replaced Australian Ky Hurst and is the only international member of a majority Australian crew.

He joins the team with a wealth of experience on board the high-speed F50 catamaran, having previously competed with rivals Great Britain and arrives on island fresh from competing with the British challenger for the 36th America’s Cup in Auckland, New Zealand.

The wing-sailed F50 foiling catamaran has been upgraded since Australia hosted the original Season 2 opener in Sydney in February 2020 before the campaign was postponed because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

SailGP’s eight national teams have made the most of limited time on the water trying to adjust to the modifications.

One of the biggest obstacles that the teams have encountered is controlling the boat’s new wing-sail, with Australia enduring a baptism of fire having capsized in the Americans’ boat in their first practice run in the Great Sound.

“The biggest change is really the new wing,” Langford said. “It’s been a bit of a challenge to get our heads around it because it’s somewhat untested, so all the teams are scrambling to work out what the best set-up is. We will learn a lot more when the racing starts.”

The teams lost precious practice time in the boat because of the Bermuda Government’s recent seven-day stay-at-home order as well as unfavourable light winds, which have resulted in the organisers bringing the start of the regatta forward by 24 hours.

Sunday’s second and final day of racing will go ahead as originally planned.

Asked how the revised format has affected his team, Langford, himself an America’s Cup winner and world champion, said: “The plan hasn’t really affected us at all. We came here to race and whether that’s a day earlier or not doesn’t really change anything for us.

“We’d always like more time to train, but bring it on!”

In all, Australia boast four America’s Cup winners, two Olympic medal-winners and four world champions.

Today’s racing will consist of three fleet races. An additional three fleet races will be held on Sunday, followed by a podium race between the top three teams to determine the final positions.

“The three top teams race off for first, second and third,” Sir Russell Coutts, the SailGP chief executive, said. “And the advantage of this is whoever wins that race, whoever comes second, whoever comes third, they are first, second and third in the event.

“So to a television audience it’s no confusion; you don’t have that boat that finished with third saying they won it on points.”

The racecourse has been set up on the northern end of the Great Sound, with the start line situated off Cavello Bay, Somerset, and the finish line directly in front of SailGP’s racing headquarters at Cross Island, Dockyard.

Denmark, France, Japan, and Spain are the remaining national teams competing in the global championship.