Sean Herbert wins Inspire WASZP Grand Final at SailGP San Francisco
by Michael Brown/Yachting NZ 31 Mar 2022 02:46 UTC
31 March 2022
Sean Herbert (NZL) winner of the Inspire Racing x WASZP program on Race Day 2 of San Francisco SailGP, © Felix Diemer/SailGP
Sean Herbert has returned to New Zealand with an extra puff in his sails after taking out the Inspire WASZP Grand Final sailed alongside the final round of SailGP in San Francisco.
The 20-year-old finished on top of the two-day event touted as the Championship of Champions, which brought together the respective winners of SailGP Inspire events sailed at each round of SailGP. The boy's eight-strong fleet sailed 11 slalom races across the two days in San Francisco bay, with Herbert finishing two points ahead of Spain's Jaime Framis Harguindey.
"I’m incredibly proud of it because of the level of the competition," he said. "The racing in the boys was incredibly close and anybody could have won it.
"I hadn’t been in the [WASZP] boat that much recently, so for me to come in against the others, some of whom had just had the American and Australian nationals, and still be really competitive was great. It was also an honour to represent the New Zealand SailGP Team."
It wasn't the only reward. In fact, it's the opportunities that will come Herbert's way that excites him the most on top of the networking he was exposed to in San Francisco.
Not only will he will receive a cash prize to support his professional sailing development but he will also get the chance to join a SailGP team's training and tech session at a season three event, which includes a ride on an F50 catamaran.
"The ride on the F50, 100 percent," Herbert said when asked what looms as the biggest perk. "It's a bucket list [item], for sure."
Herbert got a close-up look at them last week when he spent a day with the New Zealand SailGP Team as they prepared for the weekend's final round of racing. He helped the team put the boat together in readiness for sailing and then jumped on the team's chase boat during a training session.
"To actually get out and chase them around was incredible," he said.
Herbert's ambition is to sail on an F50 more than once, though. He's aiming to join the professional sailing ranks in a foiling class and the last few days has only reaffirmed those aspirations.
"When you’re putting in all the hours, it's sometimes hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel," he said. "The opportunity that SailGP has given us to be with the teams and to experience it definitely sparks something in me to keep going. Without a doubt, it makes me hungry. I want to get it."
Herbert will return home just in time to compete in this weekend's Moth national championships at Sandspit, where he will come up against a number of other promising young sailors and some more experienced hands.
Herbert didn't contest the Moth nationals last year, which were won by Nathan Outteridge, but it's the class he spends most of his time in these days and he will go in as a former WASZP, RS Feva and three-time Starling national champion. And, of course, the Champion of Champions.