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15 hours ago
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British sailors have always been a belligerent bunch. Francis Drake, Lord Nelson, Admiral Cunningham … and, of course, Sir Ben Ainslie. The most successful Olympian in sailing’s history is also the sport’s equivalent of The Hulk: you really don’t want to make him angry.
So perhaps it’s a good thing that there has been plenty to annoy him this year, not least that acrimonious split from his America’s Cup team owner, Sir Jim Ratcliffe. In true Ainslie style, it only seems to have made him more dangerous. His Emirates GBR team top the SailGP championship going into this weekend’s grand final. And on Wednesday, they were named 2025 winners of its Impact League, which ranks the racing teams on the contribution they have made to their social and natural environment.
If you haven’t come across SailGP before, it’s where the world’s best sailors compete when they’re not at the Olympics or the America’s Cup. Launched four years ago, it gave the sport an F1-style calendar, in which a fleet of foiling catamarans race each other over a season of grand prix weekends. Its F50s are the fastest sailing boats on the planet, and the racecourses are close enough to the shore that spectators feel the full thrill of their speed.
That short-form fleet racing is not the only revolutionary thing about it. SailGP was founded to make sailing more viable as a career – in other words, sustainability was a core motivation. Its organisers have embedded that principle within the very competition itself by awarding side-by-side trophies – one for what happens on the water, and another for what happens off of it. For the past four years its Impact League has been just as fiercely fought as any of the grands prix themselves.
Its creation has modelled a completely new way for sport to operate. Across each year the teams’ activities are closely measured – and credibly judged – against a wide range of criteria. The more they cut their carbon use, or reduce waste, or use their platform to educate and influence, the higher they rank in the Impact League. In the first year of the competition alone, teams found ever more ingenious ways to reduce their carbon footprint, from removing plastic from their boats to reducing the fuel they were using in their support craft. Three members of the GB team even cycled from their homebase to the Plymouth Grand Prix – a total of more than 450 miles.
Gamification is often talked of as a way to change human behaviour, and hyper-competitive types such as athletes don’t need much encouragement if you tease them with a trophy, not to mention prize money of more than £100,000. Some changes – such as swapping out meat for plant-based proteins in their nutritional plans – have become commonplace, as everyone looks for marginal gains over their rivals. Hannah Mills, the double Olympic champion who is Emirates GBR’s strategist on the water, says it has been “a real education” for all the athletes on what is possible.
“Often you’re so head-down, focused on performance and trying to win, that you don’t necessarily realise the impact and responsibility you have outside of that,” says Mills. “This has opened our eyes to the difference you can make in so many areas. Particularly when you incentivise it around competition – that’s definitely created more change than if there wasn’t that format around it.” The steps that teams have taken to become more climate and socially conscious have been so swiftly effective that the Impact League has to keep making the points criteria harder each year.
“It means a lot to everyone to win, and every year the level is getting higher and the projects are getting better,” says Mills. By last season the British team were using portable solar and wind installations to power their entire events base and creating so much renewable energy they could send it back to the grid to be used by other teams. Just as importantly, they had created a model they could then share with other sports organisations.
The education charity that Emirates GBR have established, the 1851 Trust, now works with more than 40% of the UK’s secondary schools to teach children about climate action and one of their 2025 winning projects created a platform that engaged and encouraged 250,000 young people in Stem subjects. Another found ways to repurpose team kit that previously had to be replaced each time a new sponsor came on board – including lifejackets fitted with Velcro pads so that branding is easily interchangeable.
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Arguably their greatest success has been in creating opportunities for the next generation, both in sailing and the marine industry more widely. From their girls’ training programmes to their development scheme for inner-city youth, they are already reaping the rewards of their efforts. Kai Hockley was still at school in Haringey, north London, when he first interned with Ainslie’s team in 2024. Twelve months later he is a full-time professional training towards a role on their SailGP boat.
“Watching his career develop has been a highlight for me,” says Mills. “It’s incredible to be showing people a world they would probably never get the chance to see otherwise.” When she and her teammates are not training or racing, they’re engaged full-time on these “impact” projects. “It’s tons of work, but equally there’s so much reward, including for our own performance.”
As current championship leaders, the British team already had a target on their back at this weekend’s grand final in Abu Dhabi. The fact they’ve secured the Impact League for the second year running will only further pique the Australia and New Zealand teams challenging them (“No one wants us to do the double,” says Mills). Off the water, however, the sense of collective purpose among the SailGP athletes is utterly unique. As a former Olympian, Mills has worked with athletes in many fields, all wanting their governing bodies to take a lead in social and climate issues. Sailing may be a niche sport – but if it can model a more purpose-driven sporting landscape, the Impact League could have an impact far greater still.
