Sweden's Artemis, who won the first SailGP race in South America on Saturday, struggled to finish the day and finished third behind the current SailGP leaders Australia's Bonds Flying Roos -and the U.S. SailGP Team.

Artemis, helmed by?America's Cup champion Nathan Outteridge and with Sugarloaf Mountain as a backdrop, won the first race in Rio de Janeiro’s Guanabara bay, then finished second in the following race. The Swedish newcomers struggled to finish in the second half, with a sixth and ninth place.

"Today was very tricky." Outteridge said that it wasn't nearly as windy and that if the boat could foil, you would be able to sail.

"Our first races were amazing, but we then struggled with the starts in the two next races and had to fight from there. Overall, it was a great day."

Australia, the current leaders of the?SailGP championship and three-time?SailGP champs, finished in first place on Sunday despite not winning any races. Their best results were a second and a two thirds. Los Gallos from Spain, Red Bull Italy, and Deutsche Bank from Germany won the other races.

Rio's event will be decided Sunday when three fleet races are held. The top three teams will then compete in the event final, which is a deciding event that determines the winner of the stage.

The Brazilian boat was helmed twice Olympic sailing champion Martine Greel, who won one of her gold medals on the same Rio waters back in 2016. They had a "tough" home debut. They sat out the first two race due to a problem with the telemetry before finishing in 10th position among 12 competing teams.

SailGP cancelled last year's Rio event, scheduled for May, after identifying a defect with select wingsails within the F50 fleet. After the Australian boat's wings collapsed in San Francisco, further testing and analysis were conducted.

SailGP is a competition that features high-speed races on identical F50 foiling catsamarans, capable of exceeding 60 mph (100 kph). The league pits teams of national sailors against one another in a series regattas held at famous locations around the world. (Reporting and editing by Ken Ferris; Pedro Fonseca)

(source: Reuters)