Martine Grael calls it her “circle of trust.” The reality of it surrounds her every time she slips into the cockpit of a catamaran to race in Rolex SailGP. Without it, forget it.
Any member of the crew can bring on a catastrophe. You have to trust they probably won’t, and so it goes, one by one, around the circle.
In recruiting the team that will race with her Saturday and Sunday at the Port of Los Angeles, Grael had help from a family friend, the Olympian Alan Adler, who is the chief executive of the Mubadala Brazil SailGP Team and essential to her circle of trust. This is the team’s debut season, and he hired experience from the sailors set free after the 2024 America’s Cup last October.
Then comes one who is his own kind of special. That would be big brother, Marco Grael, also an Olympian, sailing as a grinder, operating the winches.
“Creating a team was about gathering people I trust who also sail well,” said Martine, the driver who steers the 50-foot-long F50 foiling catamaran used in SailGP. “One of them happens to be my brother. Knowing him forever is the best.”
Being from a leading Brazilian sailing family, sister and brother came to the sport naturally, she said. Sailing tiny boats, solo, they were allowed to goof around as much as they wanted, but the itch to race may have been genetic. Uncle Lars is an Olympian, and their father, Torben, has won five Olympic medals and an ocean race around the world.
Until now, Martine and Marco had rarely sailed in the same boat. Most often, they’ve looked at each other across the water. If they weren’t racing, they were speed testing in small boats to see how to make both of them faster.
Recalling early days with his younger sister, Marco said, “It wasn’t so much that she was always fast. She had a spark. She always pushed herself, always wanted more time, more work. It’s part of the family culture. No one is born with talent.”
Starting this season as a driver with a first-time team under the colors of Brazil, Martine observed that there was more multitasking than in the smaller 49erFX, her ride for Olympic gold in 2024. Multitasking is coming more easily now.
“It’s a mechanical process that you have to interiorize,” she said. “My goal is to be able to spend 85 percent of my time looking at the racecourse outside the boat and only 15 percent paying attention to dials and controls.”
The sailing is complex. Practice time is scarce because SailGP limits how often a team can practice.
“We’ve been getting only one practice day ahead of each event,” she said.
The new team has a steep learning curve against teams that have been in the game for as much as four seasons. Los Angeles looks to be no different, and then it’s a rush to San Francisco for the following weekend’s event. That places a premium “on debriefing really well before and after, so you get to the water with a clear idea of what you want to do,” Martine said.
English is their language of choice. “Early on, I asked the Spanish team why they were using English when all of their team were Spanish except one,” Marco said. “Specificity turns out to be important. We find ourselves, as Brazilians, needing to speak quickly, and a lot of Portuguese just doesn’t adapt.”
From their home base in Rio de Janeiro, the Grael family is spread across many time zones, and the elders are not camp followers. Martine, the dutiful daughter, sounded regretful that her parents spent “sleepless nights following the racing on broadcast.”
Marco said it was good to have them watching and to get their point of view. “But no, they don’t follow us around the world,” he said. “A little distance can be nice too.”
Competing at home in Rio would be an indescribable feeling, Martine said. SailGP’s third event of the year takes place there in May.
“Guanabara Bay has a unique energy, and being able to race in this historic stage alongside my brother, in front of our family, friends and so many Brazilian fans,” she said, “makes it even more special.”
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