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By Nick Mulvenney

SYDNEY, Feb 7 (Reuters) - SailGP go back to where everything started in Sydney this weekend and six years on from the inaugural race, co-founder Russell Coutts sees a brilliant future for the innovative international sailing league.

An Olympic champ and skipper of three Americas Cup-winning boats, Coutts coordinated with Larry Ellison, the billionaire creator of the Oracle software application business, to release the series with six groups all owned by the league.

While the inaugural season which began in Sydney in February 2019 included simply 5 rounds, asteroidsathome.net this weekend's race will be the 3rd round of 13 the now 12-strong fleet will object to on the 2025-26 schedule.

"It's simply remarkable, actually, the uptake and number of events now," SailGP chief executive Coutts told Reuters at the Sydney Opera House on Friday.

"We're certainly sitting at 13, and aiming to increase that over the next seasons to somewhere around 20. If you compare that to Formula One that has 24, that's sort of where we wish to get to. So yeah, the future appearances great."

The concept of Formula One on water is implicit in the league's name and the contrast is not far from the mark when the world's finest sailors push the F50 hindering catamarans to their limits at what are breathtaking speeds for waterborne vessels.

"We didn't set out to simply attract the devoted sailing fan, we attempt to make this sport understandable and explainable for all sports fans," Coutts included.

"Most of our fans are not devoted sailors, and that is among the factors why we have actually grown so rapidly. We are appealing to individuals that much like viewing a race, they do not need to understand anything about sailboats."

A bumper crowd of 25,000 ticketed fans ended up to view Tom Slingsby's Australia group win the 2nd round of the series in Auckland last month.

"I think you'll see several of our occasions this year now like that, maybe even topping that," said Coutts, a 62-year-old New Zealander.

"The most important thing is the fans enjoying on broadcast ... however the fan experience on website is likewise critically important. We desire fans to come and have a fun time and see some great racing."

Technological innovation is essential to SailGP and hundreds of countless data points are relayed from the boats to the for using race organisers, teams and to help broadcasters improve the viewer experience.

360 DEGREE VIEW

Coutts is thrilled about some more innovations coming online as Artificial Intelligence is progressively employed to overcome the mountain of information.

"The huge development for us going forward is the 360 degree view from on board the boat, with listening to the team comms," he said.

"The audience will be taken on board and trip in addition to the Australian group in a race, and have the ability to look around any place they want. That's the future."

There have, obviously, been challenges over the six years with the second season interrupted by the COVID pandemic and race days still in some cases at the grace of wind conditions.

A lack of F50s suggested the French group was unable to complete at this year's season-opening race in Dubai and damage to the boat once they got it ruled them out of the Auckland leg.

The complete fleet of 12 boats will therefore race for bytes-the-dust.com the very first time this weekend and one of the most pleasing aspects for Coutts is that all but one of the teams are, or quickly will be, privately owned or run.

"These teams are now selling for $50 million, I would never have forecasted that this early," said Coutts, who plans to bring another number of teams on board next year.

"We understood that that was the entire method the design was established, that group owners would have the ability to trade their teams and hopefully earn money out of it, however I didn't think we 'd attain it this early. That's been a great surprise." (Reporting by Nick Mulvenney, editing by Michael Perry)