Never before have so many America's Cup winners been together in one place in Germany as on Saturday evening at the Robbe & Berking Yachting Heritage Centre in Flensburg. Oliver Berking hosted the highly prominent ceremony to induct three new members into the America's Cup Hall of Fame. The Robbe & Berking CEO and founder of the Flensburg heartbeat chamber for yacht lovers with the largest yachting library in the world, galleries, a museum, a current America's Cup exhibition and a shipyard specialising in old wooden beauties led through the evening in style, cheerfully and with a great deal of tangible passion. He was supported by his team, which also included Berking's children and their friends.
Dennis Conner's most important sailing partner and loyal companion William T. "Bill" Trenkle was inducted into the America's Cup Hall of Fame, which was founded in 1992. In addition, William H. Dyer Jones, who is best known to today's Cup fans as the regatta director of the first European edition of the Cup in Valencia in 2007. In fact, Jones has helped shape the most important regatta in international sailing since 1967 - back then in the twelve-boat era - in a wide variety of roles. The third new and 90th member to be admitted posthumously by the 22-member committee of Cup experts from eight countries was Henry Recamier, who entered the historic Cup stage as a French businessman following an initiative by Cup organiser Bruno Troublé in 1982 by bringing Louis Vuitton into play as a Cup sponsor and formative partner.
How the Cup became what it is today
Many witnesses to the acceptance ceremony in the beautiful historic yacht centre were not inferior to the honourees in terms of impact and fame. CEO Grant Simmer and design luminary Rolf Vrolijk from Hamburg represented the current challenger Ineos Team UK. Simmer is currently competing for the eleventh time in the battle for the ornate silver jug and, as a young navigator in 1983, was one of the Australian Cup heroes who spectacularly ended the Americans' 132-year winning streak. Simmer has been a member of the America's Cup Hall of Fame since 2013. Simmer's colleague Rolf Vrolijk, who won the Cup twice in a row as Head of Design with the Swiss team Alinghi in 2003 and 2007, is likely to be a candidate for induction in the near future.
The evening was characterised by lively laudations from well-known sailing personalities. America's Cup winner Tom Whidden not only shared entertaining stories from the life of his compatriot Bill Trenkle, but also delivered a message from "Mr America's Cup" Dennis Conner, who had just undergone back surgery. After 40 years of collaboration with Bill Trenkle and eight joint Cup campaigns, he had the following to say to the international guests in Flensburg: "I raised the money for our projects. Bill spent it. He did the work and I've been praised for it. Give Bill a job, any job, and you know he'll do it to perfection." It was the same later on with the joint projects in the Whitbread Round the World Race. Another of Trenkle's outstanding qualities was his famous gift for anticipation: he could always foresee what his boss would do next at the wheel. "I never had to tell him a single word about the trim," recalls Dennis Conner, the most famous skipper in Cup history, of his most loyal companion.
Late in the evening, Trenkle expressed the conviction that united all the evening's guests: the fascination of the yachting centre in the far north of Germany, which they had followed from afar and which is unparalleled worldwide. Trenkle said: "It's absolutely fantastic here! I have rarely seen and experienced anything so beautiful." His laudator Tom Whidden summed up everyone's enthusiasm in the midst of the America's Cup exhibition, which was well worth seeing: "When I was asked to give the speech for Bill Trenkle's induction ceremony into the Hall of Fame, I asked why I had to travel so far. Now I know!"
Steven Tsuchiya, Chairman of the America's Cup Hall of Fame Selection Committee, said on this memorable evening in Flensburg: "The ceremony is taking place in Germany for the first time. It is a privilege to be able to experience it at the Robbe & Berking Yachting Heritage Centre. With two America's Cup twelve-wheelers right next door, the important exhibits from Cup history and the many Cup participants among the guests, Flensburg is the centre of the America's Cup world tonight."
Tatjana Pokorny
Sports reporter
