America's Cup: "Playing in the super class" - young German talent on course for Barcelona
Tatjana Pokorny
· 31.05.2024
In its 37th edition since 1851, the America's Cup is offering more opportunities than ever to its young and female competitors: German teams will also be taking part in the UniCredit Youth America's Cup (17 to 26 September) and the premiere of the Puig Women's America's Cup (5 to 13 October). A total of twelve teams have been admitted to each of the two competitions: six junior teams from the current Cup defenders from New Zealand and the five challengers from Great Britain, the USA, Italy, Switzerland and France, as well as six other teams from countries that are aiming to make a comeback in the parent competition, the America's Cup, in the medium term. This also applies to Team Germany.
In both competitions - for the youth and the women - teams from Spain (Royal Barcelona Yacht Club), the Netherlands (Royal Netherlands Yacht Club, Royal Maas Yacht Club), Canada (Royal Vancouver Yacht Club), Sweden (Royal Gothenburg Yacht Club) and Australia (Cruising Yacht Club of Australia) will be competing alongside the young German crews led by their Kiel team captains Paul Farien and Carolina Werner. Team Germany competes for the Kieler Yacht-Club and the Norddeutscher Regatta Verein.
Two Olympic medallists on board
The German women's team around Nacra 17 Olympic participant Caro Werner includes well-known sailors: Olympic 49erFX silver medallist Tina Lutz, 470 Mixed World Champion Luise Wanser, Moth World Champion Franziska Mäge, Kieler Woche winner Sophie Steinlein (49erFX) and two-time Bundesliga winner Luisa Krüger. The German Youth America's Cup team will be represented by two-time Waszp vice European champion Paul Farien, Olympic Nacra 17 bronze medallist Alica Stuhlemmer and 2020 German 49er champion Lukas Hesse, who will be joined by Jesse Lindstädt, 2019 Nacra 15 vice world champion and U21 world champion, Linus von Oppen (4th U23 European Championship 49er 2020) and Ilca 7 ace Julian Hoffmann.
In a recent press release, the campaign stated that it wanted to gain as much experience as possible with the double mission "in order to be among the contenders for the coveted trophy in the 38th America's Cup with a German yacht". The up-and-coming talents will receive support on their course from well-known sponsors. These include two-time America's Cup winner Jochen Schümann, who lifted the oldest and most important trophy in sailing in 2003 and 2007 with the Swiss team Alinghi.
The aim this year is to bring Germany back into the circle of America's Cup nations with a Youth and a Women's Team." Jochen Schümann
Shortly before his 70th birthday on 8 June, Germany's most successful Olympic sailor in sporting history with three gold medals said: "The aim this year is to bring Germany back into the circle of America's Cup nations with a Youth and a Women's Team. Participation in the 37th UniCredit Youth and Puig Women's America's Cup forms the basis for our major goal of enabling a competitive German America's Cup challenge in the long term."
Jochen Schümann supports young talent in the Cup
What is needed for this? Jochen Schümann has experienced it himself and says: "In addition to talented, high-performance sailors, we need more experience on foiling racing yachts, a strong project team and the necessary financial resources and technical expertise to be able to play successfully on the international stage of super-class sailing."
It's no secret that the squiggly old silver jug called the America's Cup is also known as the "bottomless jug" because defences and challenges require immense sums of money. There has recently been some good news on this front for the German Cup youngsters. Although the black, red and gold are still looking for further sponsors, two strong partners have come on board in the form of HypoVereinsbank, part of the UniCredit Group, and the auditing and law firm Bay. They are supporting the young German Cup strikers in their America's Cup ambitions.
While the UniCredit Group is already involved in sailing, it is expanding this commitment with HypoVereinsbank's sponsorship of the German Foiling Academy. In cooperation with leading German sailing clubs, the Foiling Academy e.V. in Kiel is to become a central German performance centre for the promotion and training of young sailing talent. In the "Sailing City", the athletes have already been training with a sailing simulator for the Cup for six months. This opportunity was initially created by an early and committed supporter, two-time Olympian, star boat designer, boat builder and coach Marc Pickel, who purchased the simulator on his own initiative.
America's Cup: Kiel as a nucleus for the comeback
As sponsors of the Foiling Academy, HypoVereinsbank and Bay not only support the German America's Cup junior teams financially, but also provide knowledge transfer for the athletes with expertise in the areas of strategy, data analysis and financing. "We are delighted to have partners at our side who are impressed by the enthusiasm and ambition of the sailors and who will provide significant support for their ambitious sporting goals," says Oliver Schwall, co-initiator and COO of the German Youth and Women's America's Cup teams.
Schwall continued: "The support is not only focussed on this year's America's Cup. By setting up the Foiling Academy in Kiel, we are laying the foundations for effective, future-proof training for German sailors. For new challenges." The Kiel nucleus is to be the heart of future German Cup activities. Before that, there is the steep learning curve that the German team members will have to complete and the guaranteed appearances on the big Cup stage in Barcelona.
The third edition of the America's Cup for young sailors and the premiere of the women's competition will be held in the Catalan late summer and autumn on the small AC40 Cup foiling boats, each sailed by four people. The young offshoot teams of the Cup giants will have an advantage here, as they can already train now on the later regatta boats that their parent teams also use for training. Naturally, the youth and women's teams, which currently have no parent team in the 37th America's Cup, are also fighting for such opportunities. There will probably be a co-operation between the Orient Express Racing Team and the Spanish junior team.
Youth & Women's America's Cup: the fair format
The German team is also in talks. The German sailors want to relocate to Barcelona as soon as possible, depending on the cooperation and AC40 sailing opportunities that arise. The same regatta format for the UniCredit Youth America's Cup and the Puig Women's America's Cup offers teams without parent teams in particular a fair chance, as all six teams with parent teams meet in Group A in the qualifying round, while only crews without parent teams compete against each other in Group B of the preliminary round. This means that even the projects without direct access to the AC40 foilers have a fair chance of at least reaching the semi-finals as one of the top three teams in their qualifying round. In the final, only the two best of the six semi-finalists will meet in a match race duel.
Click here for an overview of the events and the schedule for the 37th Louis Vuitton America's Cup, the UniCredit Youth America's Cup and the Puig Women's America's Cup.
