Despite a considerable start-up budget, the planned challenge had to be cancelled for two main reasons: An unassailable lead by the Americans and costs that were far too high. Scheeren explains the details to YACHT online.
YACHT: What exactly were the decision criteria?
Do you think BMW Oracle Racing's lead is unassailable, has the team already won?
They have been working on catamarans and wings for years. They have signed up the best people in these areas. I think all the other teams will find it difficult to beat them. That's why many people said they would rather sail monohulls again.
Wouldn't that have suited you too, as you still have the boat and equipment from the 32nd Cup in Valencia?
Exactly. But not even the pre-regattas are sailed with the old boats, so all our equipment is worthless. Otherwise it would have been a nice starting capital.
Germany is a high-tech location and is well positioned in the aerospace technology sector. Is there not enough expertise available to build a competitive wing mast?
That's exactly what our technicians told me, that this would be a great topic for Germany. But it's one thing to think it's all great. On the other hand, if you then ask someone whether they would give five million euros a year for it, they'll quickly say that's not what we meant.
What budget have you calculated with?
Nobody knows exactly how much it will cost at the moment, but you have to reckon with 50 to 60 million euros. That was our estimate. You can certainly make it cheaper, but then the question is how successful you can be with it. And these are amounts where you have to ask yourself where you want to get them from these days.
Especially as the American advertising market is not interesting for the German Internet provider 1&1, the previous main sponsor.
It wasn't that important, and if anything, we're probably only talking about one final there. But that's also the next point, that this is one of the many things that are still unknown. Apart from the catamaran, we don't yet know what will happen. Only the final in the USA wouldn't have been so bad.
How much of the budget would you have had, how much would you have had to collect?
We could probably have raised the first 20 million from our existing partners. But the problem is the time left. You can hardly get any more money from sponsors. That's why we thought that if we already have 20 million and we need maybe 30 million in total, we'll get the rest somehow. I thought that was realistic. But if we're now talking about 50 million, it's simply difficult.
Will anyone even be able to get that much together - after all, the British also cancelled on Monday for the same reason?
It will certainly come down to the teams that have the billionaires in the background who pay for it privately. There won't be much sponsorship.
Lars Bolle
Chief Editor Digital
