Women's America's Cup: Flying Dutchwomen, Team Germany fights

"It certainly wasn't the best day of my career in terms of results, but it was still the day I'm most proud of," said trimmer Luise Wanser, summarising the start of Group B in the 1st Women's America's Cup from a German perspective.

Rotation as a team principle

With her summary of the day, the 470 World Champion shed light on the not entirely unexpected last place of the Women's AC Team Germany in the classification after the first four of eight qualifying races. On the other hand, however, the Hamburg native's statement also highlighted how hard the German women's journey to the starting line of the historic premiere of the first America's Cup regatta for women has been. And how proud they are to have made it onto the Barcelona stage.

In addition to the six Cup teams, only six other women's teams have managed to make it to the starting line of the women's America's Cup. One of them is the Women's AC Team Germany. Skipper Maru Scheel (Kieler Yacht Club), who is already active in the Youth America's Cup, and Olympic 49erFX silver medallist Tina Lutz (Chiemsee Yacht Club) were at the helm on Sunday. Luise Wanser and Jill Paland alternated as trimmers on the port side behind Maru Scheel.

The 470 helmswoman Luise Wanser was responsible for the position in the first two races, while her team mate Jill Paland from the Norddeutscher Regatta Verein took over for races 3 and 4. On the starboard side, team captain Carolina Werner was active as trimmer in all four races. The German women's team justified the chosen rotation principle with the sporting equality of the six female sailors for the four stationary positions on board - and the spirit in the team.

The power zone is between 70 and 90 degrees

These changes will also take place on the second qualifying day of Group B, which has been brought forward to Monday. Victoria Jurczok (Verein Seglerhaus am Wannsee) will then take over from Tina Lutz at the helm, probably in slightly more wind than in the initially flat start. First, however, the German sailors had to show some resilience on Sunday.

Only sixth place remained in the first race after the German AC40 foiler fell off the foils before the start and was unable to get up in the light winds for a long time. This also happened to the seniors in the Louis Vuitton Cup, but meant a particularly tough start for the German women. Tina Lutz gave an insight into the situation: "It just doesn't help: if you fall off the foils, what are you going to do? Then you're down and you have to make the best of it."

How do you do that in just a handful of knots of wind? Tina Lutz explains: "You can only make it back up at a certain angle. You have to be exactly in the power zone between 70 and 90 degrees, you have to control this number of degrees to have any chance of getting back up. That was difficult for us, of course, because we had to get down to the start line before we could start. You only have two minutes to cross the start line. We managed that, but of course we lost a lot of time as a result."

Women's America's Cup: Light wind hardships at the start

To get back on the foils, the boat needs around eight knots of wind. "That's enough if you're really good. If you're not really good yet and need more practice, then you need more wind," said Olympic silver medallist and two-time European 49erFX champion Tina Lutz, explaining the complex game with the AC-40 mini-cuppers in balmy breezes at the Women's America's Cup.

You can compare it to windsurfing foiling, says Tina Lutz: "You might take off at ten or eleven knots the first time. You have to do it again and again until you get the feeling that you can take off even in less wind." Luise Wanser refers to the light wind day in the short training session before the Women's America's Cup, when AC Team Germany was just getting to know the boats: "We weren't even able to take off then. We've made a lot of progress since then."

The disqualification that the German women's boat received in race 2 after crossing the course boundary by around 100 metres hurt in the second race. It had a history, as Luise Wanser reported: "It started early on. Even before the upwind buoy. We had to avoid the Spaniards. They got the protest and the penalty accordingly."

Close duel with consequences

However, the close duel had consequences for the German boat: "We had to make an extra turn and then evade the Spaniards again. That was a hara-kiri manoeuvre. After that, we had to get back on the foils. On the software, we were still within the course limit. But the software was supposedly wrong. And we had already fallen too far out of the boundary area. We couldn't see that. I was the trimmer and just wanted to get back on the foils as quickly as possible. We were already about to fall off again when the disqualification came."

According to the Cup regulations, this is awarded if the boats exceed the course limit by more than 85 metres. Also noteworthy in this race was the failure of the Swedish top favourites, who were later awarded the average score of their results for race two. The Scandinavians, who had their own boat, had trained intensively on it for months and had won the first race according to the forecasts, suffered a communication failure. All attempts to repair it had failed. In the evening, they found themselves in fourth place, well below expectations.

Things picked up for the German women's team in race three. Although they started from the second row, they moved up to third place at times in the fleet race. They held on to this position until the final sprint to the finish, when it came to a bow-to-bow duel with Canada's Concord Pacific Racing Women's Team.

20 milliseconds decide 3rd and 4th place

Visually, the German and Canadian boats crossed the line at the same time after a thrilling battle. The published official finish time also confirmed the picture: both boats crossed the line 1 minute and 52 seconds after the increasingly strong Dutch winners. Nevertheless, a short time later the results calculator showed the Canadians in third place and the Germans in fourth. When asked by YACHT online, the race committee led by regatta director Ian Murray reported that the Canadians had a lead of 20 milliseconds.

In the fourth and final race of the day, the Women's AC Team Germany finished in fifth place. With a score of six points for the day, all that remained was sixth place and the hope of being able to convert everything they had learnt into better results on Monday. Jajo Team DutchSail (27 points) took the lead ahead of the Spanish Sail Team BCN Women (24 points) and Andoo Team Australia Women's Team (23 points).

Tina Lutz, who will be replaced by Vicky Jurczok at the helm on starboard on day two, described why the many months of preparation in the simulator and Kiel and other hardships have already paid off. "I also told the team: when we sailed in today, I almost had tears in my eyes because I enjoyed it so much," said the 33-year-old.

There are always critics, but if they could do better, they would be here." Luise Wanser

The women's goal for the second qualification day remains the same as before the start of the historic regatta premiere. Luise Wanser said with a lot of fighting spirit: "It's not the result that counts here, but that we're here, that we're gaining experience, that we're doing it. We do our best here because we are fighting for experience and therefore for the future."

Jajo Team DutchSail storms the Women's America's Cup

Team of the day - as the German sailors respectfully recognised - were the Dutch on the Barcelona stage on Sunday. Jajo Team DutchSail opened the two-day preliminary round of the new America's Cup for women with 5th and 3rd place, before letting it rip with two race wins on the course and in the boat. They celebrated their successes exuberantly and rousingly. They had not started the Women's America's Cup premiere as top favourites due to their lack of AC40 experience.

However, 49erFX Olympic champion Odile van Aanholt, her gold foresailor Annette Duetz in the trimmer position for port helmswoman Arianne van de Loosdrecht and second trimmer Willemijn Offermann sailed the AC40 like a racehorse. "They were always at the starting line earlier than us, bang on," said Luise Wanser, explaining one of the reasons for the Jajo sailors' classy performance.

The Dutch women had significantly more training on F69 foils than the German sailors on course for the Women's America's Cup. Certainly also the self-confidence of the aggressive and very determined Odile van Aanholt, boosted by her recent 49erFX gold. Overall, the "Flying Dutchwomen" had travelled to Barcelona with a package not entirely dissimilar to the German team.

On course for success with a compelling start

Jajo Team Dutchsail also carried out its training largely using simulators. Odile van Aanholt categorised the budget as being "roughly in the same range as the German budget" without giving more precise details. This was around 300,000 euros for the youth and women's crew of AC Team Germany. "We went out there with a positive attitude. We knew that we didn't have much time in the boat. We told ourselves that we wanted to do our best and have fun," said Odile van Aanholt.

Our starts were like fire." Odile van Aanholt

Then she became more specific: "Our starts have put us in a position to be able to race properly in every race. The first race wasn't so pretty. We fell off the foils. As Tina said, it's really hard to get back up in these boats when you've only trained in the simulator. These boats are great when foiling. But definitely complicated when they don't." That was then the focus for her team in the remaining races: "Just stay on the foils!" This became easier with every knot of wind.

Odile van Aanholt described her team's strength as the ability of each sailor in the Dutch boat to coach the others. "We coached each other the whole time and cheered each other on," said the Olympic skiff champion. "Every time the two on the other side of the boat did something well, we cheered them on during the race."

The big picture at a glance

In the Jajo team, three-time Olympian and head coach Jan-Pieter Postma is one of the lynchpins who, together with Odile van Aanholt, has been the driving force behind the campaign. "He's really important, he made sure we were here in the first place," she says. The skipper of the Dutch youth team under the Jajo umbrella was Odile van Aanholt's partner, two-time 49er world champion Bart Lambriex. "Communication in the youth team was as clear as you'd like to hear. Bart gives us lots of practical tips."

Olympic yngling silver medallist Annemieke Bes is also active as a Jajo coach. "Annemieke Bes is our main coach. She has a lot of experience with teams and how to keep teams together. Thumbs up in her direction. I don't think I've ever worked in a team like this that has come together so well so quickly. She has the big picture in mind and makes sure that we are all mentally happy," says Odile van Aanholt.

I feel very responsible for everything that happens." Odile van Aanholt

When asked about the leader in her team, the skipper said: "I don't really know. If no one else takes responsibility, then I take it. But we all feel very responsible for our own jobs on board. Sometimes speed is the most important responsibility. Then there's a lot of urgency in the trimmers' voices. And we follow them completely. Sometimes racing and tactics are more important, in which case Willemijn and I are more vocal. It's never quiet on board."

Boat Captain is the fifth in the bunch

She shares the dream of the America's Cup with many of her compatriots. "We definitely have the vision of getting into high-foiling and the America's Cup. Maybe there will also be a women's series on the AC40 boats." The Dutch women travelled to the Women's America's Cup as a quintet. Their fifth sailor, Ismene Usman, has known for weeks that she will not be racing.

The fifth member of the team is the boat captain for the women's team in Barcelona. "But we made sure that she got just as much foiling time in training as everyone else, even if it was reduced to just two days. Because we share this journey and she helped us to be here. She's our boat captain now and that's another thing here: It's not all about great sailing. We had zero technical problems today - that's thanks to her. She's doing a great job!"

While AC Team Germany is competing in both the Youth Cup and the Women's America's Cup on the AC40 from Alinghi Red Bull Racing, Jajo Team DutchSail is contesting the regattas on the four-person Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli trailer. Sounds good, you might think. Odile van Aanholt laughs: "They are very precise and strict with us."

The Women's America's Cup continues

The Women's America's Cup will continue on 7 October from 14:10 with the second sailing day of Group B. The German Women's AC Team Germany will come out of the starting blocks ready to attack. On 8 October, Group A with the Cup teams will be challenged again, where Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli's women took the lead after day one ahead of the British team Athena Pathway. The top three teams in each group will then progress to the semi-finals, in which six teams will again contest four races on 11 October. The two best teams will compete in a duel for victory in the 1st Women's America's Cup on 13 October.

Click here for the results of the Women's America's Cup after two of four qualifying days.

REPLAY! The replay of the live broadcast of the first qualifying day of Group B with the Women's AC Team Germany: