The party was supposed to start at 1.30 am on Friday night. In fact, around 70 sailing fans had already gathered at the Hamburg Sailing Club on the Alster at 10.00 pm the previous evening to watch the first race of the America's Cup.
This sailing party was made possible by the first ever live broadcast of the America's Cup on ARD. And, of course, Jochen Schümann, who, in his role as Sporting Director, was the first German to sail in such an important position in the America's Cup. The already high spirits increased after a few glasses of the donated free beer.
However, none of the visitors in Hamburg wanted to break out into cheers after Team New Zealand abandoned the first race. Everyone involved would have preferred an exciting race. Until four o'clock in the morning, the cosy sailing of the Alinghi was observed with lively discussions about the breakage of the opponent.
Jochen Schümann's home club, the Berlin-Grünau yacht club on the Müggelspree, was similarly lively. As the former managing director of the traditional club, Klaus Müller, reported, around 100 enthusiastic supporters of their three-time Olympic champion Jochen Schümann gathered there on Friday evening. Among them were the 1st chairman Raimund Lensing, Schümann's former coach (and former national coach) Bernd Dehmel and all his Olympic foresailors.
At the same time, the Berliners watched a live broadcast on Swiss television and next to it, on a 1.50 metre by 2.50 metre screen, the Virtual Spectator, which perfectly reproduced the events on the water in diagrams and drawings.
The organisers want to repeat their AC parties in both Hamburg and Berlin. Hamburg will start again next Friday. The Berliners will be analysing the summary on Eurosport tomorrow evening on a large scale. According to Klaus Müller, they will also be organising another big party on Friday. "And," says Müller, "definitely on day X, when one of the teams already has four points."
