You advertise. They fight. They hope. Next Generation Team Germany still has ten days to raise the minimum budget needed to take part in the Red Bull Youth America's Cup. Now skipper Paul Kohlhoff from Kiel and his young team are going public again. They still need 30,000 euros to register at the end of December.
With this new campaign, Next Generation Team Germany aims to raise the missing budget 10 days before the registration deadline (Copyright: blondsign by Eike Schurr)
Olympic athlete Kohlhoff explains the idea of the Christmas campaign ("100 euro campaign") on the home straight: "We hope and believe that we will find 300 donors who will each contribute 100 euros to the success of our campaign. There is a major sponsor who is supporting us. The prerequisite for their commitment is that we get the minimum budget together." The entry fee of 40,000 euros for the Red Bull Youth America's Cup must be transferred on 15 December. Here to the call of the team.
Previous experience has shown Kohlhoff and the nine-strong Next Generation Team Germany that "people really want to help us, but there is too much talk and too little action". Anyone who now supports the team with a 100 euro donation will have their name or the company name immortalised on a Wing sticker. "We think," says Kohlhoff, "that a hundred-euro donation is absolutely possible for someone who cares about the next Cup generation and our goal."
"The Next Generation Team Germany is an initiative that aims to successfully bring Germany back to the America's Cup stage in the long term. The Red Bull Youth America's Cup points the way forward in the direction that sailing is currently heading. Participation in the Red Bull Youth America's Cup is a first milestone on the way to achieving this goal," explains Kohlhoff. Three years ago, a German team with Rio bronze medallist Erik Heil at the helm and Laser vice world champion Philipp Buhl as skipper took part in the Red Bull Youth America's Cup. Both have now already passed the age limit for the America's Cup youth competition, which will be held next summer in the Cup programme off Bermuda. The Next Generation Team Germany has now developed as a follow-up campaign. They have the support of their predecessors. Philipp Buhl's greeting to the team: "Project Youth America's Cup! A big and important milestone in the career of a sailor! Pull through, boys!"
The Christmas campaign runs via the team's homepage. Here to go directly to the fundraising campaign. If the required amount is not raised, the team will refund the donations.
Tatjana Pokorny
Sports reporter
