Olympics: “Platoon Aviation” support for Richard Schultheis and Fabi Rieger

Harm Müller-Spreer and Team Platoon Aviation are currently sailed their way onto the podium at the TP52 World Championship off Porto Cervo. In the 52 Super Series, the owner and helmsman from the Norddeutscher Regatta Verein has played a leading sporting role with his team for more than a decade, having already won three world championship titles. Alongside his own programme, however, Harm Müller-Spreer has also long been committed to Olympic sailing. This commitment has now given rise to a new campaign.

Substantial funding for Richard Schultheis and Fabian Rieger

The Hamburg-based entrepreneur will be supporting one of the most promising 49er crews in German sailing on their journey to the LA2028 Olympic Games: the 21-year-old helmsman Richard Schultheis and his 30-year-old bowman Fabian Rieger. With this move, Harm Müller-Spreer, through his company Platoon Aviation and as a member of the North German Regatta Club (NRV), aims to send a clear signal in support of promoting young talent in German sailing.

According to the press statement, this applies “to the dynamic 49er skiff class, in which Germany has traditionally been one of the leading nations”. The sailor, himself a successful competitor, has noted in his observations and in many personal conversations with the young Richard Schultheis: “Richard and Fabian combine athleticism, tactical understanding and the necessary mental strength, all of which are crucial at world-class level in the 49er. I see them as a team with exceptional potential for development ahead of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.”

​The close collaboration between the professional racing team Platoon Aviation and the Olympic sailors Richard Schultheis and Fabian Rieger is a long-term endeavour, clearly linked to the Olympic cycle and focused on the quest for Olympic medals. The 49er European Championships, starting on 7 July in Eckernförde, the 2027 World Championships and other key international regattas will mark key milestones in the coming months and years on the skiff sailors’ journey to the Games in Los Angeles.

More than ‘just’ sponsorship for the 49er crew

For Richard Schultheis, who was born in Berlin, grew up in Malta and has been competing for the German Sailing Association (DSV) since 2025, and his bowman Fabian Rieger, this support brings a whole new level of planning certainty and access to resources at the very highest level of international sailing. The collaboration between the Olympic sailors and Platoon Aviation extends beyond traditional sponsorship to cover sailing, technical and organisational aspects.

"Our aim is to establish ourselves amongst the world’s best over the next two years and to compete for an Olympic medal in 2028." Richard Schultheis

Despite his young age, he is considered Richard Schultheis (NRV) alongside the more experienced 30-year-old Fabian Rieger (VSaW), who won World Championship bronze back in 2018, is already among the world’s elite. Born in the capital in 2005, the coxswain has already achieved top results with his team at international regattas in what is still the early stages of their campaign together. These include Podium finishes at Sailing Grand Slam regattas. This year The duo had already won the Trofeo Princesa Sofia with their striking sailing routine, GER 11 among a world-class field.

The support provided by NRV member Harm Müller-Spreer goes well beyond financial backing. Müller-Spreer plans to integrate Richard Schultheis and Fabian Rieger into an expanded training environment “that also offers opportunities to engage with professional high-performance structures”.

All in the same boat with Richard Schultheis and Fabian Rieger

Müller-Spreer has already demonstrated in the past just how valuable this approach can be – an approach that is still far more common internationally than in Germany: Athletes from the German Sailing Team benefited from training sessions on board his TP52 yacht ‘Platoon Aviation’ and from interacting with the crew, which brings together professionals from the America’s Cup and Olympic campaigns.

“The combination of top-level sport and knowledge transfer is crucial for young crews. This is exactly where I come in, and I’m constantly refining our support programme.” Harm Müller-Spreer

The NRV Olympic Team knows Müller-Spreer very well from their own club on Hamburg’s Alster; she has been part of the team for a long time. Support for the 49er crew of Richard Schultheis and Fabian Rieger is provided in close collaboration with the Norddeutscher Regatta Verein, which has been one of Germany’s leading training centres for Olympic sailing for decades. With Olympic medals to its name – not only in the 49er class – and a wide-ranging development programme, the club offers an environment that consistently attracts top international athletes to the German Sailing Team’s national sailing team produces.

When Richard Schultheis moved from Malta to the DSV umbrella organisation in early 2025, following promising discussions on both sides, he joined the NRV directly. The two-time fifth-place finisher at the Motten World Championships had already achieved a great deal as a teenager. Together, Harm Müller-Spreer and the 49er sailors Richard Schultheis and Fabian Rieger aim to use their partnership within the already strong German 49er programme – in which NRV sailors Erik Heil and Thomas Plößel won Olympic bronze twice in 2016 and 2021 – aim to use their partnership to make “the decisive difference between international competitiveness and realistic medal chances at Los Angeles 2028”.