Rolex SailGP: "It's about the balance between planning and intuition"

The F50 foilers were once created for precisely this area at the northern tip of the Bermuda Triangle: They made their debut in the Great Sound as AC50s in the 35th America's Cup in 2017, before being rebuilt and remodelled and making a career in the SailGP as the F50 fleet from 2019.

The boats are coming home. They have been designed for the Bermuda area." Erik Kosegarten-Heil

Team Germany's driver Erik Kosegarten-Heil is looking forward to the SailGP summit in the dream spot of Bermuda with great anticipation, as he said in a preliminary talk on the Alster in Hamburg at a partner event of the Germany SailGP Team: "The colours there are wonderful, simply stunningly beautiful. The Great Sound offers a comparatively large race course with shallow water."

This is where the speedy foilers can unleash their power, even if May is not one of the windiest months in the Atlantic region. A good 1000 kilometres east of Cape Hatteras, isolated in the North Atlantic, the up to 360 islands, islets, reefs and rocks of Bermuda are exposed to the elements. On the SailGP weekend, the teams are expected to be tested by two different weather scenarios against the backdrop of the main island.

The SailGP test in Bermuda: from moderate to fickle

Moderate north-easterly winds and some waves could characterise Saturday's races. On Sunday, SailGP meteorologist Chris Bedford expects possibly shifty and unsettled winds, which could cause some confusion in the classification. "One way to look at this scenario is that chaos levels the fleet. If the winds are a bit more unpredictable, everyone has a chance of getting lucky. And everyone has a chance to make a mistake," said Bedford.

All in all, the experienced sailor and weather expert expects there to be enough wind for all races, despite the potentially difficult conditions on Sunday. "The more complicated, the better for us, actually," says Erik Kosegarten-Heil, who liked it when things were "tricky" back in his Olympic days. The Germany SailGP team starts the fifth event of the sixth SailGP season in eighth place in the standings.

At the SailGP premiere in Rio, Black-Red Gold had recently shown two sides: as the best "catch-up team", Team Germany made up for a few too many weak starts with 18 good places across all seven races. With one race win, one second and one third place, the team led by Erik Kosegarten-Heil showed where the journey is heading.

If the starts work out, we'll be at the start." Erik Kosegarten-Heil

The formula sounds simple, but it is not that easy to realise. Especially on the last section before the start - from the "back wall" (rear boundary of the start box) to the line - the Germans have struggled recently. The driver knows what needs to be worked on in other ways, even without a training opportunity on the F50 foils: "It's about the balance between planning and intuition."

Alternative training measures: Simulator sessions like with the Playstation

As there are no real F50 training opportunities for any team in the league until at least the autumn, everyone will have to continue to look at alternative training options. The sailors from the Germany SailGP team are still training on switches. Recently, however, they have also been practising intensively with simulation programmes. A steering wheel like from a Playstation and the corresponding programmes on the laptop make it possible.

Erik Kosegarten-Heil, strategist Anna Barth, grinder Linov Scheel and other team members have just shown how it works during a day with the team's partners at the Norddeutscher Regatta Verein on the Alster. With small equipment, a laptop and a suitable programme, they can train with and against each other anywhere and at any time. Almost everything can be adjusted: altitude, flight altitude, heel, rudder and much more. A virtual race course is created by adding the course boundaries. Off you go.

"What's cool is that you can set quite a lot to 'auto', but also just as much to 'manual'. You could sail the thing completely on your own, even do the rake yourself. That would be incredibly difficult," says SailGP coach Lennart Briesenick, explaining the 1001 possibilities of the programme, which can be used as an overall challenge as well as for practising very specific areas.

The art of communication at SailGP

An individual user can "add" their usual fellow sailors by "putting their tasks on buttons", i.e. switching to automatic, and concentrating only on their typical tasks. "But you can also, for example, do the rake (ed.: mast tilt) yourself to challenge yourself cognitively," says Lennart Briesenick, describing one of the countless possibilities of the training programme.

The team has been working intensively over the past few weeks. Once again also on optimising communication. Along the way, Erik Kosegarten-Heil has given his crew homework with in-depth questions about their assessments and perceptions of certain situations on the course. He wants to find out even more precisely how each sailing crew member sees, assesses and communicates situations in possibly very different ways.

The German racing team is still working on reducing and optimising communication on board. The formula applies: the less communication, the more room for intuition, tactics and strategy.

The Germany SailGP Team is close to the podium places

At the same time, Erik Kosegarten-Heil sees his team making progress, saying: "We are probably better than we were at the same time last year. When we're at the front, people don't overtake us so easily. In Rio, we had it in our hands to fight for a podium place. But so far the starts haven't gone smoothly. But if we get off to a good start, then we'll be right there."

The helmsman also has one wish for Bermuda. "Preferably on the podium," he says and smiles. It's a goal he shares with most of the twelve teams that will be sailing in the Great Sound for the Apex Group Bermuda Sail Grand Prix. Only New Zealand's Black Foils will have to continue watching. After the dramatic crash with France's DS Team Automobiles in Auckland and the boat destroyed in the incident, their new build is not yet ready.

The Kiwi comeback is not expected until the seventh event in Halifax, Canada (20/21 June) at the earliest. Until then, others will be snapping up the points. The Australian Bonds Flying Roos, who recently won in Rio, will also start the seven fleet races off Bermuda as joint favourites for the triple final of the best three teams.

Have Great Britain's champions recovered from the Rio shock?

The exciting question is whether Dylan Fletcher and the otherwise success-kissed Team GBR have recovered from the defeat suffered in Rio? Between the Sugarloaf Mountain and the Christ the Redeemer statue, the reigning champions did not manage to get past last place on the water (Click here for the Rio results). SailGP boss Russell Coutts has just rubbed a little salt in the wound and stated in his Bermuda preview that the Brits weren't just unlucky in Rio, but simply didn't sail any better. "They deserved to be in last place," said Coutts. Rumms.

Coutts also gave Team Germany a little side blow for the "slower starts than expected". In contrast, "Mister SailGP" sent praise to the Americans, who were still very weak last season and are surprisingly in third place in the table after the first four events of the new season. Coutts said: "I think anyone who says they expected them to perform so strongly is glossing over the truth." Click here for the interim results in the SailGP season championship.

The outcome in Bermuda can be followed at prime time on Saturday and Sunday (9 and 10 May) on the ZDF SailGP stream from 7pm. The commentator will be Nils Kaben, who will officially have a co-commentator from the Germany SailGP team at his side for the first time, Felix Van den Hövel. The grinder from the German team has also been working as a roving reporter for the team for some time. Click here for the ZDF live stream.

The Bermuda plan: good starts, consistency, no "big things"

Strategist Anna Barth is also looking forward to the Bermuda mission: "I'm really, really looking forward to it. The boats were built for this. Plus this water...!" After the Rio SailGp, Anna Barth sees good chances for her team: "Coming from Rio, I can see that we have what it takes to be among the front runners. We showed that several times there. We had really many top three resultsbut haven't managed to get it on the paper consistently."

The solution? "If we can manage not to have two big ones in there. They cost us the final. I think we have a good chance of doing that again." As Anna Barth also recognises, the German team still trails the wealth of experience of the established team by several SailGP years, but the gap is narrowing. "We still realise, even if I'm repeating myself, how little an Australian team has to talk about how they sail the boat. And how much space it takes up for us."

Accordingly, teams like the Bonds Flying Roos have more capacity for tactical and strategic considerations. "But," says Anna Barth, "I already have the feeling that we're getting a bit closer."

Sailing on the Edge - Sailing on a knife edge. Click here for episode one of the SailGP series for the new 2026 season:

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