- First a botched start to the season, then a historic first event victory
- More foiling pleasure with new wings in the SailGP
- The SailGP final is about the highest prize money in sailing
- Mubadala Abu Dhabi SailGP: Who will be champion?
- After the five-year plan is before the five-year plan
The Germany SailGP Team by Deutsche Bank has received the SailGP Fan Award 2025 for the greatest improvement in performance this season. The award recognises the racing team with the best development in one year.
SailGP COO Julien di Biase, responsible for international event and location planning, personally delivered the award in the historic Zeisehallen, which was founded and built by Theodor Zeise as a propeller factory in 1882. The award recognises the team that has made the biggest leap forward this year and shown "growth, resilience and consistency" throughout the season.
First a botched start to the season, then a historic first event victory
At the last cue, Erik Kosegarten Heil had to laugh and admitted: "Consistency doesn't really fit yet..." The helmsman's slight qualification referred to the two very different halves of the season for the German racing team, which had to endure the historically biggest penalty points thunderstorm of a league team at the beginning of the year as a result of two training collisions in Sydney. It was not until the opening race victory at the home premiere off Sassnitz that Black-Red-Gold got increasingly better in the second half of the year and finally even won an event on Lake Geneva for the first time.
The positive vote from the international fan community feels "super good", commented Erik Kosegarten-Heil on the audience award. "We feel it too. We feel the extra 'complete' races. Before, we often only made these 'invisible' gains. In other words, we got better in certain aspects, but never managed to complete a race. From Sassnitz onwards, we managed to deliver more and more complete races. That's why we're naturally delighted that the fans see it the same way."
With places 5, 4, 1 and 3, Team Germany had made the last four events before the final at the end of November look very different to the places 9, 8, 11 and 7 in the first four events of the fifth SailGP season, which is now coming to an end. So what is still possible at the last event in Abu Dhabi? "First of all, it's business as usual. We have a normal race weekend ahead of us and want to improve as normal. Above all, we want to use all the time we can get on the boat," said Erik Kosegarten-Heil in Hamburg.
More foiling pleasure with new wings in the SailGP
A technical innovation is to be expected: The 27.5 metre wings could be used for the first time. "This is a different mast size that hasn't been sailed before. Two teams have tested it. We can look at the data from the tests. The boat has to be sailed much flatter to get through the manoeuvres," explains the German driver.
Erik Kosegarten-Heil continued: "Of course, the changes are more significant with this mega-long mast. This means that if you only go into the manoeuvre with a little heel, you come out of the manoeuvre with a lot of heel. I think we'll be foiling much earlier than before. The large foils will also help us a lot. We saw this at the weekend in Geneva: We wouldn't even have foiled there with the old foils. The new ones help us a lot. And then the wings. I think we can expect a lot of foiling in Abu Dhabi despite relatively little wind."
Coach Lennart Briesenick also said at the SailGP evening in Hamburg that the team had not only prepared for the twelfth and final event at the Mubadala Abu Dhabi Sail Grand Prix on 29 and 30 November. "We have also set ourselves up for the next season. In general, the whole league is constantly professionalising. We looked at the most important lessons learnt and what we need to change for next season in order to position ourselves well."
The SailGP final is about the highest prize money in sailing
From Briesenick's point of view, there is another interesting reason for switching from the 29-metre wings to the 27.5-metre wings: "The 29-metre mast simply weighs more and so the whole thing foils later. But bigger is not always better, because then the weight comes into play. In this respect, the 27.5-metre wings will foil much sooner than the 29-metre wings."
For the leading teams in the season championship after eleven of twelve events, the 27.5-Wings will probably be the big prize at the finale in Abu Dhabi the weekend after next: the season winners alone will receive two million US dollars. Four teams have a mathematical chance of grabbing by far the biggest prize money in sailing.
With the table leaders from Team Emirates GBR (85 points), New Zealand's Black Foils (82 points), Australia's Bonds Flying Roos (80 points) and - with the chance of a last-minute counterattack - the Spanish title defenders Los Gallos (76 points), four teams will be battling it out in six fleet races for a place in the grand season finale, which only offers three places. Due to the time difference, the fleet races will start at 11 a.m. German time on 29 and 30 November. ZDF will be broadcasting live, with Kristin Recke commentating. The live links can be found here on the race days.
Mubadala Abu Dhabi SailGP: Who will be champion?
At the press conference in Hamburg, Erik Kosegarten-Heil said in response to the question, who of the four candidates is likely to win the season championship: "I'm not sure: Kiwis or Brits? The Brits have been so strong all season that they deserve to win. But I think in a special situation like a final like this, there could also be a very good chance for the Kiwis." Coach Lennart Briesenick is also backing the Brits, as is team CEO Tim Krieglstein.
The team members took stock of the season together in the evening between the Elbe and Alster rivers in the heart of Hamburg-Ottensen. Julien di Biase also explained the league's view of the racing team and the German market in the cinema hall of the Zeisehallen, where the Sassnitz debut in the summer of this year achieved a full house, 13,000 tickets sold and an economic impact of 13.1 million euros for the region. The follow-up event planned for 22 and 23 August 2026 in Sassnitz is set to grow. Rockwool has already come on board as title sponsor. The First round ticket sales have just started here started.
Julien di Biase said on Thursday evening in the Hanseatic city: "Germany is a key market for us with a passionate fan base and great potential for the coming years. The strong response confirms our course and encourages us to further expand SailGP here. Rockwool plays a crucial role in this: they are much more than a sponsor - they are a strategic partner with a committed, broad-based team that shares our vision, strengthens the events and makes the host cities visible."
After the five-year plan is before the five-year plan
According to Julien di Biase, the league's first five-year business plan ends with the season finale in Abu Dhabi. "Our ambition in the first five years was to establish the SailGP. And I can tell you: when we started, it was by no means clear that we would be sitting here today. A lot of people really thought: 'Okay, this might be fireworks for one or two years, but then it will stop again'. We are very proud that we have managed to establish the SailGP."
With the first SailGP event in Perth on 17 and 18 January, di Biase said the league will kick off its new five-year business plan. "We are looking to the future. Our ambitions are clear: we want to get SailGP into the top 25 sports in the world in terms of sponsorship revenue and spectator reach. That may sound a little different from top three or top ten, but it is actually a high goal for us. To achieve this, our ambition is to get close to 20 teams and perhaps have 20 events by the time we reach the horizon in 2030."
As usual, the SailGP organisers are taking on the "big sports" with confidence and determination, as Julien di Biase describes it. "It's interesting," says the manager, "if you walked the streets a few years ago, even in the big cities and in countries where races were held or teams were based, people had almost no idea about SailGP. Now you suddenly hear people talking about it who aren't even necessarily sailing fans." For the league, one thing is clear: the first step towards creating awareness has been taken. The second is to follow.
Already released in the summer, but also enjoyed by everyone at the Hamburg SailGP evening - the German episode from the SailGP series "Racing on the edge - Sailing at the limit":
