SailGP: ‘Crashnitz’ is followed by ‘Flashnitz’, with Sassnitz remaining the record-breaking course

​The Baltic Sea course from Sassnitz remains the fastest course in sailing’s Formula 1. At the Rockwool Germany Sail Grand Prix The teams vied with one another to set speed records at the weekend. Last year, at its much-celebrated launch – which was marked by a great deal of chaos – it was still known as “Crashnitz”, but the German SailGP port has now earned the title “Flashnitz” following the record-breaking flood.

The new record holder is DS Automobiles Team France. On Saturday, Quentin Delapierre and his crew pushed their F50 racing catamaran to 107.63 km/h. On Sunday, however, Les Bleus failed to make it through to the quarter-finals in the competition involving 13 teams divided into two groups.

Four teams featuring four Olympic champions in the Sassnitz SailGP final

Amid rain showers and shifting winds beneath dark clouds, in front of around 7,500 spectators in the stands, the SailGP record-holders Bonds Flying Roos, Spain’s Los Gallos, Team NorthStar Canada and New Zealand’s Black Foils reached the final. Notably, an Olympic champion was at the helm of each of the speeding F50 foilers in the final.

It turned out to be the Australians featuring Olympic Laser champion Tom Slingsby, who dominated their rivals and sailed to their fifth victory of the sixth SailGP season. The “Flying Kangaroos” beat NorthStar Canada, featuring double Olympic Finn champion Giles Scott, and Los Gallos, featuring 49er Olympic champions Diego Botín and Flo Trittel into second and third place.

New Zealand’s Black Foils, who had been performing so strongly up to that point, could only manage fourth place following a frustrating last-minute penalty against 49er Olympic champion and three-time America’s Cup winner Peter Burling and his crew. Another 49er Olympic champion, Nathan Outteridge and the Swedish Artemis team, narrowly missed out on the final, blaming a self-imposed split in the fifth and final group race for their disappointing finish. Outteridge still enjoyed the races, however.

“If every weekend could be like this – racing in conditions where every race is incredibly close – that would be brilliant!” Nathan Outteridge

For Team Germany, the weekend was like a sporting rollercoaster ride. On both days, Erik Kosegarten-Heil, strategist Anna Barth, wing trimmer Kevin Peponnet, flight controller James Wierzbowski and the two grinders, Linov Scheel and Will Tiller, weathered the ups and downs together.

Germany SailGP Team by Deutsche Bank: a keen instinct leads to a second race win

After two poor starts and finishes in fifth and sixth place, they managed a brilliant start-to-finish victory on Saturday. On the final day, too, it was a mixed bag for Erik Kosegarten-Heil’s crew. Schwarz-Rot-Gold began the second day of racing with a false start in Race Four, but managed to make significant ground as the race progressed by choosing a course that went against the fleet’s general trend.

She recounted, laughing, Erik Kosegarten-Heil: “That was the only real chance we had this weekend: the pressure built up in the top left and nobody decided to switch over there quickly. That was a good decision. What was even cooler was that everyone else fell off their foils. And then we had it easy.”

With this second race victory, so hard-fought and rewarded with thunderous applause from the crowd, the German team moved to within one point of second place – the position needed to qualify for the final – in their home race. Yet the hard-earned chance of reaching the final vanished as quickly as it had appeared.

So close to the final in a home match, and yet so far away

Another poor start due to a technical handling error on board, coupled with a fifth-place finish, meant that Team Germany could not finish higher than seventh overall at their home race. Coach Lennart Briesenick said on Sunday evening in Sassnitz: “Given the conditions, our group was a very strong one, featuring the Australians, Swedes, British and also the Canadians, who are very good in these winds. Looking at the whole weekend, it’s relatively clear that we still need to work on our starts.”

"If we get off the line well – as we saw on Saturday – then we can sail that home too." Lennart Briesenick

At the same time, Briesenick also highlighted his team’s strength: “On Sunday, we showed that we can make a clever comeback from behind – in difficult conditions, with a rain cloud passing over the course here and causing significant variations in wind speed.” Team Germany’s CEO, Tim Krieglstein, said: “We saw this weekend that anything is possible, and we had, quite literally, ordered the right wind.”

"The response from the fans was incredible. We are working hard to establish SailGP in Germany for the long term." Tim Krieglstein

With the tenth of 13 season-defining events due to take place on 5 and 6 September in Valencia, the Germany SailGP Team by Deutsche Bank remains in eighth place in the season championship with 32 points. The league leaders are the Bonds Flying Roos (76 points), ahead of Los Gallos (62 points) and the Swedish team Artemis (53 points), which has moved up the table despite not reaching the final. The defending SailGP champions have lost further ground.

​SailGP title holders under pressure

Whilst their CEO, Sir Ben Ainslie, and four-time Formula 1 world champion Sebastian Vettel were engaged in an in-depth discussion about the league and other topics in the Adrenaline Lounge, Team Emirates GBR could not manage better than ninth place on the Sassnitz track. With 46 points in the season’s standings, the British team, currently fourth overall, are now 30 points behind the leading Australians. Click here for the Sassnitz results and the current standings in the SailGP Championship.

The clip showing the fastest weekend in SailGP history: