The German SailGP team is looking forward to the finale of its second SailGP season today. The crew around helmsman Erik Kosegarten-Heil experienced two starkly different halves this year. The thorny first half of the season with the historically highest number of penalty points for a league team was followed by the impressive rise in the second half with the historic first event victory for black-red-gold in Geneva. Team CEO Tim Krieglstein takes stock of the season.
Shortly before the grand Abu Dhabi final at the SailGP on 29 and 30 November the Germany SailGP team and international league ambassadors at an event in Hamburg to promote their team and the Formula 1 of sailing. Those responsible looked back on a season with highs and lows, took a look at the upcoming finale at the Mubadala Abu Dhabi Sail Grand Prix and outlined their plans for the future. YACHT met the German team CEO Tim Krieglstein there for an interview.
Tim, the starting gun for the final of the fifth SailGP season will be fired on Saturday in Abu Dhabi. It was only the second season for your still young league team. How did you experience it?
We look back on a season of two faces: defeat and resurrection. The resurrection was heralded by the German event in Sassnitz. If we can do well in Abu Dhabi, you could almost say that things couldn't have gone better for us. We don't just want to be successful in sport, but also commercially. If you fall behind in sport, nobody believes that you can do it. Then you're unattractive. The fact that we were able to show this season that we can do it is simply amazing. That helps us now and in the future in any dialogue. If things turn out well in Abu Dhabi, we'll all be very happy.
It hasn't always been easy this year. At the third event in Sydney in February, your team incurred the historically highest penalty for a team in the history of the league with twelve penalty points as a result of collisions in training...
Yes, that was the case. But what has made it bearable even in difficult times is the good dialogue we have within the team and also with the owners and our partner Deutsche Bank. There is simply a good dialogue. When nothing was working - that was before Sassnitz - we had a really good shareholder call.
The motto was: 'Keep going, keep going, don't get rattled'. Of course, the first few events were difficult, even if I think it's a false expectation to say that you have to drive or race better just because a new season has started. But we have driven worse...
Isn't that typical for the ascent in such a complex sailing discipline as the SailGP: that you always take two steps forward and then one step back?
That will happen to us again. We will have changes in the team. Jonathan (editor: grinder and doctor Jonathan Knottnerus-Meyer) has decided to go ashore for his profession. More changes are coming, but we won't reveal exactly what it looks like until a bit after the final. What you can see is that the SailGP is growing. There are more teams, more events, but still too few training opportunities...
... this is a point of criticism that not only the German team regularly voices, because it is so difficult for newer racing teams without training facilities to get to the top... SailGP COO Julien di Biase reaffirmed in Hamburg that there should be a training boat by mid-2026. At the same time, he asked for understanding from the league, which has been trying to get a training boat for a long time, but has always had to deal with breakages or new team members with possible training boats...
Yes, it's certainly not easy, but the league needs this training boat. It has to come. There is more and more competition among the teams for the best sailors and for the right team. There is now also a new transfer/rental policy. We have also felt this strongly and have been a little surprised. We have also been approached by someone.
We then put our feet up. Lennart and Erik have done a great job over the last few months: we now have a team for the next few years that I believe will continue to develop going into the new season. But of course a team has to grow together again first. But it's not a complete change. It's not as if we're suddenly going to see five new people. Out of six people, two are changing.
As the season draws to a close, the home première in Sassnitz not only brought you a high point, but also a positive turning point in sporting terms. After the opening race victory and fifth place on the Baltic Sea, things went steeply uphill at the European SailGP events. What do you like to remember about Sassnitz?
Interestingly, one of these kick-off events stuck with me very, very strongly. We took part in a so-called Sassnitz Storm Talk, which takes place there once a month. The organisation behind it is the Sassnitz Fishing and Harbour Museum Association, which has set itself the goal of preserving this museum cutter, which still exists. We were invited. There were 200, 250 people there who are very interested in the harbour and the history of this cutter.
We didn't realise beforehand: What will it be like? How do people view what we are planning to do with the SailGP in Sassnitz?" Tim Krieglstein
We were then so embraced! From an interest, from an openness, from a passion that we also share for water. And also a fascination for something new. It was a rather older audience. And that was a bit of a load off our minds, because we couldn't be sure beforehand how the topic would be received. We knew that it could be good. And we knew that the city was behind us. But there are always people who complain...
That same evening, a dinner was organised for the inclusive sailing championship. It also had such a great, very special atmosphere. And that's how we started the week. And then I also remember this 'look back'. I hadn't expected to turn round to the stands and see such a backdrop. It was simply packed!
We had initially planned with 2000 grandstand seats. In the end it was six and a half thousand plus per day. And I think: the same amount of people who were simply in Sassnitz without tickets. It was just... Such a sea of people in the far north of Germany, such pictures!
The Sassnitz premiere was a great success. The second edition has been decided for 22 and 23 August 2026. The Rockwool Germany Sail Grand Prix Sassnitz will then be the ninth of 13 events in the sixth season. Despite the successful premiere, what will be different and perhaps even better?
You have to be honest and say that you can't necessarily rely on the weather being this good again. You have to put up with it in the stands, but we're thinking about the guest areas: What can we do differently?
Otherwise, I hope that we will be even more successful in integrating the SailGP into the city. Sure, it's an event that people buy tickets for. But you can make it even better with different barriers and a different traffic concept. That's what we've learnt now. We won't have to block the city so much because almost everyone will have travelled by public transport.
What I definitely want to change is for the German Sail Grand Prix in Sassnitz to become even more of a hub for the whole island. We are working on that. We have met with Binz, Sellin and others. Apart from that, it won't be completely different. The areas - it all worked really well.
Although Germany has been confirmed as the host country for 2027, Sassnitz has not yet been confirmed as the venue. The reason for this?
I think this opening is actually only there because we are still working on the commercial framework, the key data. We're not quite where we want to be yet. But if we get to where we want to be, then there's no reason to want to go anywhere else. So far, nobody has positioned themselves in such a way that they can or want to have a say at the same level.
As a team, we have made a commitment to the league that we will raise a certain amount of money for the event. If we don't get it together, then we have to pay it. Now that Rockwool has come on board as the event's title partner, it's realistic that we'll be able to do that.
That's worth a lot, because it's not possible to pay from the public purse alone. That is logical and well known. Then there is the commitment of the town of Sassnitz. But without a proper sponsor who buys sensible sponsorship packages, you can't even get to this small figure that the league wants to see. The league will certainly still make a loss of five or six million euros next year. That's the case with almost all of the northern European and American events.
That's losses per event?
Yes, per event. The events in southern Europe look a little different. And the events in the Middle East are more likely to earn money.
Why is that?
It's always about the so-called host city fee. This is one of the pivotal points. That doesn't work for us. We have little public funding for top-class sport. And we also have few established sponsorship structures, i.e. outside of perhaps Olympic campaigns.
We have little organised cooperation between the various institutions at municipal and state level plus the business community in order to raise certain amounts of money to secure top sporting events. We don't have these structures. We often don't allocate the money. And in Germany, we don't have the professional work that is now necessary in order to bid.
Do you see yourselves as catalysers to push for more?
Exactly, yes, we are doing a lot of that. We have phone calls every week with our contacts in the municipality and the state. We get great support from both. There is not only a great deal of enthusiasm, but also a lot of drive with regard to the opportunities associated with the SailGP. These are being seized with all hands.
As a German team, we have set ourselves the goal of being the catalyst for this movement and development. It is also important to remember that Mecklenburg-Vorpommern is a state with a small population. Sassnitz is a small municipality. Of course, they can't build up structures like a city like London. We are happy to take on this networking and translating role and work on the various funding options that are available. The SailGP is a big issue, but the economic development of the town of Sassnitz can also be steered via an established and growing network function.
My personal goal would be to develop a ten-year perspective for the SailGP." Tim Krieglstein
A personal dream for me would be if we all worked together with the local people, the town and the state to create a common long-term vision for the future. I have called it Vision 2040 for Sassnitz. In other words, that we develop a positioning around the topics of sport and health, giving Sassnitz its own positioning on the island. There are the seaside resorts, there is the Bodden, there are the beaches. There are still incredible development areas near Sassnitz. There is an untapped thermal spring. There are a lot of possibilities and opportunities. There is plenty of space for a sports harbour. You could say that the SailGP can be an anchor for this.
You can attract investors by working together. The advantage for us could be that we could perhaps bring the SailGP to Sassnitz for ten years. We'll see whether that works and how it works out. But at the moment we are happy to take on this catalysing role in order to bring people together again and again.
How much does the Olympics play into your hands, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern's desire and plans to be part of a future host team?
My impression is that they already realise that the SailGP is more realistic and tangible. And, above all, it is now and not in 20 years' time. But of course SailGP is a weight that the state can throw into the balance when the Minister President talks to the Minister President of Bavaria. Mecklenburg-Vorpommern certainly has something to show for itself now that it didn't have before.
Yes, a major event, even if Sassnitz is not the Olympic harbour planned for the future...
... exactly. But I'll say it again: you show that you can organise such big events. And the pictures are great too. It's always been said that the weather in the north is one of those things. But that's just not true. The weather on Rügen is many times better than in other parts of Germany. Cape Arkona is one of the sunniest places in Germany. And the wind probability is also different. It is simply very well suited to what we are doing and planning to do.
If you look at King Football in Germany, a team like FC St. Pauli has a team value of just over 60 million euros. FC Bayern Munich is worth almost a billion euros. What is the current market value of the SailGP teams?
The teams are all currently worth between 60 and 70 million US dollars.
Looking back at your team and the strong second half of the season: Will the sporting success help you find more partners?
We bought the team in 2023 for 20 million US dollars. Of course, we also made big losses in the first few years. If we succeed now - and we are currently in good negotiations and optimistic about this - we can take another step forward, then at least if you look at the total money invested, it will have doubled in terms of paper valuation.
So it's going into the green zone when new partners come on board?
Yes.
Your team co-founder and helmsman Erik Kosegarten-Heil has had to outgrow himself over the past two years with the team's start in the league. How do you look back on him?
The unique quality about Erik is that he doesn't just look after himself, but the whole team. That's not normal for someone who has always focussed on himself and his team with Thomas (editor's note: Erik Kosegarten-Heil won two Olympic bronze medals with Thomas Plößel) during his Olympic career.
I think it is one of the greatest potentials, one of the greatest opportunities for our team that Erik is able to create this atmosphere, very quietly, in his own way. I believe that it is also a kind of growth for him. It's difficult for me to make a sporting assessment, because although I once obtained an Opti licence, I'm not a sailor beyond that.
My impression is that Erik has made this team his own in a very good way." Tim Krieglstein
Erik is not a classic star in the team like a Tom Slingsby in the Australia team or other...
No. We rely on the team having full commitment together. Other teams still have individual stars who also do other things. We are focussing very strongly on concentrating fully on the SailGP. No other campaigns. Full focus on training in the meantime too. We spend as much time together as possible. This is an approach and a concept that would work less well with a star in the team. But the team is already built with and around Erik.
Do you have a Christmas wish for your team?
The top three in Abu Dhabi (smiles).
Note: The grand finale in Abu Dhabi will take place this weekend before Abu Dhabi and will be shown live on ZDF on 29 and 30 November with commentary by Kristin Recke. Click here for the transmission.
