SailGP: Interview with Erik Kosegarten-Heil - "We have the chance to become a picture book team"
The battle for the championship of the fifth SailGP season has been decided: Sir Ben Ainslie's Team Emirates GBR with helmsman Dylan Fletcher has won the two-million-dollar final for the first time. In Abu Dhabi, the Brits, hardened in the America's Cup 2024, relegated the league heavyweights from Australia and New Zealand to second and third place. Team Germany finished its only second SailGP season in Formula 1 sailing racing in ninth place after seventh place in Abu Dhabi. Without the thunderstorm of penalty points in Sydney early in the year, when Black-Red-Gold had to shoulder a record load of twelve minus points as a result of training collisions, it could have been seventh place.
The German racing team wants to build on its strong upward trend in the second half of the season in 2026. The same applies to the successful German premiere in Sassnitz. The team's sporting leader is helmsman Erik Kosegarten-Heil. In this interview, the 36-year-old looks back on an eventful year and looks forward to the new season.
Erik, you got married in 2025, sail for the German team you co-founded in the SailGP, run your own farm in Strande near Kiel and are a doctor. How do you introduce yourself when someone asks you what you do for a living?
Erik Kosegarten-Heil: (Laughs). I do what I feel like doing... Seriously: I am a sailor, a sportsman. Medicine, like sailing, is an experiential sport. Despite my studies and the fact that I'm still missing the practical year, you can't really talk about skill yet.
Were you such a "multitasker" as a child who wanted to do everything and penetrate everything?
In any case!
What effect did that have?
Not so positive about school... I think I failed twice, went to secondary school in the meantime, then switched back to grammar school. I was never classed as stupid, but I only used to work for the teachers I liked.
Your sporting home is the Tegeler Segel-Club...
At three months old, I was already standing in the baby basket on the round table at the club. Then I also played a lot of tennis, did lots of other sports and less school subjects. A few subjects were interesting for me: biology and physics, the natural sciences.
Would you recommend sailing as a sport to your own children?
More and more. There aren't yet that many prospects if you want to do the sport professionally. But the setup and the skills you learn are simply gigantic. You manage a start-up at various levels from an early stage - a really good education.
You had a successful career with Thomas Plößel in the 49er, winning silver at the World Championships and two Olympic bronze medals, before your persistent recruitment led to the Germany SailGP Team in 2023, which you co-founded. Can you still remember your first SailGP race?
That was on 16 June 2023 in Chicago.
Were you excited?
Definitely. You're always a bit excited, even if I sometimes have to create extra excitement so that I'm focussed. I try to do that by mentally increasing the pressure myself. I do things in life because I like them. If I like something, I'm good. But I don't feel that my life depends on it. So I tell myself that I have more pressure. In racing moments, I sometimes need a slightly sharper head.
Is this kind of inner peace perhaps your best "weapon"?
I was thinking about that the other day. I think my self-confidence in the things I do is relatively okay. Maybe because quite a lot of the wild ideas that you put together work. This also results in calmness. I have a lot of confidence that we will be successful in SailGP if we put enough brainpower and energy into it.
What does the SailGP mean to you?
The sailing and the boats are unique, the G-forces gigantic. With the new foils, it now feels more like being on rails. The boats were like rally cars before, now they are Formula 1 cars. It's an honour to be able to do this. In terms of sporting value, there is nothing higher. If I were even more tech-savvy, I might be tempted by the America's Cup.
You can also listen to the two episodes of the YACHT podcast with Erik Kosegarten-Heil:
Your Germany SailGP Team by Deutsche Bank was bought in 2023 by entrepreneur Thomas Riedel and four-time Formula 1 world champion Sebastian Vettel. Other co-owners are on board and more are expected. SailGP teams are currently worth around 50 to 70 million US dollars. Who benefits from this and how?
There are many levels: On the one hand, team owners and investors benefit from the fact that team values increase. Back then, the first teams could be bought for five or six million euros. Our team was bought for 20 million euros. The US team was sold a little later for 40 million euros. The league wants 70 million for the Spanish team. The second level is the marketing of sailing areas. But we sailors also benefit from the opportunities that this top-level competition offers.
Your team has experienced two very different halves of the season: the first was characterised by several training collisions in Sydney and the historically highest penalty of twelve minus points ever imposed on a team in the league. In the second half of the year, things started to look up after the first Sassnitz race win. This was followed by the first event win in Geneva.
That was good. Even if you have confidence, it's always good when the team is encouraged by results. They give confidence to those who have doubts. I thought we'd made good progress all year, but hadn't put together a complete race for a long time. We did that more often in the second half of the season. We worked intensively on the steering/wing trim/flight control combination.
You almost sailed yourselves into a frenzy in the second half of the European events...
The breaks between events were short - good for us. Flow is definitely important. The European season got us in shape.
This season you have worked intensively on the starts of all boats with the help of the data open to all teams in the SailGP...
The starts in the SailGP are one of the most complicated topics in sailing worldwide - my topic. I'm still learning what the data on the screens on board means, how much relevance it has for me. Sometimes you use it a lot, sometimes not at all. You have to find a balance between when you use the software and when you listen to yourself. I'm still at the beginning of my journey...
You're not a data geek...
No, I'm not your typical data analyst. I operate on the reduced side. With 20 per cent effort, you get 80 per cent performance. For just a little more, the effort is immediately much higher.
Who will win the starts?
The teams that can consciously choose, execute and reproduce the right layout win the starting cut. We are working on this. You can choose different approaches, you just have to be aware of the consequences: If you're early, you're on your own. You have an overview, but you run the risk of people coming from behind who are faster than you. If you get into the start box late, then you are the one who gets in faster. But it's possible that you won't get a place. If you are in the fleet, then you have control boat to boat. You can choose one or two boats, turn them around and determine their start. But you have absolutely no control over the rest of the fleet.
It's a long way for you to catch up with the more experienced top teams who can also bring America's Cup expertise to the table...
We are more than ready to go down this path. There was a visible turnaround for us in the recently completed season with Sassnitz. We had four days of training beforehand. They were a world away for us and have a lot to do with it. We are one of the top teams in the second half of the season. That's slightly above our current level of performance, but it shows what's possible. If you get off to a good start and get round the track well technically, tactically and strategically, a lot is possible. However, we still need more training time to be able to do this more consistently. The long-term goal is of course to win this series. We definitely want that. That's the mentality in the team.
Do you believe the latest league promise that a training boat will finally arrive in the middle of the year?
I wouldn't say there's no chance of that, but it's extremely low. We start in Perth. We've already experienced for ourselves what can happen to the 'Fremantle Doctor' in a strong wind area. It was Armageddon! I find it hard to imagine that we will have a free boat available by the middle of the year. I believe that at least one boat will be 'down' by then and the training boat will be needed.
How do you view Russell Coutts' SailGP management?
Sometimes he makes wild manoeuvres because he's still a guy who tries to do things quickly. In general, Russell is a gigantic guy, comes from the sailing side. I find it incredible how he has driven this vision forward with Larry Ellison. From a German perspective, the SailGP offers the only chance that a project can establish itself successfully in the long term and function economically. We have the chance to become a picture-book team if the opportunities in the room become reality."
You're like the boss of the sailing team. How do you lead?
Compared to Olympic sailing, there has to be one vote that decides in case of doubt. In Olympic sailing, the decision is automatic: either one sailor is against the other, in which case the coach decides. Or there is a consensus. When racing in the SailGP, you can hardly get six votes on one decision. This means that I make the quickest and best possible decisions on the water based on all the information.
And on land?
I was involved in putting the team together right from the start. As the initiator, I had a lot in my hands. In the beginning, I had the feeling that I had to focus more on sports management than on being an athlete. That changed with Lennart's help. I try to be the voice from the sports team towards our management. In the sailing team, it's also my job to understand the athletes and get the best out of them.
What is your goal for the coming season?
Lennart and I think that a top-six finish can be the goal, even though we will be one team more in 2026 with Artemis Racing, i.e. 13, and it will be tighter and tighter. We had our sights set on the top seven this year. We would have achieved that without the penalty points.
Your Olympic and SailGP rival Peter Burling has already sailed around the world in the Ocean Race. Could you also be tempted by offshore missions?
Not so far. But I'm getting older, so I've already thought about it. Maybe a Rolex Sydney Hobart Race one day. I was thinking about possibly sailing the Transpac from LA to Hawaii with Will Tiller from our team. That way I can check it out.
