Volvo Ocean Race: German Ocean Racing Team on the move

The last time a yacht under the German flag took part in the Volvo Ocean Race and even won it was 15 years ago - the illbruck Challenge raced to victory in the 2001/2002 race around the world. Although only one German sailor, Toni Kolb, who now lives in Bremen, was part of the crew at the time, the international project under the sporting command of US skipper John Kostecki was initiated and financed by Michael Illbruck from Leverkusen. Now the Berlin star boat sailor and Olympic sixth-placed Robert Stanjek and the Kiel psychologist Weert Jacobsen-Kramer want to try again together. Stanjek and Kramer want to present their new German Ocean Racing Team (GORT) to the club members on 27 April at 7 pm at the Norddeutscher Regatta Verein. The club announced this on its homepage on Wednesday.

In addition to a wealth of experience as an Olympic sailor, Robert Stanjek also brings his first intensive encounter with the Volvo Ocean Race to the project. Last year, the sailing professional applied for a place on the crew of the Dutch team Brunel and made it through to the final round of two candidates. In the end, however, Brunel's skipper Bouwe Bekking decided in favour of a more experienced candidate from outside the team due to the reduced number of sailors.

An initial press release on the association's website sets out the team's ambitious goals: The German Ocean Racing Team was founded with the aim of "sending a German team to the start of the Volvo Ocean Race again in 2017 and entering a finish harbour in Germany with this team as the winner in June 2018". The illbruck Challenge succeeded in doing just that when the race finished in Kiel and attracted hundreds of thousands of spectators to the fjord.

At its first public appearance in April, the team wants to report on its opportunities ("The Volvo Ocean Race offers great opportunities for a German team to bring Germany back to the top of professional sport"), the current Volvo Ocean Race (Stanjek reports on his Volvo Ocean Race experiences as part of his training with Team Brunel) and the key data of the race. The team's core team will also be presented and the marketing strategy explained.