SailGP: As a professional in the Formula 1 of sailing - Anna Barth is the strategist

Anna Barth joined the Germany SailGP team shortly after graduating from the Hamburg Gymnasium Hochrad 2023. Skipper Erik Heil called her at the time to sound out the 49erFX Junior World Champion's interest. He had previously received recommendations from several directions in his search for female crew members. One of these was from Heil's former Olympic coach Thomas Berg, in whose training group the young skiff sailor had attracted positive attention.

Anna Barth has been part of the German team since the SailGP regatta in Cadiz 2023. She had previously taken part in a SailGP training camp for up-and-coming female sailors. From there, observers had reported good impressions of her and 49erFX helmswoman Sophie Steinlein to Erik Heil and the Germany SailGP team. "The two of them stood out in their group," Erik Heil remembers well. Both were accepted into the German team and took turns in the fourth SailGP season.

Germany SailGP sailing team: six men, one woman

Anna Barth has remained. For the time being, the team no longer wanted to divide the always too limited and valuable SailGP sailing time between two women. "We realised that it was stupid to split the already few training days 50:50," explains Erik Heil. Since October 2023, Anna Barth has been the only female sailor in the crew alongside six men - Erik Heil, Stu Bithell, James Wierzbowski, Jonathan Knottnerus-Meyer, Felix van den Hövel and Will Tiller.

The down-to-earth sportswoman feels at home in the team and often experiences the team spirit as "magical". Her skipper Erik Heil describes his young strategist as a "calm character". According to the helmsman and driving force in the Germany SailGP team, Anna is "very analytical". She is "very scientific for her age" and helps the team on various levels. On board, Anna - usually positioned behind Erik Heil when there is more wind and in the larger crew constellations - takes care of the navigation in relation to the other boats on the course and steers the boat out of manoeuvres.

It's crazy, really exhausting." Anna Barth

When there is less wind, the 1.69 metre tall athlete is also called upon as a solo grinder in the minimum line-up of four players. "The 100-kilo guys do it in pairs. And then I do it alone when there are only four of us left," she says with a touch of gallows humour. Which is why the physical training for this Herculean task is "a bit at the top of my priority list right now", says Anna Barth, who has not needed such superwoman powers to the same extent so far as part of her 49erFX Olympic campaign with Emma Kohlhoffe.

Fit with a power plan from athletics experts

With one day off, she works out six days a week in the gym, runs and opens up, and ends the days with mobilisation sessions. "I look after my health, my diet and my sleep," says Anna. Which isn't always easy when travelling around the world, but is feasible overall. She works with a plan that is supported by the athletics coach from the German Sailing Team and the Germany SailGP Team.

As a sailing professional, Anna Barth has many other tasks in the team. To prepare for and follow up on the races, the Germany SailGP team has formed four groups within the crew to deal with tactics, starts, speed and communication. Anna works in three of these groups, so she has her hands and head full with sailing on land too. For her, the SailGP commitment offers wide-ranging fields in which she can contribute her skills and, above all, learn from the best on a steep curve.

This is not only helpful for her advancement in the SailGP, but also for her own Olympic campaign, which she is driving forward with young Emma Kohlhoff from Kiel in the 49erFX. At the moment, it's a little less intense, as the 17-year-old foresailor won't be graduating from high school until 2027, which Anna Barth has had in her pocket for two years. Nevertheless, the work in the SailGP and the Olympic campaign are mutually inspiring.

The SailGP team mates: Comrades-in-arms, role models, counsellors

"My path is certainly a little different to the classic one," says Anna Barth. She explains: "Most people are successful at the Olympics first, win a medal and then enter the SailGP. For me, it's a mixture. For the trained skiff helmswoman, this is a benefit: "I see how Erik and Stu work, I can ask everything and learn a lot from them." Two-time Olympic bronze medallist Erik Heil and his British wing trimmer, 49er Olympic champion Stuart Bithell, are Anna's team-mates, role models and advisors.

The 20-year-old uses every opportunity to improve, often studying video sequences of the top performers in the SailGP for hours on end. That's why she knows exactly what her own helmsman's strengths are: "Erik is a bit like Peter Burling. The other extreme would be Tom Slingsby. He is very aggressive on the water and lets it out. Erik is more of a thinker. He thinks a lot for himself and makes a plan. And he's super calm."

Erik is a brilliant sailor." Anna Barth

Anna Barth has great respect for his calmness even in stormy times: "Even in hectic and chaotic situations, Erik is always the one who says: 'Hey, guys, all good, I got it'. He really keeps his cool and always has ideas that are 'out of the box'. Especially in combination with our coach Lennart (editor: Flensburg coach Lennart Briesenick). One example is the start we made in Sydney, where we drove in from the bottom. That was all Erik. The fact that he just pulled it off and did it."

Without Russell Coutts and his personality, the SailGP would not have been possible." Anna Barth

Anna Barth only knows the league founder and boss Russell Coutts a little personally, but admires his work for the sport of sailing: "I've never really spoken to him on a one-to-one basis. I was there once and got to know him a bit. Funnily enough, he's also sometimes on site at the Olympic events, because his son also sails 49ers."

No SailGP league sport without Russell Coutts

Anna Barth describes Coutts' life's work in sailing as impressive. She says: "It's impressive what he has achieved in sailing. And I think it's really cool that the SailGP was created and has come so far." Anna Barth also wants to go far with and in the world league of sailing, utilise her opportunities, serve the team in the best possible way and learn as much as possible.

She discovered her passion for sailing at an early age during sailing trips on her father's Elbe H dinghy. Having grown up in the west of Hamburg, the young woman quickly took a liking to regatta sailing as a schoolgirl at the Mühlenberger Segel-Club on the Elbe at home. She then progressed rapidly from the 29er to planing dinghies, while her dream of the Olympics grew. "Olympic success is a huge goal of mine," says Anna Barth.

At the moment, however, she is focussed on her work in the SailGP, as there are two events in quick succession on the programme. This weekend sees the fourth regatta of the fifth season. On Saturday and Sunday (15/16 March), things will get down to business in the former and upcoming Olympic city of Los Angeles.

We want to come back well from the hole in Sydney." Erik Heil

On the US West Coast, the team led by skipper Erik Heil wants to fight for a comeback after the thunderstorm of penalties in Sydney. Currently bottom of the league with six minus points, Erik Heil said: "We want to get the team spirit up, expand our chest again and achieve the best possible places."

Will Team Germany make their SailGP comeback in LA?

Despite the two annoying training collisions in Sydney, Erik Heil's conviction of the growing quality of the German team as it climbs the ladder in Formula 1 sailing remains unshaken: "Our development is good. We have always said that a podium finish is possible if everything comes together. That remains the case."

Anna Barth also said: "The many penalty points we collected in Sydney were very painful. But we are now looking ahead and focussing on the races in Los Angeles and San Francisco. Our aim is still to keep the learning curve steep so that we can soon be consistently at the front. We are looking forward to two exciting race weekends on the US West Coast."

On one of the smallest courses in the SailGP League, lighter winds were recently expected for the weekend. ZDF will broadcast the races live on both days from 9.55 pm German time. Kristin Recke will be the commentator this weekend. A week later in San Francisco, Nils Kaben will take the mic again.

Ouch! A look back at the German team's crash day in Sydney and the consequences:

Racing on the edge - an emotionally gripping look back at the French team's soaring performance and their failure to reach the final of the SailGP in Sydney: