The first of the six fleet races in New York had raised the hopes of Team Germany and the fans. At the sixth event of the fifth SailGP season in New York, helmsman Erik Kosegarten-Heil and his team made it to the finish line in fourth place in challenging flat winds and unpleasant currents. The team had turned up for the showdown in the Big Apple in order to finally rid themselves of the last remaining minus points, which they had conceded by the dozen during the thunderstorm of penalties at the beginning of February.
Two New York SailGP race days, two worlds
Initially, it looked as if they could achieve more than that. But then the German team suffered a severe setback in New York's laundry room. With tenth place ahead of Red Bull Italy and the Americans, who had no luck at home, the German racing team achieved the minimum target in the changeable terrain.
The Germany SailGP Team is now eleventh in the table, ahead of the league leaders from the USA, who also had to make up penalty points - albeit four points less than the heavyweight dozen that rained down on Team Germany in Sydney in February.
In the Big Apple, it was not only the German sailors who initially had to contend with extremely weak winds and foiling challenges on day one. On day two, strong gusts and strong currents made one or the other team look bad. In the area near Gourverneurs Island in Upper New York Bay, the Spaniards coped best with the starkly different sailing conditions on the two race days. Click here for the results from New York.
Spain takes the lead in the table
Spain's 49er Olympic champion Diego Botin, Florian Trittel and their team won for the second time in a row after their triumph in San Francisco. Los Gallos took the lead at the halfway point of the season. In the triple final, the defending champions relegated New Zealand's Black Foils with helmsman Peter Burling and France's "Les Bleus" with Quentin Delapierre to second and third place.
The Spaniards, who were so focussed and clean sailing in the end, only just made it to the final. In the duel with Team Mubadala Brazil for third place in the final, they only just managed to beat the strong SailGP newcomer Martine Grael. Many fans would have liked to have seen it differently, as two-time 49erFX Olympic champion Martine Grael would have been the first time in the history of Formula 1 sailing that a team with a woman at the helm had reached a final.
Martine Grael - supported by highly experienced players such as America's Cup helmsman Paul Goodison and New Zealand flight controller Andy Maloney - was also delighted with fourth place for her team, saying: "This is a solid result that we are happy to take with us for the season ranking." The German team could only dream of such success, at least in New York. Lennart Briesenick, one of two coaches on the Germany SailGP team alongside Jacopo Plazzi Marzotto, was clear in his assessment.
We can't be satisfied with our final result." Lennart Briesenick
Erik Kosegarten-Heil and his crew did manage to score some brilliant points, as in the first race. But in the end, with 4th, 7th, 12th, 9th, 6th and 10th places, their results were too mixed and included too many setbacks as a result of their own mistakes. Lennart Briesenick said on Whit Sunday evening in New York: "It looked quite good on the first day, but today the results were disappointing. Above all, individual manoeuvre errors set us back. "
Team Germany in search of consistency
Erik Kosegarten-Heil tried to come to terms with the meagre points haul, saying: "It could have been worse, but it could also have been better." The 35-year-old two-time Olympic bronze medallist had hoped for a clearer upward trend for his team. With a view to tenth place in the final race, he said in an interview with ZDF reporter Nils Kaben: "Yes, we had imagined better. We would like to be more consistent at the front." His team was unable to achieve this on the overpowered F50 catamarans on the final day.
The sixth and final race was just one example of this: Team Germany had already fallen behind at the start due to unfortunate timing. Erik Kosegarten-Heil explained the problem: "We were very close to the line and had to 'burn' a lot of time. As a result, the field was pushed together and we had little chance of crossing the line at high speed." To put it in typical league language: Black-Red-Gold was not in the "front row" at the start and was "spat out" backwards at the start.
His team then "caught up well again", but in the end "missed the wind shift a bit". As a result, Team Germany fell behind again on the way to the finish. In his analysis, Erik Kosegarten-Heil had clear words for this: "We have phases where it works well. Today was another phase where it was rather difficult for us to weigh up when to drive a safe style over the course and when to start driving a little more tactically aggressive. I think we missed the transfer a little bit."
Homework until the next event
However, the German helmsman remained optimistic in the competition with some much more experienced rivals, saying: "We're getting better and better. We now have to do our homework." He left New York on Sunday evening, heading for Lake Garda, where training and work on the setup for the software are on the programme. The next chance for Erik Kosegarten-Heil and his team to advance will be at the seventh SailGP event on 19 and 20 July in Portsmouth, UK, before the SailGP German premiere in Sassnitz on 16 and 17 August. Click here for ticket sales for the home event.
The SailGP league table shows it: At the halfway point, the Spaniards have taken the lead with 46 points ahead of the Australian Bonds Flying Roos (46 points) and Peter Burling's Team New Zealand (44 points), who have been dethroned for the time being. Burling was voted the best driver this weekend in New York because the Kiwis got off to the best start. They passed the start line on average just 1.03 seconds after the signal.
Team Emirates GBR impressed with the shortest distances - an average of 6.7 kilometres. The Australian team Bonds Flying Roos achieved the highest average speed of 60 kilometres per hour, which was not unaffected by the sluggish conditions on day one. However, the highest average flight time was achieved by Martine Grael's team Mubadala Brazil with a perfect 100 per cent, while New Zealand achieved the highest speed of the day at 84 kilometres per hour.
REPLAY! Click here for the replay of the live broadcast:
