Minus 32 points for the SailGP regatta in Sydney! And at least another twelve minus points for the season ranking - the amount was still not certain on Saturday. Never before has a team been penalised so severely in the history of the SailGP. The Germany SailGP team will now have to bear this burden on Sunday and in the upcoming SailGP regattas.
SailGP records that nobody wants
In Sydney, Erik Heil's crew will find it difficult to finish higher than last place, even if they perform well. In the championship classification, the season's minus points will only take effect after the Sydney summit. Prior to the third of 14 regattas in the fifth SailGP season, the Germans were in ninth place with a total of six points in the competition with twelve teams.
What led to this hail of penalties for the German racing team? All three penalised incidents had already occurred in practice on Friday. An initial incident involving minor contact between the Germans and Red Bull Italy in the first practice race resulted in the first penalty of twelve demerit points for the event and eight demerit points for the season. The German F50 catamaran crashed into the rear of the Azzurri.
Draconian penalties with long-term effects
In the fleet's third training race, the German team, which had to take evasive action, collided with Mubadala Brazil. The Brazilians, who were also penalised, drove into the stern of the Germans in the middle between the two hulls. Among other things, their bowsprit broke. This collision led to a further twelve event penalty points and eight season penalty points for Team Germany.
Both collisions were assessed as "major damage" by the jury and therefore penalised so severely. At the end of this black Friday for Team Germany in Sydney Harbour, the wing of the German catamaran was damaged when leaving the regatta course. The jury saw this as a breach of the rules and imposed further demerit points, the amount of which was also initially disputed by the organisers.
The onerous overall result from the German team's point of view: 32 penalty points for the regatta at the weekend and - according to the latest information from the SailGP organisers - at least a dozen penalty points for the season. For the Germany SailGP team, the harsh judgements resulted in two "records" that nobody wants: The team received the most penalty points ever imposed on a team on a SailGP day. They also received the largest total penalty ever imposed for training incidents.
In the SailGP minus: Team Germany must fight
The fact that Erik Heil and his team did not buckle under this burden and did not collapse was demonstrated on Saturday in a total of four races after a challenging start with good actions and two good races, in which they sometimes reached second place. In the end, the individual results were 10th, 11th, 6th and 7th.
However, due to the high preliminary load, which has now shrunk to 22 minus points, the Germans were only in eleventh and last place in the intermediate classification at the halfway point. ZDF is showing the Saturday races in Sydney in full length here. On Sunday, the race report with commentary in German can be seen again on ZDF from 10am.
It was a tough day for us yesterday." Erik Heil
Erik Heil stated the objective for his team on the first day of the race under the new challenging circumstances: "We're trying to get back on our feet and make the most of the time we have. It's pretty patchy again today, so it's quite exciting again. You can probably see that in the TV pictures. It's pretty intense for everyone on the race course. We're just trying to get the boat round the race course as best we can."
The dominant force in Syndey on the first of the two race days in the KPMG Australia SailGP were the home favourites. Tom Slingsby and his "Flying Roos" picked up where they left off with their victory in Auckland in January. Team Australia leads the fleet with 37 points after a superior day and individual places 3, 2, 1 and 1, ahead of Team Emirates GBR (32 points) with helmsman Dylan Fletcher and the French comeback team led by Quentin Delapierre (27 points).
On their comeback after a long break, "Les Bleus" impressed in their first outing on the new T-Foils with consistency and 4th, 3rd, 8th and 2nd places. Although they were the first team to be eliminated in the challenger round of the America's Cup, Delapierre and his team were able to gain a lot of valuable experience in handling the America's Cup foils in the Cup world of Barcelona, which is now also helping them in the SailGP.
Strong French, US team penalised
Commenting on the French team's successful return after missing two SailGP regattas because the French boat was not yet ready, Quentin Delapierre said: "It was great to be back here in Sydney. Of course we wanted to start this season earlier, but to experience our first Grand Prix in Sydney in such conditions is simply exceptional. It's incredible to be sailing again - and with the new T-Foils. It was the first time for us, with completely different boat handling. We had to adapt a lot."
Eleven international teams battled for maximum points in the first four of seven races up to the final on Saturday in gusty and unsettled conditions. The American SailGP team was not at the start, as their boat is no longer fit to race this weekend after capsizing in the tow the day before. A hearing on Saturday confirmed the penalty of eight season points in accordance with rule 57, which holds teams responsible for avoidable damage to their own F50 foils.
Sebastian Schneiter and the Swiss SailGP team, which includes Arnaud Psarofaghis and Bryan Mettraux - brother of the best Vendée Globe skipper Justine Mettraux - and some experience from the Alinghi challenge for the 37th America's Cup, took the first race win in Sydney Harbour on Saturday. After the first four races, the Swiss were only one point behind the French in fourth place.
SailGP in Sydney: "Horrible start" for the Kiwis
The New Zealand Herald newspaper described the co-favourite Kiwis as having made a "horrendous start" to the Sydney Grand Prix. And noted: "It's been a very long time since the Black Foils were this uncompetitive." From New Zealand's point of view, the 8th, 7th, 11th and 11th places made for a day to forget. Peter Burling cited "too many mistakes" as one reason for this.
A heavy nose dive and technical problems were further hurdles. His team then lost part of the flight control system. They are still growing together as a group, Peter Burling also pointed out the crew changes this season. Flight controller Andy Maloney, for example, had moved to the new Brazilian team.
The experienced New Zealander was replaced by young talent Leo Takahashi, who is continuing his steep learning curve in the team of America's Cup dominators, who are currently going through a difficult phase in the SailGP.
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