SailGP: Team Germany pays dearly for starting weaknesses, Kiwis crash British party
Tatjana Pokorny
· 20.07.2025
As quickly as the F50 foilers raced around the short course off Portsmouth, the tide turned for many a team in the British SailGP area this weekend. Only the starting weakness of the Germany SailGP Team remained persistent.
The weak start cost us the weekend. We feel very comfortable in the race. So a positive result for the field, less so for the starts." Erik Kosegarten-Heil
Not only the nerves of the sailors in the Germany SailGP team, but also those of their fans were severely strained at the British SailGP. Whether it was a late start, early start, being pinched off at the start or too fast at the line and forced to slow down at the start - the starts were the German racing team's painful Achilles heel during this race weekend in Portsmouth.
The difficult race to catch up in the SailGP
Once they had fallen so far behind, there was rarely much to be done in the short races. A fourth place on the first race day and some good scenes on the second race day could not really alleviate the German racing team's ongoing problem at the Portsmouth summit. The end result was eleventh place at the British SailGP and the same position in the season classification after seven of twelve events in season five. Click here for the Portsmouth results and here to the Intermediate results of the SailGP season ranking.
The fact that this is only Team Germany's second season means that Erik Kosegarten-Heil and his crew are still chasing the league lions' lead in terms of experience. But the others are not standing still either. The German team is working as hard as it can to reverse the trend, but this has yet to materialise in Portsmouth.
On the contrary: on race day two, there were also penalties after right of way infringements. And as if all that wasn't enough, the German F50 racing catamaran also caught a foil in the chain of a buoy in the seventh and final race before the triple final. Erik Kosegarten-Heil described the abrupt end to the race in an interview during the ZDF live broadcast: "We believe that the anchor line from the buoy was a little too loose, we picked it up with the foil and then got stuck."
Germany SailGP Team: unfortunate threading
The crew had not expected the chain. Erik Heil explained: "The brands actually float, they are driven by a motor, so to speak. This one somehow had a line on the front that floated." Worse than the brutal end to a difficult race weekend were the initial thoughts of the possible consequences of this involuntary "collision".
Erik Heil's thoughts turned to the potentially damaged foil box: "We didn't hit it extremely hard, so let's hope that nothing is broken." According to Heil, repairing a damaged foil box could potentially keep six people busy for four months. Final information on the exact technical condition of the GER foil was not yet available on Sunday shortly after the final.
The Brits experienced the decision in their home arena with one laughing and one crying eye. After the seven fleet races, they were the frontrunners going into the final. There they met Peter Burling's New Zealand "Black Foils" and the surprise finalists from Switzerland. As if someone had written a script, Schneiter recently met tennis icon Roger Federer in Zurüch, who encouraged him and gave him tips.
First final: Federer magic or Cup experience?
The Federer magic already seemed to be working in Portsmouth. Or was it the team performance, to which Arnaud Psarofaghis and Bryan Mettraux contributed for the first time this season as wing trimmer and flight controller? The two Swiss were co-drivers for Alinghi Red Bull Racing in the challenger round of the America's Cup in Barcelona. They joined the Swiss team with more cat-foiler experience than SailGP crews without their own boat or an accessible training fleet can ever gather.
The overall Portsmouth result also speaks for itself: the top five teams are operating with players who were active in Barcelona. As long as there are not more training opportunities on racing catamarans in the SailGP, teams without this experience will find it difficult to catch up with the top teams. This also applies to the Germany SailGP Team.
In the final, the Swiss then put up a strong fight against the two league heavyweights from New Zealand and Great Britain for a long time. Only technical problems stopped the Swiss in their tracks. Sébastien Schneiter reported that these technical problems in the final began with slow board drops before the team lost the headsail functions.
Technical knock-out: Swiss suddenly paralysed
"In the end," says Schneiter, "we could no longer move the wing. So we could no longer turn or jibe. That's why we unfortunately had to give up the race." However, Schneiter also noted his good fortune, as it was the first final for his team. "We deserve this," said the trained 49er sailor, "we worked hard and sailed well the whole weekend."
Another remarkable aspect of the British weekend was the French team's comeback after breaking their wings before the first starting signal on Saturday. Fortunately, nobody was injured, but the incident hit the French team hard, with four times zero points on their account on the first race day, which was cancelled for them.
A detailed analysis by the SailGP technology experts was still pending shortly after the event finale. However, against many predictions, the SailGP technicians managed to repair the French wing overnight so that "Les Bleus" were able to compete in the races on day two after all. SailGP Tech Team Manager Jack Taylor said: "The team went into crisis mode immediately after the incident. It was a mammoth effort." No obvious technical or load faults were initially identified.
SailGP: After Portsmouth is before Sassnitz
With first and second place on day two, the French showed why they are known as lightning starters in the SailGP. The same is not always true for the Kiwis, who spoilt the Brits' hoped-for victory party at their home event in the final few metres. British helmsman Dylan Fletcher said: "What an event! The home crowd (editor's note: according to the organisers, around 20,000 fans were there live at the weekend) was fantastic and we almost pulled it off. If we carry on like this for the rest of the season, we'll be where we want to be at the final in Abu Dhabi."
Others are also pursuing this goal. The team of the moment in Portsmouth after second place in New York were the New Zealanders, who celebrated their second event win of the season after the season opener in Dubai. The league is now looking forward to Rügen's harbour town of Sassnitz, where around 11,000 spectators are expected in the stands and in the racing stadium.
While the Germany SailGP Team's homework list has grown to include intensive efforts to improve the starts, the German racing team is also looking forward to the home match. Erik Kosegarten-Heil said: "It will be an emotional highlight for us. The whole of sailing Germany, our friends and families are all coming." The to-do list until then is also clear.
The training focus before the SailGP home match
Erik Kosegarten-Heil said: "We have now once again identified a major area that needs to be looked at and analysed. Hopefully this will strengthen us for the start in Sassnitz. We are now going back to our small boats and starting to train further with the software to get what we have identified as a weakness here into a bit better shape. Especially with the new customised speed settings that are now running in the software. That will be a mission. Then we'll be in the simulator and then we'll go to Sassntz and check out the conditions there."
Team coach Lennart Briesenick summarised the upcoming challenge: "The starts remain the biggest lever and are therefore the training focus for the coming weeks."
SailGP winner Peter Burling in an interview:
