Helmsman Erik Heil and his team were perfectly positioned in two of the three starts on the first race day of the new SailGP season in Lee. Despite a top-three position at the first turning mark in the first race, the team was unable to capitalise on this because the German F50 foiler got stuck in a wind hole as the race progressed.
The bottom line was seventh place in this race. Taylor Canfield's US team won ahead of Peter Burling's New Zealand "Black Foils" and Tom Slingsby's three-time Australian record winners from Australia. However, Erik Heil, Anna Barth, Stu Bithell and James Wierzbowski made the second of the three races on Saturday their gala under the largest 29-metre wing for light wind conditions.
First victory after light wind gala
The team repeated the leeward start from race 1, quickly took the lead and even extended their lead. At the finish, they were able to celebrate a dominant victory on day one of the fifth SailGP season. "The boys and girls sailed really well. After all, we're competing against the best sailors in the world here," said grinder Felix van den Hövel, who watched from the support boat in a light wind four-man crew constellation.
Being able to sail up there after one season is of course a huge success." Felix van den Hövel
In the third race, it was easy to see how leeward starts in light winds can also be penalised. If they don't work with pinpoint accuracy, you are quickly pushed backwards. This happened to the German team, who had to start from the second row. The team then struggled in the downwinds of the competition and then conceded a penalty in a close situation with New Zealand, which Erik Heil was initially unable to understand.
They finished in tenth place. Adding up the three results, the Germany SailGP Team was in eighth place on the evening of the first race day of the new season. The position offered more potential for the second day than it signalled at first glance, as the teams in third to eighth place were only three points apart before the two Sunday races up to the triple final.
The favourites are ahead
The SailGP fleet, which has grown to eleven teams and will be joined by a twelfth team, France, at the second event in Auckland on 18 and 19 January, was initially led by two favourites: The three-time Australian SailGP record winners around Tom Slingsby were just ahead of Peter Burling's New Zealand "Black Foils" (23 points) after three races with 24 points.
Both industry giants had lost key sailors Kyle Langford (Australia) and Andy Maloney (New Zealand) to the new teams from Italy and Brazil for the new season. It was not clear how well they would be able to fill the gaps. Both have shown that they are still the teams to beat, at least in light winds.
Team Emirates GBR (18 points), for whom America's Cup ace Dylan Fletcher has taken the helm this season, followed slightly behind in the standings after three of five races up to the final. The helmsman comes directly from the America's Cup, where he made it to the Cup final as co-pilot to Ben Ainslie and was able to gain a lot of valuable experience, which he now wants to utilise in the SailGP.
Rookie teams have to join the back of the queue
Erik Heil's Germany SailGP team is just three points behind the British team after day one. The Germans learnt in their debut season 2023/2024 that rookie teams have to take a back seat in their first season. Now the new teams from Brazil and Italy are experiencing this, although the double Olympic champions Martine Grael and Ruggero Tita are both outstanding athletes as helmsmen, spurred on by experienced SailGP staff.
Martine Grael and her team Mubadala Brazil, who became the first female helmswoman in the SailGP this season, were in tenth place with six points after the first three races. Two-time Nacra 17 gold medallist Ruggero Tita and Team Red Bull Italy, coached by Jimmy Spithill, scored just three points on their first day of SailGP racing and brought up the rear at the halfway point of the Emirates Dubai Grand Prix.
MUST SEE! ZDF has produced a documentary worth seeing about the Germany SailGP Team and the Formula 1 of sailing:
