SailGP: Upward trend in light wind poker - Sebastian Vettel's sailing team moves forward
Tatjana Pokorny
· 14.01.2024
Erik Heil and the Germany SailGP team followed up a mixed result on the first day with two top results in Sunday's final. At the seventh of 13 regattas in the 2023/2024 SailGP season, the German team, which only entered the sailing world league last year, shone on the second day with 3rd and 2nd place in the field of ten F50 catamarans.
With this formidable final spurt, Sebastian Vettel's and Thomas Riedel's sailing racing team catapulted themselves into the top five of the SailGP summit off Abu Dhabi. In very light winds in the harbour stadium of Mina Zayed, New Zealand's America's Cup stars around helmsman Peter Burling secured victory ahead of Spain with driver Diego Botin and the USA with former match race world champion Taylor Canfield at the helm.
Praise from Coach Briesenick for the Germany SailGP Team
Erik Heil, Olympic bronze medallist in the 49er in 2016 and 2021, commented on his team's upward trend: "I had hoped that we would achieve a top five result so that we could take a motivational boost with us to Sydney and Christchurch. Our starts were still not as good as we had hoped, but we were able to deliver a good sailing performance."
Flensburg team coach Lennart Briesenick, who lives in Copenhagen, was delighted with the team: "Now they've been rewarded for their hard work." Briesenick was particularly pleased with the last two of the five fleet races up to the final of the top three: "A few races ago, they wouldn't have made some decisions like this."
Erik Heil is in his element in complicated light wind conditions
With 6th, 5th, 10th, 3rd and 2nd places, Erik Heil and his team, reduced to four crew members in light winds, showed in Abu Dhabi that they can fight and hold their own in complicated conditions with the largest wing sail. Erik Heil was already known for his qualities in difficult wind conditions as an Olympic 49er helmsman. "When it gets tricky, that's when the fun really begins," he once said.
As the Germany SailGP team has become increasingly proficient in the demanding F50 catamaran and its technology, the crew is also able to utilise and apply their existing skills more and more effectively in the Formula 1 of sailing. In Abu Dhabi, the challengers flying the German flag were just two points short of reaching a SailGP event final for the first time. In the interim rankings for the season, the German team, which had to learn the hard way after starting out in the first SailGP regattas, overtook the Swiss team and moved up to ninth place.
After mass early start: Penalty record in race four
The difficult light wind conditions in the spectator-friendly sailing stadium of Mina Zayed this weekend put the entire fleet to the test. In winds of only ten kilometres per hour, none of the teams were able to get the F50 catamarans foiling. "The first race today was very chaotic. There were many early starts. The team did well to burn off their penalty and then sailed very well," said coach Lennart Briesenick, paying tribute to the team with strategist Sophie Steinlein after the first race on Sunday.
Seven of the ten catamarans crossed the starting line too early in the fourth of the five fleet races and were penalised. According to the SailGP organisers, a new league record was set in this race with a total of 17 penalties. The German team then mastered the confusion of the required adjustments after the start almost perfectly.
That was the best race we've had so far" (Erik Heil)
"That was the best race we've had so far," said Erik Heil, even though he was not yet one hundred per cent satisfied. Even before the showdown in Abu Dhabi, the German team rider had hoped to achieve a top five finish for the first time. With a little more luck the day before, it would almost have been enough to reach the final of a SailGP regatta for the first time, which is now within reach for the up-and-coming team.
New Zealand, Spain and the USA contested the final in Abu Dhabi. Tom Slingsby and his record-breaking Australian SailGP winners missed out on a place in the final, finishing seventh overall. A mishap in the last race and 9th place had stopped Slingsby on his initially promising comeback from maternity leave and had thrown him painfully far back in the Abu Dhabi classification. The victory in the final was claimed by the confident Kiwis, who opened the America's Cup year in the best possible way.
SailGP advantage for New Zealand: The Kiwis are flying high again
"That's great for us in terms of the SailGP season standings," said the usually reserved Peter Burling, visibly delighted. After seven of 13 SailGP regattas, Australia still leads the standings with 56 points, but the New Zealanders have now moved closer to their rivals from Down Under with 50 points on their SailGP account.
Considering the regatta cancellations that Burling and Co. had to put up with after their dramatic mast break in Saint-Tropez last year, the two victories in a row in Dubai and Abu Dhabi are like a major challenge to the Australian SailGP record winners.
The SailGP final in San Francisco is getting closer
The SailGP series continues on 24 and 25 February with the KPMG Australia Sail Grand Prix in Sydney. The fourth SailGP season ends after four more summits in Christchurch, New Zealand, Bermuda, Halifax and New York on 13 and 14 July with the grand finale in San Francisco. There, the three best teams of the season will compete for two million US dollars in prize money for the winners alone.
