Briton Annie Lush has signed with Offshore Team Germany. She is set to compete in her third Ocean Race on board the "Einstein" in 2021/22.
"After the two participations in 2014/15 and 2017/18, I had closed the chapter for the time being and wanted to concentrate on my role as a mother. But I'm looking forward to tackling this team again. Great people have come together here and it's a great task to be able to help build the team right from the start," said the 39-year-old Lush.
The relationship with the German TOR campaign was forged back in 2012. As part of the British match race team, she sailed off Weymouth at the Olympic Games and immediately found a good connection in the Olympic Village with Robert Stanjek, who was sailing for Germany in the Star boat at the time. It was the first Olympic Games for both of them and also supposedly their last chance to sail under the five rings, as their disciplines were removed from the Olympic programme for 2016. They both harboured ideas of switching to the offshore sector after the Olympics and sailing around the world in the Ocean Race. "I had previously seen the Ocean Racers arrive in Brazil and immediately thought: Wow, this is the pinnacle of team sport. I have to be there," says the Brit.
For Annie Lush, the door to the Ocean Race opened quickly after the 2012 Games, when sponsor SCA from Sweden put together an all-women's team for the 2014/15 race. And Lush, match race world champion in 2005, 2006 and 2010, was immediately part of the selected squad after the trials. "400 women wanted to be there. I was immediately fascinated after the first day on the VO70. We were travelling over the waves at 18 knots. It was a whole new world for me, I was only used to boat speeds of four knots until then." The team had to adapt to a completely new challenge:
"I'm happy on the water. But until the Ocean Race, I also enjoyed sitting in the pub with friends in the evening. Suddenly I had to focus completely for nine months - always keeping an eye on the team, paying attention to trim and speed. But I quickly realised: that's what I like."
And Team SCA developed rapidly: "We started with very little experience compared to the other teams. It was frustrating at the beginning, we were days behind the leaders in the first stages. But that turned into hours as the race progressed, and we even won the eighth stage."
The crew members of Team SCA made a name for themselves on the offshore scene, and Annie Lush continued her Ocean Race career in the 2017/18 edition on board Team Brunel with skipper Bouwe Bekking, sailing alongside superstar Peter Burling to three stage wins and third place overall, but also had some painful experiences. On the third leg from Cape Town to Melbourne, the boat was caught by a hard wave in the Southern Ocean. Annie Lush on the grinder was knocked over and suffered a serious back injury. In Melbourne, she was diagnosed with broken bones. But Annie Lush survived this injury and is now keen to go offshore sailing again.
"Robert invited me to Kiel last year to christen the OTG's Imoca Open 60," smiles Lush, who won her fourth world championship title in match racing in 2018 and has now won 18 medals at world and European championships. "We then sailed the Welcome Race, and finally Robert offered me the chance to sail the Imoca 60 'Einstein' in the Fastnet Race." The temptation paid off:
"It's a great boat, incredibly good fun. And we really learnt a lot from this race."
Annie Lush has caught fire again for her third participation in the Ocean Race and the first for Offshore Team Germany:
"I'm very excited to be part of the OTG. We are in a great situation: we have a boat, a team and time to prepare. We are ready to put Germany back on the Ocean Race map after 20 years!"
According to the team, the Open 60 "Einstein" is currently being prepared in southern England for the installation of the latest generation of foils. The team has also ordered a Dehler 30 od and intends to use it as a training platform in Germany.
