Barcelona. The experience was lacking for the big coup: At the Youth America’s Cup off Barcelona, the America’s Cup Team Germany (ACTG) had to throw in the towel after the preliminary round. The crew around the Kiel skipper Maru Scheel did not have enough hours on the water to get used to the flying AC40 boats in the sometimes rough conditions. The ACTG’s development over the three days of the regatta was clear, but the burden from the first races was too high to leave the last place in the group in the ranking.
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For months, the German team with Maru Scheel, team initiator and co-helmsman Paul Farien (Kiel), trimmers Tom Heinrich (Kiel) and Jesse Lindstädt (Hamburg) as well as substitutes Jill Paland (Kiel) and Julian Hoffmann (Blaichach-Ettensberg) had prepared on the simulator due to the lack of their own boat.
In Barcelona, there were three and a half days of training on the water before the races began. Not enough time to avoid falling off the foils and thus repeatedly losing important meters to the competition.
After only three and a half days of water training, the races began
“We knew the cockpit from the simulator. It was good for orientation. But now you could feel the real pressure on the rudder, feel the wind and the waves. Water was constantly flying in your face. This was now a real boat, before it was just a computer game,” explained the skipper.
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On the final day, the German team achieved stable flights off the Catalan coast.
Quelle: Ian Roman / America’s Cup
And the conditions on the Catalan coast were so difficult that the settings from the simulator could not be transferred to reality. The team had to cope with heavy impacts in the water in the first few days: “During the nose dives, the force of the water hits you and hurls you backwards. It’s like hitting an extremely hard airbag. At one point I felt like I had dislocated two vertebrae. But luckily I was soon better,” says Maru Scheel.
Proud of the significant improvement in boat handling
When the wind and waves were a little milder on the final day, the German team showed stable flights and did well in the field of six teams. However, they were unable to move up the table. “We gave it our all, learned a lot and improved more and more in boat handling. That’s why we can all be very proud.”
For Maru Scheel and Jill Paland, the America’s Cup adventure is not over yet. They are also part of the German women’s team that will start competing on October 5th. The two want to contribute their experience from the Youth Cup.
KN
