VISUALIZATION

"Germany I" is the new focus of attention in the first German campaign for prestigious America’s Cup. The new boat of United Internet Team Germany was given her name by Eva Luise Köhler, spouse of Germany’s president Horst Köhler, during the christening ceremony on Monday evening in Kiel. And her name says it all, as the 26-by-4-meter "Germany I" is the first ever America’s Cup yacht that was constructed and completed in Germany in the course of the 155-year old history of the world’s longest-standing sports trophy. Acting as godmother, Eva Luise Köhler gave her best wishes to the boat carrying sail number GER 89 and to the whole crew led by skipper Jesper Bank for a successful entry to the 32nd America’s Cup, which will be carried out in summer 2007 in Valencia, Spain. Flashlights and thundering applause provided the backdrop, when president Köhler’s spouse Eva smashed a bottle of champagne on the bow of the shiny white carbon hull of the high-tech racing yacht. "Allzeit gute Fahrt und immer eine Handbreit Wasser unterm Kiel," said Mrs. Köhler, a traditional German wish among sailors, intended to ensure a "bon voyage" and "water under the keel" at all times. "Naming the yacht Germany I is to symbolize that high-tech made in Germany can be absolute top-class. This is what United Internet stands for, and this is what this new boat stands for," says Ralph Dommermuth, CEO of the United Internet AG from Montabaur, the title sponsor of the first German America’s Cup campaign. After the christening ceremony, 250 guests celebrated this important milestone in the history of the German sailing sport on the premises of Kiel Yacht Club. Only minutes before the christening, Dommermuth had unveiled the brand-new yacht, which had been constructed at the Knierim-Yachtbau shipyard in Kiel. The hull of the AC yacht is clad in a shiny white coat, the deck is light grey. Compared to the GER 72, the branding has become more clear-cut and straight forward. The blue 1&1 logo will be featured exclusively on the mainsail as well as on the back of the crew clothing. "1&1 is our premium trade mark and the main sponsor of the team," explains Dommermuth. GMX and WEB.DE are being presented on the hull, and all other trademarks of the United Internet AG will feature on the boom. Germany I will soon be launched. Before that, she will have to pass a couple of static structure tests in Kiel to test the stiffness. If everything is OK, the new yacht will first set sails at the end of May or beginning of June on the Outer Kiel Fiord. If she passes the tests, Germany I will finally take to the road to travel from the Knierim-Yachtbau shipyard to Valencia, where the boat will be optimized in mid-summer. By then, the United Internet Team Germany will have spent more than 25,000 hours of boat building and maybe just as many within the design team of 16, led by Axel Mohnhaupt (Berlin), who as the principal designer is responsible for the design. Extensive computational fluid dynamics (CFD), velocity prediction programs (VPP) and structural calculations had been carried out by the design supercomputer. It’s as simple as that – an AC yacht is pure high-tech. She must be extremely light, yet withstand enormous loads created by 320 square metres of upwind sail area and a 510-square metre spinnaker. The latest construction techniques helped to keep the hull, mast, fittings and equipment down to a weight of only four tons – whereas almost 20 tons of the maximum weight of 24 tons sits in the keel bulb with its draft of 4.10 metres. "I am sure that we will deliver a reliable boat to the sailing team, and one that will be significantly faster than our former training yacht GER 72," says technical director Eberhard Magg from Friedrichshafen, Germany. During the pre-regattas (Acts) in May and June this year, however, the new boat will not be used yet. The fine-tuning will only start afterwards in the two-boat testing with the GER 72. To that purpose, the sailing team has been enlarged to include navigator Philippe Mourniac and grinder Stefan Großmann to now 25 active sailors, 13 of them German. Plans are to recruit yet another sail trimmer. Bank: "We can then race against each other with a crew of 13 instead of 17 per boat." Even though the team is still not big enough for the manoeuvre duals known from classic two-boat campaigns, it will be able to learn a lot from speed tests with the two yachts. Meanwhile, the GER 72 has been further optimized in Valencia. "It was well worth keeping up our on-site training," says Jesper Bank. The United Internet Team Germany was the only team to spend the whole winter season in Valencia. The good results of the first training races after the other teams’ returns have proved the skipper right – but gave him and his team no excuse to take a break: "Now that the other teams have resumed their training activities, they are improving again." So the United Internet Team Germany keeps up the hard training. After a few rather lonesome weeks of training, they have lately held many sparrings to gather racing experience. The joint training sessions will come to an end before the start of the pre-regattas to the Louis Vuitton Cup of the Challengers, which are to start on 11 May in Valencia with Act 10 (match races until 16 May). After the fleet races of Act 11 (19 through 21 May), another match race Act will follow from 23 June to 2 July (Act 12). The last-minute preparations will be carried out by each team separately. And there will be no more sparrings with the new boats, as the AC regulations prohibit this as technology transfer. From rank ten, which the United Internet Team Germany reached after the Acts of the previous year, Jesper Bank plans to move further up: “We must at least come ninth, and rank eight would be great. But last but not least, it is our goal to get a place among ranks one to seven on finishing the 13th and last Act in 2007,” says the skipper. At the end of the Acts, a team must reach at least rank seven overall to benefit from the complicated scoring system, as only in this case they would earn two bonus-points to carry into the subsequent two round robins of the Louis Vuitton Cup. After the Acts 4 through 9 the United Internet Team Germany and the Team Shosholoza (South Africa) are both placed ninth with 21 points behind the Mascalzone Latino Capitalia Team (31/Italy). With 32 points, Areva-Challenge from France is currently on the seventh rank that Jesper Bank has envisaged for next year. In the lead is BMW Oracle Racing (63/USA) ahead of Emirates Team New Zealand (61/New Zealand).