Bank moves on

United Internet Team Germany get rolling towards the 33rd America's Cup

Among the seven challengers ejected from this Louis Vuitton Cup post round robins it seems very likely that all but +39 will definitely try to continue. Fastest out of the blocks it seems though is United Internet Team Germany.

For this America's Cup the German team represented one of the three nations, alongside China and South Africa, challenging for the first time and despite having the largest budget of the three at 50 million Euros (21 million provided by United Internet, the rest of the non-sponsored part by internet entrepreneur Ralph Dommermuth) posted one of the most lacklustre performances (relative to her budget) of all the teams, finishing 10th overall, or second last, ahead of only China Team, but behind the heavily underfunded and barely rehersed +39.

Because of this, a head rolled this morning with Jesper Bank resigning from his position as skipper.

"Two years ago nobody would have expected what we have achieved today," said Michael Scheeren, United Internet Team Germany's Syndicate Head and a former CFO of Germany's second largest ISP as he set the scene for what was coming next. "There have been several attempts for a German participation but this team finally managed to make it happen. I would like to thank each member of the sailing team as well as the shore crew. They all have been part of an historic moment, event and success."

However: "We have not met our target which was to finish eighth in the overall ranking table. You have to be honest with that and we are disappointed about this fact. For a sporting objective in the America’s Cup you need time and experience. However, we did not have either one in the degree necessary."


Bank, Scheeren and Magg in happier times...

And so Jesper Bank, their Danish triple Olympic medallist helmsman/skipper has resigned. "No one in our team is used to such a series of defeats," said Bank. "That’s why it has not been easy for us. I am not content with my performance. I don’t want to stand in the way for the development of this German campaign. I would like to thank the whole team for their great work in the past two years and I am proud that I have been part of the first German campaign."

Bank later told thedailysail that he had been in discussion over his possibly having to leave the team as long as Act 13 at the beginning of April. "I would expect a guy in Michael's position to be forced to make decisions to prove to the shareholders of the company that he was able to make decisions that would bring some improvement. I was expecting that to happen but he said ‘no, I don’t think that is where a majority of the problem lies, so I think we’ll just go on’". Bank says he was again expecting to be asked to step down between the round robins.

The much touted problem with United Internet Team Germany is that it was one of the last teams to challenge for the 32nd America's Cup, just moments before the final deadline and this only gave them two years to start from scratch. Aside from this whether Bank is the source of the problems within the team or not, he has certainly as skipper been the brunt of much criticism in the German media. "My concern was that I didn’t want to harm the sponsors or the team or the company and the focus was on me in the German media, so it was quite natural for me to at least bring it up and say ‘I’ve got no problem with it [leaving] because this is more important, because this is unique, it is well funded and why should one person jeopardise the possibilities?' I have got my own opinion about what is in the press," he told us.

The German team certainly under-performed particularly compared to what they were claiming at their launch two years ago when they spoke confidently about a berth in the semi-finals, a target which has been dropping progressively ever since. Bank has also been accused of being too dictatorial in his approach to running the team and several talented German match racing sailors such as Marcus Wieser set sail for new shores following disputes with the boss. Since then Bank, a Dane, has ended up the scapegoat for most of the team's woes.

Part of the problem with the German team is that it comprises not enough people with America's Cup experience, instead preferring to recruit within Germany not only on the sailing team, but the design and build teams as well.

"The initial approach was that a large group should be German, but that was modified over time and that made it harder to attract the right guys because we were very late," says Bank. The plan was to bring in five experienced crew and so Bank brought with him from Victory Challenge his Soling Olympic crew Henrik Blakskjær and Thomas Jaconsen and another Dane Michael Hestbæk. Later recruits were Kiwi Conan Hunt also from Victory Challenge and Peter Gilmour crewman Mike Mottl and even an ex-Alinghi recruit in the form of Dominik Neidhart. Eventually former America3 tactician and starting helmsman Dave Dellenbaugh joined initially as afterguard coach ultimately coming on board as tactician.

Bank claims he recruited the first 15 people in the sailing team, but says he didn't put the design team together. "That was Eberhardt Magg. I had nothing to do with the technical side, I didn’t hire any boat builders or designers."



Bank will remain with the team until his contract expires at the end of the year. In the meantime he says he will compete in this year's Farr 40 World Championship in Copenhagen on board the German yacht Struntje Light as well as whatever match racing tour plans the team have that require him.

So who will be his replacement in the second German campaign? The obvious choice is an even more successful Olympian and a German one at that in Jochen Schuemann, although any prospects of this happening will be on hold until Schuemann fulfils his obligations as Helmsman/Sports Director at Alinghi.


Jochen Schuemann (left) with Bank

New Danish Challenger

While Bank will be out of the German team in due course, this comes at a time there is news of a fledgling Danish syndicate starting up and it is hard to believe that Bank would not get involved in this in some capacity.

Bank reckons the Danish challenge does have legs as the man behind it is David Holm, the current President of the Royal Danish Yacht Club and the man who started the famous match racing centre in Copenhagen and who has in the past run the Danish Open. As Bank puts it - if there is one person who could make a Danish challenge happen it is Holm. "He’s a successful businessman and a strong minded guy who achieves the goals he sets."

Largely thanks to nurturing of Danish talent at their match race centre so Bank says there are now 17-18 active Danish sailors that have been dotted around the campaigns here in Valencia including himself, Jes Gram-Hansen (Mascalzone starting helmsman), Jesper Radich (Desafio Espanol B boat helm) and Sten Mohr, one of the B-boat helms for BMW Oracle Racing. Then are some extremely well respected individuals such as Henrik Soderlund, sail designer with Luna Rossa and CFD guru Michael Richelsen, who's with Alinghi. "So we have a core of Danish guys who could do it," continues Bank, "but if you want to kick off a Danish team you have to grab the bull by the horns and then attract the right people in the right positions irrespective of what their passport is."

United Internet Team Germany - version 2

Aside from the change in management, the German team have also made the unusual move of starting construction now of a second Version 5 America's Cup boat. In fact work is believed to have started on this some time ago and then stopped. It has now resumed and the plan is to complete the boat under Version 5 as their second boat for this campaign and then carry out the 50% modification work to Version 6 of the America's Cup Class rule before it is launched.

This is obviously an enormous gamble on whoever is the winner of this America's Cup at worst not changing the type of boat for the 33nd event, and at best not changing the class rules to the extent that the existing generation of boats become immediately obsolete. Thus it is unlikely that the new German boat will be finished until a new rule is announced.

Syndicate Head and former CFO for United Internet, Michael Scheeren explained their thinking: "One of the problems with this campaign is that we only have one boat and no experience. For sure it is an investment where you cannot know what it is really worth for the next Cup but it brings a lot forward in terms of learning with the boat and improving it and so on. We are also thinking that there will be some Acts and so for the team it is important to sail with a faster boat because it will be important to improve the team and the boat. I think we can learn a lot for doing this."

Because the new boat will technically be a modified Version 5 boat, it should still allow the team to build a new boat or boats to compete the 33rd America's Cup (it has been rumoured if Alinghi win and it is held in two years time then teams will be limited to building just one new boat).

Going forwards Scheeren recognised that it will be important to buy in more international talent than they had this time. "We have to try to have a real professional team. We don’t have so many professionals in Germany but while that is the headline I think it is our goal for sure to have as many German guys as we can in the team. Our goal cannot be 100% German otherwise we won’t be successful. We have to have a good mix of international guys."

They are also looking to have an international team of boat builders and designers, particularly as we are told Friedrich Judel may be unwilling to get involved next time because of his age. "I think we have a really great German design office - but they are working for Alinghi!" says Scheeren. "We will have an international design office for sure."

Fairly critical to the future of the team - as is the case with everyone else around Port America's Cup is where the 33rd America's Cup is to be staged. Keeping it in Europe gets a giant thumbs up, while taking it to the US could also be interesting but an America's Cup in four or five years time in New Zealand very much less so.

"I think we have to find a good combination between the history of Cup, because it is important to keep this, but to put in some Acts every year because I think that is really important for the sponsors. For example if we had the situation of going to New Zealand in 2011 and nothing before them it would be really hard for all the sponsors," says Scheeren.

In the meantime another Cup boat regatta has been planned to be held in Kiel later this year and at present BMW Oracle Racing, Team Shosholoza (who have T Systems as a sponsor) and of course United Internet Team Germany plan to compete.