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SailGP 2025 / « On ne peut pas se cacher » Tête-à-tête avec l'Allemagne par Erik Kosegarten-Heil, de la Deuts...
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00:00You've obviously been here for some time now but it's probably been really hard to find consistency.
00:04There's no hiding, this is an actual problem we can solve quickly and this is a problem which needs time.
00:11We try to put the puzzle together and you also want an environment where everyone feels like it's okay to sail.
00:18First of all, to align the people on the boat, to sail the boat fast.
00:22This is taking time and this is what we don't have and this is also something we can't really find out by numbers.
00:28You had a pretty insane event in Sydney.
00:35You might not want to talk about it.
00:44Welcome to SailGP one-on-one, I'm Lisa Dan Mernon and today I'm chatting to Eric Heil.
00:50Eric, but you have a new name, I saw it on the side of your boat, how do I just pronounce your new name?
00:54It's called Kohl's Garten Heil.
00:56Kohl's Garten Heil, I mean it's pretty hard for an Aussie to say but I'll give it a go.
01:00That's quite long now.
01:02Yeah well obviously you got married which is super exciting, nice to see it on the side of the boat now, congratulations.
01:06Thank you.
01:08Today I really want to chat I guess about you and your sailing journey and maybe take us back to sort of where it began.
01:15where you grew up in Germany, do you remember the first time you went sailing?
01:20Yeah I was growing up in Berlin back in the days in a small sailing club in the northern area of Berlin and
01:28I was kind of yeah really really growing up there spending every day in the in the club
01:33but I was more used to tennis, I was playing tennis at that time.
01:36I was even Berlin champion in under 12 years old.
01:40You and Tom need to have a match because Tom Slingsby is really good at tennis too.
01:44Ah really, I have to see that but I stopped with 12 so it's quite a long time I've not played.
01:51But yeah it was nice and yeah I think my first coach he just pushed me to get on the boat and then
02:00we started off with a two-person dinghy, a very small boat in in Berlin and it was a Coltini
02:08and I started with my crew Thomas Plesser back in the days already so we sailed from 2001 till 222 together.
02:16That's amazing.
02:17And yeah we were kind of okay in every class we managed to be German champions always in each
02:25youth class and continued through you know 420 470 and then the 49er and then in the 49er
02:32it matched quite good with you know what we like to sail faster boats also the
02:39the technical needs of sailing the boat were more fitting to our style of sailing so that was really
02:45good and we developed with a great group and this was always the key for our for our sailing career
02:50that we had a great group around and we really enjoyed being around on the circuit and having fun together.
02:57So the two of you sailed for a really long time together which you know I had um when I
03:02sailed with Jason we sailed for such a long time together as you become really intuitive with that
03:06other person but were you guys really similar were you different did like what were your personalities
03:11like? I think we were nearly the complete opposite yeah and I think that is part of you know
03:18of the key why that was a successful combination because he had most of what I don't have yeah
03:26and um the other way around as well I was more you know um into sponsorship stuff and and also uh health
03:33and um training program and the the you know this side was more on on my agenda and he had you know
03:39all the technical boat development um he's an engineer I'm more into medicine so this is the two the
03:46the two roles we had and um yeah he's very into details on on that side I was very into details
03:52on the other side and uh that's how it got it's nice that you can lean on each other when you when
03:57you have that and you guys were so successful obviously winning two bronze medals at at two olympic
04:01games racing against a lot of the guys that you race here at cell gp yeah epic I mean this is actually
04:08epic for for I think everyone here yeah you never really have the chance to to to say against the
04:15super high class person and another discipline right so you see at the game is Ben Ainsley or you
04:21know these these big names you see them but uh you sell the 49er they sell you're never gonna race
04:26each other yeah there was actually in in in in sparriga then madame blick back in the days they had
04:302.4 boats yeah 2.4 meters and they said always a race of the different class the champion exactly
04:37that was a rubber child against Ben Ainsley and there's 2.4 every single night yeah it was really
04:42cool but apart from that I never saw them racing against each other yeah yeah um I guess talking
04:49about teams that you know work really well together like you had in your 49er career you had to build a
04:54team from scratch with your german um it's it's a little bit loud and distracting here sorry everyone but
05:00everyone's getting set up I guess for the weekend we've got a few seagulls watching on but um I was
05:05going to ask how did you set up your your german team knowing that you know culture is super important
05:10skill is super important like what were the when you when you got told you were driving an F50 how did
05:16you think about building your team yeah it's a mix of of putting together enough experience to get going
05:23and enough talents to have something in perspective for later yeah plus keeping good characters
05:31together because we are more than two people on the board it's not like you know we had back in the
05:37days we had the chance to just you know fit a certain um role and that's it and that's good but here
05:44with four or five six people even you know in our team we are 18 to 20 people now yeah it is really
05:51tricky to uh yeah to to manage that and yeah everyone will like have different strengths I guess
05:58and trying to work that out before you sailed with them must be quite hard exactly and this is just
06:03pure guessing you know I knew you know Stu for example for for for a bit in olympic setting you know
06:09this is a cool character you know he has some experience in the 50 same with James you know and
06:16and uh so you kind of guess you kind of ask around a little bit and uh then you you you just try out
06:23and see if it fits yeah and I guess also as a new team you want to create an environment where it's
06:29really easy to learn because I can imagine you bring someone in that's really experienced and they might
06:34be trying like they also have to be a good person to for you to learn I guess yeah and you also want
06:39an environment where everyone feels like it's okay to fail you know yeah this is the the tricky part
06:47you know of of our development curve yeah because you need to clarify where where the problem was
06:53straight away and that that otherwise it costs you so much time yeah this is this is the more tricky
06:58part that everyone is happy also to show that he fails and uh to to get towards the next step yeah
07:04because I guess you wanted to say oh that was my bad this is what I need to do better and you're like
07:08okay cool yeah we'll just do better next time um for you as a as a sailor and as a driver I guess
07:14coming into the the f50 what's been the biggest learning curve for you um I mean in the beginning
07:22for sure the the whole connection to technology you know looking at a screen from the screen to the water
07:29um aligning different roles you know you don't have only like these two persons you want to align you
07:36have you have six sometimes seven if you if you roll roll through with a grinder yeah um this is very
07:43tricky and I think now it starts um becoming more tricky getting into the details of things you know
07:53usually we had in in a phase where we wanted to catch up in the 49er 200 250 days on the water
08:00yeah which were helping us to to align on how we sail the boat you know in the in all details you can be
08:07so um focused on one thing and then the next thing and build whereas here it's like everything at once
08:12exactly and and this is when we get into videos now we we see straight away that you know this is a
08:17actual problem we can solve quickly and this is a problem which needs time because we need to be
08:23aligned in all different wind situations and all different situations on the race course as well
08:28and uh yeah that's the tricky part I guess yeah I mean it looks so hard for any sort of like new team
08:33you've obviously been here uh for some time now but you know it's probably been really hard to find
08:38consistency I guess for you on the race course would that be fair to say yeah we just I mean I think we
08:43work pretty good on on on certain topics between the races and um then we get to the next venue
08:50and we just you know we just bring up new problems yeah you know we just postpone the problem we had
08:56before to another situation on the race course then we go into this and you know by time it comes all
09:00together but uh by now we we still struggle to get a complete race done yeah and I mean like at the end
09:07of last season your starts were really really good and then looks like recently like you know that's you've
09:11been struggling with that and I always find that you know you might might be working on one thing
09:16and then something else because you're working on another thing kind of falls so then you got to go
09:19back to that thing it's hard just with the the schedule and the way that we run things here at
09:23lgp yeah this is this is the hours I think yeah I think I think our starts in general improved still yeah
09:30um especially the first part into the box and then we have a very strong position coming back back
09:36towards the line but we don't manage the last last trigger pretty good yeah okay so yeah this is
09:41this is something we have on our agenda now um to to make this more successful and then we are yeah
09:47there we we're pretty good at you know getting into the starts I guess yeah yeah no you you've got
09:52like it's one of those things where you know you know when you have done it well a few times you're
09:57like okay we can do this like we're just gonna do it more often I guess yeah I mean it's also a little
10:01random you know starts are sometimes random you also have to accept that it's not always the same
10:06yeah you know start possible it's not like you know same like golfing for example you know you
10:11say okay now now I got it you know this is the biggest joke in golfing right yeah yeah you're like
10:15oh this I actually have recently started to learn golf and it's like one of the most rewarding and
10:19painful things that I've ever had to do yeah exactly no I think I think that's that's that's part of
10:25the of the learning curve for sure and we just pick new areas and then we try to to put the
10:30puzzle together and uh slowly growing but it's growing I mean it's it's so competitive out there
10:36it's it's getting really busy on the racetrack as well with 12 boats obviously you had a pretty
10:41insane event in Sydney and you might not want to talk about it but I'm gonna ask you about it if
10:45that's okay I guess like trying to describe to the people listening how hard is it to to kind of
10:53see the other boats and make those decisions like I don't know if that was just you didn't see them or
10:57um you know these things just happen in sailing generally it just is everything is recorded for
11:02everyone to see here yeah there's no no hiding I think in this situation we had uh different
11:07comms on the boat and from the booth which were a bit confusing plus the other boat didn't see us
11:13I think that was a combination which is not good yeah um but yeah I mean this this happens uh we haven't
11:20had a big a bigger crash before um so this is also part of it um painful but since then we're we're
11:28trying to get uh back into into a good mood and um felt like the last two events didn't you know didn't
11:35go so well because there was always what I said before there was always a little a little issue in
11:43in a certain situation on the racetrack but a big issue then it was not a you know not a little
11:47touchdown it was a complete crash so yeah exactly yeah so we tried to get rid of this and then uh
11:52yeah still still staying positive and uh trying to get um yeah little things done and uh yeah believe
11:59in the process yeah it's so hard and I think with with when people are racing smaller boats you know
12:04you can just like get out of the way quickly um but here I mean when it's when it's too late like it's too
12:10late and there's nothing you can do but you guys have bounced back pretty well I mean San Fran wasn't
12:14wasn't too bad for you guys you guys enjoy a little bit of breeze
12:20I can't remember the results I feel like it wasn't that bad I think LA was the best actually for us
12:24there because we're catching up quite a lot always yeah and we're also good starting uh average yeah
12:30mark one average but yeah I mean in general we like the breeze more as sailors but result wise I
12:37wouldn't I wouldn't say so I think result wise it's mixed it's just too random to yeah to find a find
12:44a uh a real answer for that and what do you think the hardest part of of the f50 racing is like
12:50obviously you've you've raced with the best on the olympic world but this is just like take no
12:55prisoners everyone's getting punished if you make a mistake yeah I think you you first of all to align
13:01the the people on the boat to sail the boat fast yeah this is taking time and this is what we don't
13:06have and this is also something we can't really we can't really find out by numbers yeah only it's
13:12it's a field thing as well yeah and uh to manage certain situations like patterns I think this is
13:18this is pretty much the most difficult area where you usually just spend time yeah yeah and we don't
13:26have the time and training and uh apart from that I think the to handle the bigger team is also a
13:32challenge what we're talking about you know these 18 people 20 people is something you know where you
13:37need to install a culture and uh a good mood and uh nice uh working atmosphere and stuff and and this
13:45is new to us because we were you know with olympic background only with a couple of people around yeah
13:50and um this is tricky but yeah I think um the most difficult stuff is where you need training time
13:56and this is what we don't have yet and I guess like kind of talking about that intuition that you
14:00build with with your teammates and you're building something new and obviously like some elements you
14:05can align on by just talking about it but what do you guys do I mean what do you do as a sailor in
14:09between and then what do you do as a team in between to kind of like bridge that gap where you don't
14:14have time on the water oh we have lots of lots of things we have the the switches we say the switches a
14:19bit with a with the software of of the wing screen and try to simulate races with boundaries and stuff
14:26so reaching starts races and so on and so on so we kind of off you know we are in the process of
14:31developing the software towards you know being useful for the switches as well that's awesome then
14:35we have lots of uh detail meetings we have a group uh which is uh responsible for the speed group which
14:43is for the starts for the tactics so these groups are meeting um regularly and um
14:49bringing topics together then we have simulation sessions like the simulator is is is part of it
14:56this is not the most useful tool yet but maybe long term it is um and yeah in the end it's lots
15:04of little things and we put the puzzle together we try to yeah to make the next event more successful
15:10and we are heading to your home event in germany which is really exciting i mean it's not your home home
15:18but having a german event what what does that mean to you obviously you're leading a german team on
15:22an awesome league and going to you know a german race course like how special will that be for you
15:27i think it's epic really epic i mean we just hear what what um you know how how much attention it gets
15:36in germany and the sailing world and the racing world of german german uh spectators and uh we were just
15:41around the last couple of weeks and just noticed at queue week and you know during the the sailing events
15:46and in summer what uh attention we actually have and uh how many people also arrive in in in sasnitz
15:53which is you know the the most northern east part of germany which is not you know the the first choice
15:59of uh you know getting easily somewhere it's like flying to berlin or hamburg and then you drive three
16:04hours yeah um but it's a beautiful area it's um probably in the in the whole series cell gp has is the
16:11you know powered by nature it's probably the most natural place oh that's awesome we have these
16:16chalk cliffs it's it's forest everywhere it's quite calm you know i was there it was 20 25 knots epic
16:23weather like this like like today beautiful and no one on the water oh it was completely empty did you
16:29get to go sailing all by yourself we just we just did interviews oh no but um yeah yeah if we have good
16:36breeze it's epic for everyone it's also good for everyone to be a bit remote you know yeah yeah get
16:41away it could be good also for the sailors to focus only on sailing and not on on too much commercial
16:46stuff and i'm sure the media will follow you i'll follow you anyway i think germany for us is is not
16:52less busy but for other teams could be and uh yeah it'd be epic to hang out and have some some time as
16:57well for for for all the teams i mean the german sailing fans are pretty big you kind of touched on
17:02that they really get get behind it do you think that we're gonna have you know people make make
17:07the trip out to sassnitz lots of people they are organizing from the clubs they're organizing buses
17:12to travel there that's amazing yeah you know the the first two and a half thousand uh tickets were
17:18sold out within for 24 hours oh my goodness so so they they doubled the tickets then for for the
17:22grandstands they are also sold out now the the grandstands waterfront and um they opened up another
17:28you know racing village uh segment for tickets so this is this is the and not sold out but um
17:35people requesting now all the time which is i'm i'm a new i'm the new ticket counter i think yeah yeah
17:42um if we have still tickets and if you know then if i know where we can find some tickets and so on and
17:47so on it's it's lots of lots of people they they want to go there they're really they're really fizzing
17:52around uh the the sale gp topic and around having a home event in sassnitz yeah it must be awesome to
17:58have such such good support like you kind of know it's there but to then go home and be able to see
18:02that crowd you've got you know amazing german sponsors as well um i guess how proud of of this
18:08whole thing are you like it's pretty cool to be involved in for sure for sure i mean this is what we
18:13always dreamed of yeah in in the olympic stuff you know and in germany is not like you know great britain
18:18spain these these big sailing countries um it's not not the same culture in germany is for sure you
18:25know you have the focus on getting your studies done it is there is a focus on you know getting
18:30the transition from from sport to to uh to business at some point and there was never a perspective for
18:39sailor really and now we have with boris hermann an offshore project which is quite successful and
18:44uh which is reliable for years now and on the other hand also sail gp as the inshore option for
18:51getting into professional sailing so it's uh something very new and very special for germany
18:56yeah it's so exciting and i i guess i mean you guys have you know had some promising like race results
19:02you're going to want to put it all together is there like sort of pressure to kind of deliver when you
19:07when you get home to to sassnitz or every race you just want to do the best you can
19:12this is the easiest answer but um yeah for sure we don't we don't want to be bad in germany you know
19:19if we're good at one event in in the season should be germany you know with because friends and family
19:25are around it's uh where we want to you know bring the product at its best and show showcase our our
19:33topic sale gp um as good as we can so i i hope i hope we're good in sassnitz i hope we're good in the
19:39season second half of the season can't say first half was good well you're at yeah you're at like
19:44zero you're in the green now you're not a negative point so it's only up from here right i think we're
19:48not on last anymore somehow but uh yeah exactly we were we were getting out of the cellar and uh
19:53catching up now yeah i guess i mean obviously the season is is tough but then you just got to focus on
19:59every every event and try kind of make your first final is probably the next big thing for you guys
20:04right yeah i think yeah top fivers would be a couple of top fivers we had last year i think
20:10five and six this year was a seven the the best result so getting closer to the top five top six
20:18i think then you have a shot on on the on the top three yeah yeah the points are so close it's very
20:23anything can happen um before we wrap up i just wanted to know like if you could relive any
20:28sailing moment in your life what would that be um there's a french birthday going on next door
20:38i think the coolest moment we had was the first world cup we won in 2013 yeah in palma that was
20:46also club and family around and uh we had a blast of a race and we were leading by so far and it was so
20:54so cool and we started off with a double backflip that was our signature move always when we won
21:00events yeah so we started off there and then uh yeah kind of continued with that from from from that
21:07day on and uh that yeah i would pick that awesome well um not sure you'll be backflipping off an f50
21:13but i hope that you that you're gonna have the uh need to backflip off an f50 and soon i think you'll
21:18probably get in trouble with the safety department okay will you be back flipping backflipping in spirit by
21:23the end of the season let's hope for that hey yeah thank you so much for chatting it was really
21:28nice to to hear a little bit more about your journey i'm really excited to to go to germany
21:33and see all the fans and um hope you have an amazing event there too yeah thank you thank you so
21:37much for tuning in to one on one make sure you subscribe and ping that notification bell because
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