The opening day of the Emirates Great Britain Sail Grand Prix delivered one of its most dramatic moments when Germany SailGP Team presented by Deutsche Bank came within inches of capsizing in the final race.
As their F50 approached the downwind gate, the German crew found themselves out of position following a communication breakdown onboard. Overpowered in the Solent breeze, the boat heeled violently, lifting high onto one hull before narrowly avoiding a full capsize in front of the packed Portsmouth crowd.
Driver Erik Heil admitted the near-miss stemmed from a series of small errors rather than a single mistake. "It was a misalignment in the team," he explained. "It wasn't really clear whether to go leeward or windward of the fort. I also sent Kevin [Peponnet, wing trimmer] late to the other side, so he wasn't on the board to lift it in time. All of that together made for a pretty tricky situation."
Heil credited fast thinking by James Wierzbowski, pulling down on the wing to create lift, for preventing the capsize. The save stopped what would have been the second capsize in Germany's SailGP history, with split-second decisions separating staying upright from ending up in the water.
Despite recovering to complete the race, the incident capped a frustrating day for Heil's crew, who struggled to convert promising starts into consistent results. "It was not the best day," Heil said. "We had a couple of good starts but didn't find the full speed of the boat or its full potential. Then we had the big incident in the last race as well. Overall, there's plenty of space to improve."
