Not going to the Bull

Laser ace and former German Youth America's Cup skipper Philipp Buhl on pulling out of September's Red Bull AC45 event

Philipp Buhl this week faces a rather different challenge to what he is used to. One of the world’s top Laser sailors, the German is in Langenargen, Lake Constance at the wheel of a Bavaria 40S keelboat competing at the Alpari World Racing Tour’s season opener, Match Race Germany.

However Buhl, 23, has been more in the news over the last few days since the management of the Sailing Team Germany (STG) and the Norddeutscher Regatta Verein (NRV) Youth Team, Germany’s entry that qualified in February for the Red Bull Youth America’s Cup, pulled the pin on this otherwise promising campaign. In a statement last week, the campaign management, including Klaus Lahme, Director of Sport at the NRV and Oliver Schwall, Managing Director of the STG and a former Tornado World Champion, stated that they had unanimously decided not to risk the lives of their youth sailors.

But it seems this decision was not so unanimous among the STG/NRV Youth Team sailors, among whom Buhl is skipper.

“Unfortunately our team management decided after the incident with Andrew Simpson and the Artemis boat that the German team would pull out of the finals to make a sign that the America’s Cup is too dangerous and that it is too dangerous for us,” Buhl told us. “But our crew is very, very motivated and still wants to go there, so we haven’t given up yet. We are trying to talk to our team management again and maybe make them decide differently and perhaps if they see that we really really want to go – as we do - then maybe we’ll get the spot again.”

In addition to the terrible drowning last week, we understand that another reason for the German withdrawal has been a continual reduction in the amount of training time offered to the Red Bull Youth America’ Cup teams prior to September’s finals in San Francisco.

Buhl points out that the Red Bull Youth America’s Cup is not held in AC72s. “The big AC72 catamarans foiling, they are obviously on the edge, maybe a little over the edge, and when the materials break then it is stupid for sure. But the AC45s and the Youth America’s Cup, with the smaller wings and without gennikers, just Code 0s, they are completely different and their danger is much much less. I don’t think we should worry so much about sailing in the Youth America’s Cup.”

In addition the AC45s are further detuned by having their 1.5m long wing extensions removed. And they sail with six crew, rather than five.

“The AC45s are fantastic boats, especially with the wings instead of the mainsail," Buhl continues. "I think that makes their power much more stable - one of the hulls comes out of the water, it is not very difficult to sail it with that way, although it is still difficult to sail it fast.

“We were sailing in up to 15 knots of wind [during the selection trials]. With the wing you only have a sheet, twist and camber - so three ropes control the wing - that is pretty easy to understand. The hard work for the crew is on a reach. You have to be on the grinder a lot.”

The German team’s withdrawal is unfortunate as Buhl is one of the world’s most talented racing sailors of his age. With very little practice time beforehand, STG/NRV Youth Team took part in the first week of selection trials in San Francisco during February when they finished on equal points with the New Zealand team, despite Buhl having had no previous catamaran experience.

“Everyone in our team hopes they will change their mind,” says Buhl of his overtures to the STG/NRV management. “But we cannot do more than hope and give it our best shot to make them do this.”

Meanwhile Buhl is concentrating on his Laser campaign for Rio. The German Laser set-up seems to be one of the best in the world with Buhl and his counterpart Simon Grotelueschen jockeying for position at the front of the Laser fleet, in a similar fashion to the Brit set-up with Paul Goodison and Nick Thompson or the Aussies Tom Slingsby and Tom Burton or the Kiwis Andy Moloney and Sam Meech.

Originally from Bavaria, but now living in Kiel where the Germany Olympic sailing team has its training base, Buhl last year won the Laser class at Hyeres and at Kieler Woche, on his home water, however he is most proud of his third place (the same points as second) against the full London 2012 roster at Skandia Sail for Gold last year. He was level pegging with Grotelueschen during the 2012 season but it was his team mate who ended up going to London 2012, where he finished sixth. “Simon went to the Games because our qualification was in 2011 and Simon was definitely better than me then. I am trying to go to Rio, but it is light winds which I’m not so good in - I am a bit too heavy, but there are still four years to go.”

So how did he and Grotelueschen get so good in the Laser? “I think there was a certain amount of ‘copy and paste’. I watch the good guys and look at what they are doing and why they are doing things, and then I try this and I work together with the national coach and my father, who studied physics and sails and knows a lot. With my team mate Simon, we had a very good team, both very motivated and we learned very quickly.”

Australian London 2012 gold medallist Tom Slingsby was clearly the force to be reckoned with over the last Olympic cycle, however word is that Slingsby if he returns for Rio may do so in the Finn, it being a light wind venue. How did Slingsby get to good? “Maybe it is a bit of a secret I still don’t know,” admits Buhl. “He was very fast in strong winds, especially upwind. What [Robert] Scheidt did years ago on downwind sailing, Slingsby did on upwind sailing. He is much more physical than the rest maybe, or more than average, sailing very fast and deep while the others were going high and slow. That was something new. He also has a very good feeling for tactics, how to move and when to tack in the fleet and when to take the windshifts. Especially in the Laser class, that is important.”

From the nimble Laser and AC45, this week Buhl faces the rather different challenge of match racing Bavaria 40S cruising yachts at Match Race Germany. On board he is sailing with his Youth America’s Cup team mates, mainly Olympic 49er sailors, including Eric Heil who won the Trofeo Princesa Sofia in Palma this spring. Of his crew only Michael Seifarth has any big boat experience having previously sailed TP52s.

The original plan was for the team to compete at Match Race Germany as an opportunity for the Red Bull Youth America’s Cup crew to gain more experience working together as a team. “Obviously it is a bit different from the AC45s - I’m not sure how many knots of wind is needed to get these boats foiling!” says Buhl with a smile.

So – has he done any match racing before? “Actually we have almost no experience in match racing,” he admits. “I’ve done three match races in Lasers, which are a bit different to these boats. But we have an international juror in Germany and he knows a bit about match racing and I asked him after the World Cup event in Hyeres if we could talk me through the match racing skills a little. So theoretically I know 80% of the moves, but doing it on these boats when they are so turning, it is also different. And of course sailing against the pros isn’t going to be so easy.

“We’ll just try to learn as much as we can as quickly as we can and try to ‘copy and paste’. When they make a move, we’ll try and copy it and try to get out of the pre-start without a penalty. But yesterday in the training we saw that even in 5 knots when it is really calm, and you have time in the manoeuvres, it is not too easy for us on boats we are not usued to. We have tried to improve as quickly as we did for the selection series for the Red Bull Youth America’s Cup, so maybe we can win one or two races here. But we need to be realistic: I suspect that after the qualification round, the first round robin, we will be out.”