Kiel, June 26,1995
In a qualifying competition which was exciting through to the last race, Jochen Schümann and his AeroSail crew in "Anemos" succeeded in Kiel in qualifying in the ILC 40 (medium) category for the Admiral's Cup. This is the greatest sailing success so far for the new AeroSail project of the Daimler-Benz group. It was won in fair competition against the "OMEN", whose tactics were dictated by this year's America's Cup winner Russell Coutts (New Zealand)."Anemos" finished with seven wins overall, the "OMEN" with five. The AeroSail "Astro" with helmsman Markus Wieser (Munich) came third in the ILC 40 category. In the Mumm 36 class, Eric Mergenthaler likewise clinched victory in the final race and, in doing so, secured second place in the pre-selection for the Admiral's Cup. AeroSail 2 with the 21 year old student from Berlin, Eiko Powilleit, who sailed exclusively with talented youngsters from the AeroSail school, came fifth in the overall placings.
Members of the "Anemos" crew, which had already moved into the lead in the North Sea Week, are tactician John Cutler (NZL), trimmer Peter Warren (NZL), and from the AeroSail team of talented youngsters Ingo Borkowski (Babelsberg / Spi), Mattias Paschen (Hamburg / Genoa), Ole Sartori (Kiel / navigator), Jan Schoepe (Cuxhaven / cockpit), Jonas Busch (Münster / mast) and Gunter Ernst (Munich / forecastle).
"With this qualification, the investment of the Daimler-Benz group in German sailing and in the AeroSail project is paying further dividends", says AeroSail managing director, Dr Hans Blume, happily. "Not only is the continuous screening, promotion and teaching of German sailing talent beginning to pay off but it has also proved a good decision to build an Admiral's Cup yacht for the first time completely in Germany, under the direction of our own technical team." Jochen Schümann's "wind bride" (Anemos is Greek and means wind) was developed by the AeroSail technology team, under the direction of Dr. Heiner Meldner and Klaus-Jürgen Heer, and built at Speedwave in Jettingen.
"We want to continue this concept of popular and top level sport promotion", confirmed Dr. Blume, "It is a good example of the co-operation between sport and industry. This goes also for our partnership with the German Sailing Association (DSV)." At the pre-Olympics in Savannah at the end of next month, the benefits of the infrastructure measures which AeroSail has carried out together with the DSV will be felt.
Further planned events are: participation in the ILC 40 World Championship in Klintholm (June, 6 - July, 8), in the Mumm 36 World Championship in the Solent (July, 15 - 18) and in the Admiral's Cup at end of July / beginning of August off Cowes - Isle of Wight.
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