Germany’s racing debut in Chicago has been put under the microscope and compared against the rest of the flying F50 fleet.
Erik Heil’s team hit the racecourse for the first time on Lake Michigan, testing its mettle against league leaders such as Australia, New Zealand and Emirates Great Britain for the first time.
Data provided by the fleet compares a number of metrics, including starting stats, boat speed, maneuvers and fly time. The data includes all five fleet races and takes into account the lighter winds of the second day, which prevented the F50s from foiling at all. Despite finishing at the back of the fleet, Germany impressed with its debut and finished ahead of some established teams in multiple metrics.
Throughout the five races, Germany performed a total of 44 maneuvers - 21 tacks and 13 gybes - and had a foiling percentage of 55.4%. The team which foiled for the longest amount of time was Canada - with a 60.5% fly time, while the lowest was Emirates GBR with 53.59%.
When it came to ride height, Germany picked up an average of 0.48m - narrowly higher than the U.S. at the bottom of the metric with 0.46m. Meanwhile Canada picked up the highest ride height - an average of 0.61m.
The Germans sailed a total distance of 6,924m over the two days, below Emirates GBR, which sailed the furthest distance of the fleet (7,113.98m) and above New Zealand’s shortest distance of 6,537m.
When it came to Mark One rankings, Germany had an average position of 7.6 and lost an average of 0.6 places by the finish line. Despite finishing the event in last place, Germany was by no means the worst performer in this metric.
Canada, Switzerland and the U.S. lost on average more places from Mark 1 to the finish, while Switzerland lost an average of 1.62 places from Mark 1 to finish an average of 9.1.
When it came to starting, German had an average speed of 25.8 km/h when it crossed the line, faster than both New Zealand (21.9 km/h) and Emirates GBR (25.3 km/h). But the Germans were the slowest to cross the line after the gun - an average of 31.1 seconds, compared to the fastest - Canada in 2.7 seconds.
In positioning, Germany was located on average 35.9m from the start line - closer than both France (39.4m) and Switzerland (64m). The closest to the line was Australia, which was positioned an average of 11m away.
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