At the age of 20, Anna Barth experienced “seaside bear” gave the course. In the SailGP series, Formula 1 of the sailing, she is the only woman in the German Urban Team. Not only thanks to the help of Sebastian Vettel has big goals.
Whether on a Formula 1 straight with over 300 or on a tour-de-france descent at almost 100 km/h-without brakes it is not possible in racing. Actually. But things are different in high -speed sailing.
In the aspiring SailGP series, high-tech catamarans quickly shoot over the water and deliver spectacular overtaking maneuvers and accidents. Anna Barth is an exception-and not only because the 20-year-old now switched from school to a core position in the 4.8 million euro German boat.
T-online: Ms. Barth, you have been part of the German SailGP team since 2023. What is it like to shoot over the water at over 100 km/h without brakes?
Anna Barth: That is a gigantic feeling. We cannot simply stop abruptly, which is why a teammate from me aptly referred to it as “racing without brakes”. At these speeds you are simply in the flow and try to hide everything else. If you think too much about the risks, it can be scary.
In a ZDF documentary, this was also referred to as “bull riding on the water”. How does that comment? Are you littered with blue spots after a race?
Yes, sometimes you are already littered with blue spots. It depends on the event and above all the conditions. I would not compare it with bull riding. We try to fly over the water with the catamaran as high as possible – and thus have as few parts of the boat as possible in the water.
Moment. So you don’t drive on the water at all?
We have so -called hydrofoils that are mounted under the boat. The technology helps us to remove the water from a certain speed. This makes us significantly faster because there are no longer the two gulls – with a catamaran there are always two in the water, but only the foils. And they have significantly less water resistance.
So we fly over the water on this very small foils (see video above). If we fly too high, however, it can happen that the current is lost on the foil and the boat crashly crashes back into the water. That would be a classic braking – and sometimes causes blue spots (laughs). With these crashes, the body already notices what immense forces work there.
The crew of a SailGP boat exists Depending on the wind conditions from four to six Persons. Among them must be at least one woman. In the case of turning maneuvers, Barth briefly takes the tax, but it is mainly responsible for the overarching strategy.
Your official title on board is “strategy”. What exactly do you do?
As a strategist I am on board at the back, stand directly behind the helmsman in the cockpit – these are, for example, kneehohe, oval -shaped excerpts in the two blunders. From there I have the best overview and see where the other boats are and how best we get through the course. There is a lot going on with twelve boats at the start. It’s about navigating most effectively. Because when sailing there is not only one direct path, but we have an open field.
This is set off by two buoys that we have to circle. It doesn’t matter whether we drive them off the right or left, but depends on where most of the wind, very few waves and very few competitors are. When a boat is in front of us, it causes turbulence and we get “worse” wind behind it. Therefore, we try to avoid driving directly in the line from others. I have to keep an eye on all these parameters, process it quickly and communicate to our helmsman Erik Heil and the team.