Jochen Schuemann- The man behind the helm

by Alinghi Media on 1 Sep 2005 Think Jochen Schuemann, think Olympic Gold. The two are synonymous and spell one thing: gifted.

Today, he is at the helm of Alinghi, the Defender of the 32nd America’s Cup, a long way from the 11-year-old, who built his own Optimist at school in East Germany. Despite nearly sinking it at first outing and missing the start of his first race ever, he got the hang of it and went on to race in the East German championships in his first year of sailing. This was the beginning of his path to the top.

Jochen is a tall man and was a tall child, he soon outgrew Optimists and graduated to 420s and then the OK Dinghy, this led him on to Finn sailing – the boat he was to race in the Olympics. This was 1971.

Five years later he had bagged his first Gold medal in the Finn class in Montreal, then a fifth in 1980 but his love affair with the Finn, and with Olympic sailing was put in jeopardy in 1984, when East Germany boycotted the Games.

As reported in an article by Sailing World, on their election of Jochen into the Hall of Fame, he commented on his disappointment: 'That was nearly the end of my Olympic career because I was so angry. I didn’t want to understand why it happened'.

Unstoppable, however and on a Soling instead, he continued to stack up European and World championships, again winning an Olympic Gold in 1988 in the Soling class in Pusan, South Korea. Next it was Barcelona, then another Gold in Savannah and a Silver in Sydney.

With the benchmark so high, there weren’t too many places to take such talent and determination. Jochen’s next stop was to be the America’s Cup. Daimler Benz contacted him for their AeroSail project, aiming for a German Challenge for an America’s Cup attempt in 1992. He says; 'It was too interesting to refuse and so I returned to Germany in 1993. Unfortunately the project came to an end after four years'.

An opportunity to take part in the America’s Cup came up, this time with Switzerland, and so he grabbed it. Becoming helmsman and sporting director of Fast 2000, he says; 'even though I knew that it was going to be a difficult experience. And it was! Switzerland was launching into an America’s Cup campaign for the first time. We had a lot to learn. But that opened the doors of the Cup, for both me and for Switzerland. Now look at Alinghi...!'

Jochen, Alinghi Sports Director and one of three team helmsmen, has just steered Alinghi to a clean sweep victory at Act 6 in Malmö, Sweden and will be helming the defending yacht for Act 7.