America's Cup- Gerry Moosbrugger killed

by Bert Willborg/Victory Challenge on 7 Nov 2005 It is with great sadness that Victory Challenge has announced the death of Gerry Moosbrugger.

Moosbrugger, 28, a world class sailmaker, was on his way home from the Victory Challenge base at 18:50 on Wednesday, November 2, when he was involved in a traffic accident. Riding his motorcycle home, as he did everyday, Moosbrugger was just a couple of hundred metres from his apartment when he hit a car making an illegal manouvre in Avenida Blasco Ibáñez, in the Alboraya suburb of Valencia.

Gerry Moosbrugger had left the base 15 minutes earlier after a special day at work. He had, for the first time since he joined Victory Challenge, been out training with the team on board the racing yacht Örn (SWE 63). Following the sailing he had called his wife Monica to recount how thrilled he was with the experience.

Gerry had several other reasons to be in a good mood that day. On his way home he had stopped by a gift shop, to collect a birthday gift for his wife who was about to turn 32. He was also looking forward to becoming a father for the second time, Monica and Gerry’s son Sebastian, two and a half years old, will have a sister in January.

In a second all this happiness turned to disaster. Gerry Moosbrugger, driving his motor cycle down Avenida Blasco Ibáñez, would never see the Ford Escort reversing out of a parking lot in front of an apartment complex. The Ford, driven by a 39-year old Spanish tourist, initially out of sight, reversed out of the parking lot, straight across the early evening traffic, and then illegally turned left.

Moosbrugger hit the driver’s door of the Ford, was thrown into the windshield and landed on the road on the other side of the car. He suffered severe injuries to his head as well as several fractures. He was unconscious when he was taken by ambulance to the casualty department of Valencia’s University Hospital, Hospital Clínico Universitario de Valencia. The doctors at the hospital tried to save his life but Gerry never again regained consciousness. On Friday, November 4, Moosbrugger was pronounced dead.

With his death, his wife Monica, their son Sebastian, and their unborn daughter, have lost a loving father and husband. Moosbrugger’s close-knit family, father Peter, mother Gertraud, brother, Jörg, and sister Mareid, have lost their youngest. Victory Challenge and the entire America’s Cup community has lost a world class sailmaker, but above all a great friend.

Gerry Moosbrugger had been with Victory Challenge since May 2005 and the launch of the Swedish challenge for the 32nd America’s Cup. In Valencia Gerry had been working with the sail designer Laurent Delage and long time sailmaking colleague Martin Oliver.

Right from the beginning extreme efforts had been put into the sail programme by the Victory Challenge sailmakers so as to get the first batch of sails ready for the Valencia Louis Vuitton Acts in June of this year.

In the end, it was Gerry and Martin, who drove non-stop from the North Sails loft in Vannes, France to Valencia with the last finished sails, just in time for the regatta. They shared the driving for the 1300 km trip.

‘Tell me if you are getting tired, remember I have a family,’ Gerry would say to Martin Oliver when he felt it was time to swap drivers.

The birth of his first son Sebastian on March 6, 2003, had changed Gerry’s outlook and made him more cautious. A cautiousness he brought with him while driving his motorcycle, which although is practical is always dangerous, especially in the Valencia traffic.

‘Gerry always put his family first. He had that unique ability to combine hard and brilliant work with being a caring family father,’ recounts Martin Oliver.

The pair got to know eachother, together with Martin’s brother Leon Oliver, now a sailmaker with BMW Oracle Racing, at the North Sails loft in Auckland in 1999, while the all worked on making sails for Team New Zealand.

Gerry Moosbrugger, only 22 at the time, was already an experienced sailmaker, having served a three year apprenticeship at North Sails, Germany.

Although born in Germany, Gerry considered himself an Austrian, the Moosbrugger family is Austrian.

Gerry’s father Peter introduced his three children to boats at an early age, taking them out sailing on Lake Ammersee. Gerry Moosbrugger was just four when he sailed in a dinghy for the first time. He and his older brother Jörg later moved into the Hobie Cat Class, eventually becoming German Champions as well as being ranked in the top ten in Europe.

Whilst Jörg and sister Maried successfully launched Moosbrugger, a yachting consultancy specializing in brokerage and design, Gerry pursued a career in sailmaking.

While at the North Sails loft in Auckland Gerry Moosbrugger was spotted and recruited by world renowned skipper Grant Dalton (currently the head of Emirates Team New Zealand), as sail programme manager for his next two round the world projects, first of all with Club Med, the Maxi-catamaran participating in The Race, followed by the Nautor Challenge Volvo 60, participating in the Volvo Ocean Race (VOR).

It was during the Miami stopover of the VOR, in April 2002, that Gerry met Monica Tamayo, who was working as a press officer for the VOR. Within a year they were married with a son, Sebastian.

‘His spirit and radiance will live forever within me, his children, family and friends. I was blessed and grateful to make a life with him. Gerry will live in our hearts forever,’ explains his wife Monica.

Following the VOR Gerry Moosbrugger moved to North Sails in France and started working with Laurent Delage, now the sail designer for Victory Challenge.

‘Whilst in France Gerry became the manager of our special projects. He was the perfect guy. No matter how complicated or tough the project deadlines were, and they often were, he always managed to get everything done properly and on time. As a result he took on more and more responsibility with bigger and bigger projects,’ says Laurent Delage.

When Delage was hired as the sail designer for Victory Challenge, Gerry Moosbrugger was the obvious choice for the sailmaking team. Moosbrugger then brought in his former colleague Martin Oliver from New Zealand.

‘Because of Victory Challenge’s late entry and the tough regattas in Valencia, Malmö and Trapani this summer, there has been a lot of pressure on everyone, especially the sailmakers. Sometimes I felt like I needed to tell Gerry and Martin to go home and sleep. Gerry always replied, with a smile on his face, saying that that what had to be done in the loft, had to be done first,’ continues Laurent Delage.

‘I nick-named him Smiley, because of his attitude. He really had the best attitude – the kind of dream attitude you need when assembling a team like this,’ says Hugo Stenbeck, initiator of Victory Challenge.

Gerry Moosbrugger will be buried in his hometown of Munich. A memorial service for the family, Victory Challenge and the America’s Cup community will be held in Valencia. The dates for these two occasions will be announced later.

‘Our family would like to extend its sincere thanks for the support it has received from the Victory Challenge team and the America´s Cup community at this difficult time,’ closed Jörg Moosbrugger.