Michael: You Don’t Reach Top Of The Fleet Overnight
Wing trimmer Michael Menninger discusses his first few events with the U.S. SailGP Team
Published 11/4/2025
Michael Menninger has seen progress since joining the U.S. SailGP Team but is mindful that hitting the top of the fleet won’t happen overnight.
The experienced wing trimmer joined the U.S. SailGP Team in New York at the start of June and made his first appearance on the F50 in Sassnitz for the Germany Sail Grand Prix.
Speaking after the DP World Spain Sail Grand Prix in Cádiz, Michael said: “I’d take an event every week. I think we’re making gains and progress. You’re not going to climb to first overnight.
“The subtle gains are being made — we just need to keep plugging away. Starting is a big focus for us.
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“It’s on me to make sure the boat is being sailed as best it can as we go through thousands of gear changes in the starting sequence.
“We talk very openly between the coaching staff, the rest of the athletes, and myself. We’re all really open-minded about it. We’ve got some good heads in the room, and it’s on us to make a plan we’re all comfortable with.
“I think we have it in us. We’re all looking forward to Abu Dhabi but there’s already excitement building for next year.”
Michael also singled out the coaching staff for praise, after finishing with three event points in Cádiz last time out to cap a strong weekend.
He said: “We should be proud that we have a really good coaching staff behind us. We’re able to identify changes we need to make on a day-to-day basis, and props to the sailing team for being able to connect on those changes the very next day.
Michael Menninger joined the U.S. SailGP Team midway through Season 5 of SailGP
“It’s cool to see us identify a couple of things we want to improve upon, and then the next day they’re already happening. Those issues aren’t allowed to linger.
“We’re taking a global overview of our starting approach, and Cádiz was pretty interesting. On Saturday, a huge majority of the fleet started moving toward a different style of starting — a little higher boat speeds and a little farther away from the line on approach.
“We tried to make some adjustments to that on Sunday. We executed on it a little bit but that’s something we’ll keep taking a look at. There’s only one event left this season, so we have a lot of time now between events.
“We’ll try to learn as much as we can from Cádiz, take all those learnings into our playbook, make sure they’re ingrained in the team, and then look forward to Abu Dhabi and do the best we can there.”
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