Javelin and Flying Junior honour their international champions

Feature photo: The World Championship was decided for the Flying Junior at the TW. The Netherlands dominated the action at the top. Photo: segel-bilder.de

The British win the IC Canoe Nations Cup, the Flying Junior World Championship title goes to the Netherlands and the Germans are crowned Euro Cup winners in the Javelin. The Travemünde Week presented itself with an international mix of triumphs on the seventh day of the regatta. While the Javelin and Flying Junior celebrated the end of the Travemünde Week with the crowning of the winners, the other classes are heading into an exciting final weekend. Nine decisions are still to be made, including the freestyle of five national and international champions.

The Flying Junior class is and remains firmly in the hands of the Dutch. Hylke Sasse took gold at the last two championships at European and global level. And the 30-year-old was once again top of the class – even though he had a new force on the foresheet in the form of 17-year-old Doete Vogelaar.

The new world champions were delighted: “The world championship was our first regatta together. We had only trained together four times before and travelled here without any expectations. We could have imagined anything up to fifth place. We absolutely didn’t expect to win. It was super close and exciting right to the end,” said Sasse. The next regatta for the newly crowned world champion team is in September, the Dutch Championship, before which the world championship title will be celebrated tonight in Travemünde.

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Hylke Sasse sailed to the World Championship title with the 17-year-old Doete Vogelaar. Photo: segel-bilder.de

With Matthias Riffeler/Justus Rüthing (Ville/Lippstadt), a German team was able to crack the Dutch supremacy, finishing in silver ahead of the pair of sisters from Brassemermeer, Esther and Miriam de Jong.

Christian Wirts/Thorsten Fischer from Steinhuder Meer celebrated a successful defence of their title at European level in the Javelins. Just like last year, they won the Euro Cup title again. “It was a strong field with very close races. The top three all had a good chance of winning the title,” said Wirts and saw the key to success in the consistent series: “We needed a bit of a run-up on the first day, made a few mistakes and also capsized once. But overall we had fewer runaways.” The different conditions during the championship days made for a great regatta, “even if it was a little too windy for some of us at times”. Overall, however, the Javelin class was delighted with the Travemünde Week and the organisation on land and on the water, said Wirts.

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Christian Wirts/Thorsten Fischer celebrated a successful title defence in the Javelin Euro Cup. Photo: segel-bilder.de

Behind the gold winners Wirts/Fischer, the uncle-nephew team Jens and Robin Schlittehard (also from Steinhuder Meer) came second ahead of the Brits Eddy and Neil Reid.

Before the final day of the IC Canoe World Championships, the leading Briton Glen Truswell has slightly extended his small points cushion with three victories. However, the World Championship win is not yet in the bag for him. Michael Costello (USA) remains in contention with three second places, while Mike Fenwick (Great Britain), in third place, can hardly intervene in the title fight. The British had plenty to celebrate on the penultimate day of the World Championships. In the morning, they won the interlude competition, the New York Canoe Club Challenge Trophy, the Nations Cup in a close duel against the German team.

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The German Open will be decided at the Taifun on Saturday. Photo: segel-bilder.de

In the second class of canoeing, the Taifun, there was a change at the top of the German Open before the final on Saturday. Claudius Junge from Preetz was unable to repeat the strong performance of the previous day and had to let both Felix Mosebach (Neuruppin) and Johannes Meyer (Bremen) pass him.

Nick Heuwinkel/Jesper Spehr (Kiel) successfully defended their lead in the International German Star Boat Championship. After five races, the pair from Kiel are keeping former European champion Hubert Merkelbach from Lake Constance at bay with Kilian Weise on the foresheet. And the reigning world champion Max Kohlhoff (Kiel), who has brought his brother Johann Kohlhoff on board to replace his injured foresailor Ole Burzinski, is also behind them. However, the pair of brothers have already established themselves in a strong third place after a short time sailing. At the International German Youth Championship (IDJM), the top national sailors had to recognise the superiority of the foreign guests. Paul Fiete Hickstein (dümmer) in third place, and thus the best German, is already well ahead of the leading Swedish sailor Cornelia Baldock Frost and Olha Lubianska from the Ukraine. On the final day of the IDJM, a further four races will decide the winners of gold, silver and bronze.

The teens still have two days to go at the IDJM. On an exhausting day on the course with four races, Lotte-Marie Kirchesch/Mina Tratar from Berlin impressed with a consistent series of three second places and one win. They took the lead ahead of Moritz Klein/Leo Wosnitzka (Berlin) and Lukas Balzereit/Tim Bauknecht (also Berlin). In the ranking list regattas, the Congers start their final TW day with a new leading crew. Sven Naumann/Jördis Weichsel (Dümmer) recorded two wins on the day and took the lead from Hamburg’s Julia Pechstein/Wolfgang Goeken.Wolfgang Emrich/Klaus Ebbinghaus (Wörthsee) have so far had to accept that a seemingly outstanding winning streak is not necessarily enough for top position. Although they crossed the finish line first five times in the seven races, they also have a tenth and an eleventh place on the list and are therefore only in the chasing pack behind Manfred Brändle/Stefanie Gouverneur from Duisburg.Harry Voss from Steinhuder Meer is continuing his series of successes from last year, when he won the European title off Travemünde. He is the clear leader of the Olympic dinghies.

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Helge and Christian Sach are heading for their 22nd victory at the Travemünde Week. Photo: segel-bilder.de

Repeat offenders in the best sense of the word are the brothers Helge and Christian Sach from Zarnekau. The former Formula 18 world champions have already won the Travemünde Week 21 times, making them the record winners of the regatta week. And now they are aiming for their 22nd title on their home turf. In the five races of the fast cats, they took four victories and one second place and are now heading for their 22nd victory. “They were five fast races. The race committee did a good job. But it was very exhausting. Our starts could be improved. It’s good that I have a good tactician on board,” said helmsman Helge, praising his brother Christian on the foresheet.
During the course of the day, the offshore sailors also arrived back in Travemünde from the Rund Fehmarn long-distance regatta. After the start the previous evening, they headed into a night with a long lull. Race director Jan Fischer therefore set the course clockwise around the German Baltic Sea island. “This meant they came through the Fehmarnsund with aft winds,” said Fischer. At 10.15 a.m., the Heuer family’s “Norden” was the first yacht to cross the finish line. The Niendorfers thus also secured victory in the ORC class. In the Yardstick classification, Christian Masilge added another victory to his series of TW successes with the “Krabauter”. Erik Larsson (Lübeck) on the “Eclipse” (ORC) and Timo Manske (Lübeck) on the “Luise” (Yardstick) won the double-handed classifications.

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The crew of the “Norden” was the first yacht to reach Travemünde after the Rund Fehmarn long-distance race and also won in the calculated time. Photo: Stine Abratis

Javelin: Sailing class with family spirit

If you look at the entry list for the Javelin class, you won’t need to memorise many different names. In nine of the 20 participating teams, both crew members have the same surname. The Javelin scene is characterised by a particularly large number of family crews. The trend is moving from sibling teams to father-son teams.

“In the past, many brothers fought for the titles together, but nowadays there are more cross-generational crews, mostly father and son. I sail together with my nephew Robin. That’s how we get young people interested in the Javelin class,” says Jens Schlittenhard (Baltic Sailing Association). He is pleased about the trend, as it literally brings young people on board and revitalises the class. Sailing in the Javelin dinghy is great fun and is also quite affordable.

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Jens and Robin Schlittenhard are one of the typical cross-generational family crews in the Javelin class. Photo: segel-bilder.de

Jens Schlittenhard first took part in the Travemünde Week in 1996 and always enjoys returning for regattas – this time as part of a new team with his nephew. “The aim was to finish in the top five. We didn’t expect it to go so well,” said Schlittenhard. In the end, they were only beaten by the old and new Euro Cup winners, Christian Wirts and Thorsten Fischer (SK Minden).

The following places were also occupied by family teams, the British father-son teams: Eddy and Neil Reid (3rd), Ben and Richard Eric Fisher (4th) and Richard and Sebastian Smith (5th) lined up behind the Germans.

The Smith family is even represented at the Euro Cup with two family boats. “I sail one of our sons and my wife sails the other. Both of their grandfathers sailed here in the Javelin class 50 years ago,” says Richard Smith. The Fishers are also the third generation to be active in the Javelin class. In the case of these two Brits, their grandfather built Javelin dinghies himself.

Johannes Bahnsen from Hamburg is also competing with his son. They have been a team for two years. Last year, they achieved a good sixth place at the unofficial European Championships in Great Britain. In Travemünde, they are just starting out again after a health-related break and finished eleventh among the 20 teams.

The class is obviously very suitable for families. And anyone who doesn’t compete with a relative is at least part of the “Javelin family”, as the class is called.