At the start of the final weekend of the Travemünde Week, the wind may have run out of steam for a moment. But looking back on the regattas and the festival since 19 July, the organisers of the Lübeck Yacht Club, NRV Hamburg and Zurich Yacht Club as well as the marketing agency uba from Hamburg have a smile on their faces. Various wind conditions provided excellent regatta conditions, the weather with plenty of sunshine filled the festival miles during the days and evenings, and the atmosphere was relaxed and peaceful.
Great wind and weather: smiling faces among athletes and guests
The continuing summery weather forecast for the final Sunday suggests that around 600,000 visitors will have come to Travemünde over the entire ten days of the event, including the final fireworks display at 10.45 pm on Sunday.
Jens Kath, Sports Director of Travemünde Week, was very satisfied: “We had a good turnout in the 20 classes and 22 competitions that we organised. Over 800 boats competed and around 1350 athletes from 27 nations were represented. All classes found good to very good sailing conditions, so that we were able to organise fair championships and ranking list regattas. Even though there were two days when the winds were difficult, the Travemünde Week once again confirmed its reputation as a championship venue.”
This assessment was also confirmed by Anderl Denecke, the overall race director of Travemünde Week: “We had a very good turnout of races over nine days of sailing. This means that we are on schedule with good races everywhere. It was a Travemünde Week with beautiful weather and little rain. Some days offered absolute dream conditions.”
The organisers of the TW regattas are delighted with a successful 135th edition of the regatta week (from left): TW managing director Frank Schärffe, overall race director Anderl Denecke, project manager Birgit Stamp-Oehme and sports director Jens Kath. photo: segel-bilder.de
In the first half of the Travemünde Week in particular, there was champagne sailing for the classes. “For example, the Finns and the Dragons were very enthusiastic. They have announced that they want to come to the Travemünde Week with bigger championships in the future. The weather naturally played into our hands,” says Denecke. In the second half, the challenges were significantly greater due to the weather. “Especially when there are almost 250 participants at the start – as in the Optis – not everyone will be 100 per cent satisfied. But the overall atmosphere was very good. This is also due to the top professional teams in the race organisation, who did everything possible to offer the sailors the best field,” said the overall race director.
The relaxed atmosphere among the participants and organisers was also largely evident among the showmen and guests. “We didn’t have any problems until yesterday evening. On Friday evening it was a bit more turbulent on the Mile,” reported Frank Schärffe, Managing Director of Travemünder Woche gGmbH. The mostly good weather without too much heat contributed to a good flow of visitors: “As a result, there were many people on the Mile and not all of them on the beach,” said Schärffe. However, the traffic situation was tense: “Both the car parks and the buses and trams were overcrowded at times, even though the frequency and capacity of public transport had been increased.”
Uwe Bergmann , Managing Director of the marketing agency uba segel-bilder.de
Uwe Bergmann, Managing Director of the marketing agency uba, agreed: “Public transport has reached its limits. The traffic situation in Travemünde must be improved with intelligent solutions.” Despite the large number of visitors, the stand operators’ conclusions are mixed: “We are coming out of the pandemic and a phase of inflation. Money is no longer so loose and many guests are bringing their own food and drinks. Of course, that’s not good for the stall operators. But with a lively programme for Travemünde Week, we managed to ensure that everyone had a great festival week. Now we still have to work on making sure that people can’t resist consuming here,” says Bergmann.
For Frank Schärffe, a look at the past few days shows “that we will continue to work on improving and making the stay as pleasant as possible for both the sailors and the guests. We have received a lot of praise from the sailors for the work of the race organisers and the jury. The new classes in particular have signalled that they would like to come back.
The police will publish their summary of Travemünde Week on Monday, but have signalled that it was a peaceful and trouble-free festival week so far, which presented itself as a colourful family celebration. The deployment of police forces was similar to last year and the use of bicycle patrols on the Priwall in particular proved its worth.
The concerts in the evenings and the other attractions on the festival mile attracted around 600,000 visitors to the 135th Travemünde Week. Photo: segel-bilder.de
Goosebump atmosphere at the TW final
In keeping with tradition, the Travemünde Week will be bid farewell on Sunday from 10.45 pm with a brilliant fireworks display high above the Baltic Sea. It will be colourful and feature a wide variety of musical genres.
Fireworks artist Mirco Lorkowski promises music with a finger on the pulse and goosebumps guaranteed during the twelve-minute fireworks display at the end of the 135th Travemünde Week. “It will be an absolute dream with theatrical waterfalls and modern, experimental, but also classical music and a finale with melodies that everyone knows.” For greater sustainability, Lorkowski favours fireworks from European production, partly because of the quality and partly to avoid long transport routes.
A brilliant light spectacle over the Baltic Sea will conclude the Travemünde Week on Sunday at 22:45. Photo: segel-bilder.de
