Thick rain clouds over Travemünde, heavy showers over land and on the Baltic Sea: But neither the visitors nor the sailors were bothered by the North German “Schietwedder”. While the guests strolled along the promenades under umbrellas, the sailors squeezed into wetsuits or oilskins and sailed a compact programme with up to three races on the five courses that were played on the second day of the regatta.
The north-south summit in the dragons is coming to a head with a duel between the Hamburg teams and the Munich teams. Nicola Friesen of NRV Hamburg was able to defend her lead on Sunday after her opening victory on Saturday, but in the last race of the day she received an early start disqualification and fell back to seventh place. With a consistent series, Philipp Ocker (Munich) moved to the top of the field and leads the competition ahead of IDM title defender Ingo Ehrlicher (Pappenheim). Currently, Jan Wortmann (Hamburg) is in bronze. she has a tough opponent breathing down her neck, tied on points after three races. For Tanja Jacobsohn from Lübeck, the day was changeable. First she made a step forward, then she received an early start disqualification and is stuck in 13th place in the IDM midfield.
There was a lot of tension in the fight for the German titles not only on the courses in the Bay of Lübeck, but also in the jury room. This was because a protest was still pending after the middle-distance race on Saturday, as a fixed sea mark, which was supposed to serve as a course mark, was not on its position. So the positions of the seagoing yachts in the regatta ranking were not yet clear when the crews were back in the harbour. Finally, the jury met into the evening to make a decision after hearing the teams involved.
In the group of large yachts (Group A+B), Jens Kuphal’s “Intermezzo” (Berlin) performed well and scored points with positions 4, 1, 1 in the two up-and-down races and in the final Coastal Race. The division into short races and longer distances is in line with the new World Championship format to be used at the season highlight in Kiel in August.
In the smaller yachts (C+D group), Kai Mares’ “Immac Fram” (Dänischenhagen) straightened out the balance of power. The title favourites, who were only fifth at the start, have returned to the Baltic Sea this season after two years in the Mediterranean and are getting into World Cup form off Travemünde. With success, as was shown on the second day: With ranks 2, 1, 1 they moved up to first place. First in the chase, only one point behind, is the sister ship, the “patent 4” of Jürgen Klinghardt (Lübeck), which has moved past the “Aquaplay” of Max Habeck (Munich), which won the opening race, for the time being. The battle for the German Championship remains exciting, however, as less than half of the planned races have been sailed so far.
In the Finn Dinghys, the German-Dutch duel for the TW crown between TW title defender Fabian Lemmel (Berlin) and Cees Scheurwater (Netherlands) continues. Although Klaus Reffelmann from the Möhne landed the first win of the day, after that the two top men took command again and scored one win each. After a total of four races, Lemmel leads Scheurwater by six points.
The Dyas started their Travemünde week freshly on Sunday. Top man Jens Olbrysch (Herrsching), who missed last year’s Travemünde Week due to other commitments, is now back and showed straight away that the Baltic Sea is the right place for him. Two starts, two victories are the record of the multiple German Champion, who sails with Norbert Schmidt. With two second places, Stefan Kreiss/Sonja Diezler (Steinberg) are the first pursuers.
On the Media Race Course within sight of the beach, the final of the Champions League with 28 sailing clubs from ten nations was a hustle and bustle. “The level is incredibly high. All the races are super close, there is a fight for the last metre,” reported Champion League Managing Director Anke Nowak. As a result, two of the J/70 yachts were damaged. Nowak: “On one of them the railing support is broken, on the second one we have damage to the bow. But it’s all repairable.” After seven of 18 scheduled flights, the Finnish Alandska Sailing Club is ahead and has thus swapped places with the now second-placed Überlingen Sailing and Motor Boat Club. Behind them, too, it remains a colourful international mix. The Yacht Club Gdansk maintains third place.
The Australian club from Adelaide has moved up to fourth place. Nowak was impressed by the Australians’ race to catch up, who took two victories at the end of the day: “They don’t sail on J/70s down under, but they quickly got used to it here. Probably also because the guys from Überlingen always gave them valuable tips.”
In the evening, the Formula 18s thrilled the spectators with their Trave Race. When the rain had cleared over Travemünde, the catamarans rushed into the Trave. Although the wind broke during the show races in front of the audience, this did not take anything away from the excitement. On the contrary: after races with constantly changing leads, the Italians Matteo Fiorini/Lorenzo Casamenti finally prevailed and were celebrated by the audience, which stood in rows of five on the promenade. The Italians were allowed to collect their prize shortly afterwards in Sailors Village. For the Kats, the Trave Race was the dress rehearsal for the World Championship, which starts on Monday on the course in Lübeck Bay.
