The Optimists sailed to their first title in the Team Race. Photo: segel-bilder.de
The weather scenario on day two of the Travemünde Week was not quite as perfect as at the start. However, the changing breeze allowed more races to be held during the course of the day to crown the first worthy winners of the 135th TW. The crews on the sea course celebrated the conclusion of their up-and-down races. They still have the Rund Fehmarn long-distance race and the Lübecker Nachrichten medium-distance race on the programme for the rest of the week. The Hobie 16 class, on the other hand, bid farewell to the TW after a compact performance on the Trave. And for the Optimists, the Team Race was on the programme for the opening weekend before the battle for the German Youth Championship begins on Tuesday.
16 teams with four sailors each competed in the Opti Team Race. The competition is more than just a warm-up for the German Championship and has developed into a title race in its own right. Accordingly, there was a lot of commitment on the course over the past two days. “A lot of good tactical games could be observed. Commands were thrown back and forth, opponents were passed from one team mate to the next and taken into the cover,” reported race director Lorenz Buchler.
The second day in particular, with its changing wind conditions, offered tactical options that the favourites ultimately knew how to exploit. Jasper Porthun, Jonny Seekamp, Tizian Lembeck, Nicolas Troeger and Paul Fiete Hickstein, who make up the German national team for the World Championships, continued their confident progress after the preliminary round. Firstly, they won the semi-final 2:0 and the final was also a clear-cut affair with a 2:0 victory.
They will not be able to receive the trophy for this success until Monday. They will be honoured for their success at the opening ceremony of the International German Youth Championship (IDJM).
While a fleet of 244 boats is expected to take part in the IDJM, the TW kick-off on the sea course offered a view of a manageable field competing for the first trophies. The increase in crews for the long and medium distances will be significant. On the up-and-down courses, there were clear winners in the small fleets of the three groups. Jan Peters from Heiligenhafen sailed to four victories and a second place in the ORC A/B group with the crew of the “Adamas” in the field of four boats. The ORC C group had five crews. However, the victory was even clearer. Jürgen Klinghardt (Lübeck) and his crew on the “Patent 4” collected five victories in the five races. “I wasn’t at the start myself today as I was at my daughter’s 30th birthday party. But the crew did a great job. We had perfect conditions yesterday and the race committee organised everything very well,” said Klinghardt.
Since the former world champion lightened his yacht by a few kilograms, it has been travelling much faster. The “Patent 4” was already hard to beat at Kieler Woche, and now she has not allowed any other day’s victory. The aim now is to compete for the title at the German Championship in the autumn.
The largest field on the racecourse was made up of seven yachts in the yardstick classification. Winner Christian Masilge (Berlin) was also in a class of his own on the “Krabauter” and finished the up-and-downs with an unblemished score.
For the J/22s, the Travemünde Week enters its finale with the German Open on Monday. The crew led by Reiner Brockerhoff from Duisburg has laid the foundations over the past two days to storm to the top step of the podium. Only in the first race did they allow themselves a “slip-up”. They followed up their second place at the start with five victories, giving them a clear lead over Wolf Jeschonnek (Berlin) and Thorsten Spötter (Hamburg).
The Hobie 16s had only been booked in Travemünde for two days. The cats with the colourful sails only managed one race on the second day, then the waves became so unpleasant when the wind died down that the cats could hardly be moved in race mode. Since last year, when they were the best German crew at the European Championships, Stephan Schubert/Anke Delius have formed a winning Hobie combination. And they continued their strong run at the Travemünde Week, taking victory ahead of Jens Reimers/Christian Schober and Carsten Schermer/Janneke Fock.
There has been a change at the top of the intermediate dragon rankings. The former Ilca7 ace, two-time Olympic participant Jesper Stalheim, has shown the most consistent performance so far. After four races, the Swede leads the Grand Prix rankings ahead of Christoph Toepfer from Hamburg and Martin Palsson (also from Sweden).
In the Finn dinghies, however, it is the Dutch and Poles who are setting the tone. Bas de Waal (Netherlands) leads ahead of Andrzej Romanowski (Poland) and Cees Scheurwater (Netherlands). André Budzien lost his top position. Although the man from Schwerin sailed to his third victory in the fourth race, he also suffered an early start disqualification. With one more race, however, he has the best chance of winning again if he can eliminate one race from the classification.
The Ukrainian flag is flying at the head of the field in the RS Aero class. Sofia Naumenko did not cope with the conditions as well as at the start, but remains in the leading position of the German Open ahead of Marcus Walther (Langen) and the German class leader Juliane Barthel (Osnabrück). The Dyas have made a fresh start to the Travemünde Week. After the first day, Arndt Fingerhut/Andreas Malcher (Edersee) are in first place.
Captions from above:
The one-tonner “Krabauter” secured victory for Christian Masilge’s crew in the up-and-downs of the Yardstick class. Photo: segel-bilder.de/Travemünder Woche
Stephan Schubert/Anke Delius have been a successful team in the Hobie 16 since last year and have now also won the Travemünde Week. Photo: segel-bilder.de/Travemünder Woche
In the RS Aero, the title of unofficial German champion will be up for grabs in the coming days. Photo: segel-bilder.de/Travemünder Woche
