Feature Image: On the penultimate day of the Travemünde Week, there were plenty of championship medals for the successful teams at world and German level. Photo: segel-bilder.de
The summer sun shone brightly over the Bay of Lübeck for the winners of the World and German Championships at Travemünde Week. In light winds, Friday’s leaders were able to celebrate their title wins without any further racing. The gold medals of the championships were shared by three nations: Athletes from Great Britain, Sweden and Germany each jumped to the top step of the winner’s podium. In addition to the IC Canoe World Championships, the German Star Boat Championships, the German Optimist Youth Championships and the Taifun German Open, three ranking list regattas also ended.
The Bay of Lübeck seemed to have rolled out the red carpet for Glen Truswell over the past few days. Regardless of the conditions, the Brit was the undisputed star among the IC Canoe sailors. He crossed the finish line as the winner in seven of the nine races, winning the world championship with aplomb, even though the US American Michael Costello was always close on his tail.

The British Tiger made a successful leap towards World Championship gold. Glen Truswell was the dominator of the IC Canoe. Photo: segel-bilder.de
“I was in Travemünde over ten years ago and was delighted to be back,” said Truswell. The Brit’s boat is called “Sleeping Tiger”, but the Tiger has definitely not slept during the races. “My boat was built in the UK and is one of the most sophisticated. The freedom of design is what makes the International Canoe so special.” But technical sophistication doesn’t have to be the only route to success, as Truswell went on to say: “My direct rival Mike Castello has a very simple boat and is still almost as fast as me. That shows that it doesn’t necessarily have to be complicated. But it feels great to win in a boat that you’ve built yourself.”
Behind Truswell and Costello, Mike Fenwick completed the World Championship podium in the sailing canoe class. While experienced canoe sailors occupied the podium in the IC Canoe class, it was a young player in the Canoe Taifun class who prevailed against the competition from the German Open. Felix Mosebach from Neuruppin only ventured into the Taifun last year after his youthful days in the Cadet and competing in the German Sailing League. He immediately finished third at the German Open. Now he has even won the gold medal in the unofficial German Championship. “I got a new boat and new sails. That went very well. The conditions suited me with few waves and an offshore wind. But I also did quite well on the one day with a stronger breeze,” he said, pleased that he “closed the bag” on Friday in shifting winds.

Felix Mosebach from Neuruppin won the German Open title in the Canoe Taifun. Photo: segel-bilder.de
With his consistent series, he prevailed against Johannes Meyer from Bremen and Claudius Junge from Preetz. Winner Mosebach intends to remain loyal to the class: “There really is a very informal atmosphere in the class. We’ve already celebrated with a little champagne shower at the campsite and will have a great evening together.”
Nick Heuwinkel is even fresher in his class and already a champion. The Kiel native has only been in the Star boat with Jesper Spehr (Malente) for a few weeks and originally comes from the Ilca7. With the series 1, 2, 4, 3, 3, Heuwinkel/Spehr had the highest prominence in the stern water. Former European champion Hubert Merkelbach from Lake Constance followed in second place with Kilian Weise on the foresheet. Third place went to world champion Max Kohlhoff (Kiel), who first had to sail in with his brother Johann Kohlhoff after foresailor Ole Burzinski had to pull out due to injury.

After just a few weeks together on the boat, Nick Heuwinkel/Jesper Spehr won the German Star Boat title. Photo: segel-bilder.de
“Of course, that’s great for further motivation. We are completely surprised, we just wanted to see what would come out,” said Heuwinkel. The result was gold at the DM, which now gives them confidence for the tasks ahead. “The goal is the World Championships next year. We want to finish well up the field in the U30 classification.” Heuwinkel saw the experience from the Ilca as the reason for the strong performance: “Tactically, you can transfer a lot. And on the downwind course, the Ilca and Starboat are surprisingly similar.”
At the International German Youth Championship for Optimists, there was a mixed picture on the podium at the award ceremony. Two girls and one boy from three nations were represented. As there was no more sailing on Saturday, the result from the preliminary round remained valid for the overall standings: Sweden’s Cornelia Baldoch Frost celebrated winning the title ahead of Olha Lubianska and Paul Fiete Hickstein (Dümmer), who gained a lot of self-confidence for the World Championships in Argentina at the end of the year with third place at the IDJM; he was also the winner of the overall standings.

Three nations stood on the podium at the International German Youth Optimist Championship. Photo: segel-bilder.de
At the award ceremonies for the ranking list regattas in the national classes, the top teams in the German ranking list also made their mark off Travemünde: Sven Naumann/Jördis Weichsel (Hamburg) won the Conger class, Manfred Brändle/Stefanie Gouverneur (Duisburg) showed the greatest consistency in the Kielzugvögel and took the TW victory, and Harry Voss from Steinhuder Meer is the number one in the Olympic dinghy when sailing off Travemünde.
For a late start, the Formula 18 and the sea sailors went to the Lübecker Nachrichten middle distance on the Baltic Sea in the evening. For them, the decisions will be made on Sunday, just like for the teens at their German Youth Championship.
Rivals became friends
The Opti Team Race at the start of the 135th Travemünde Week was the first joint appearance of the World Championship team in the Optimist class. The premiere was a success: former competitors quickly became team partners. The team emerged victorious from the competition. At the IDJM, coach Jan Müller took a close look at how his team was doing on the regatta course in order to build on the upcoming World Championship training.
“Of course, we all had high expectations at the German Championships. The team is extremely good, but not everyone can become German champion. In this respect, we have two people who are very happy and one or two who probably hoped for more. But overall we have a great event here,” said Jan Müller, summarising how the IDJM went for his team.
The actual World Championship preparations are still to come. But he has already seen that the boys are fit and keen to go to the World Championships, said the coach. “We still have six months to prepare, and the team has already become German champions in the team race here. We’ll be doing a lot of team building in the near future, going sailing together and travelling to Portugal for a week to look at the Atlantic wave and practise in it. What we’ll take away from here is that we can perform well and assert ourselves in a strong field,” says Müller.
Otherwise, the team members train individually at their home clubs, as they are spread out all over Germany. “Until the World Championship elimination in Travemünde in May, all the World Championship team members only knew each other as opponents on the water and nothing more. Now, when they meet at regattas, they meet as friends,” says the coach happily.

Paul Fiete Hickstein (centre), Tizian Lembeck (left) and Quirin Klapper were the best Germans at the Optimist IDJM. Photo: segel-bilder.de
The team members also revealed how they experienced the IDJM and what they expect from the World Championships. “As the leading German, I’m very happy with the event in Travemünde. For the World Championships, of course I’m hoping to get the best possible place, but also to have fun and socialise with kids from other nations. I’m looking forward to the big waves and the wind,” said Paul Fiete Hickstein from the Dümmer Sailing Club.
Tizian Lembeck, second best German at the IDJM, is also very happy with the event. He is hoping for good conditions and lots of fun with the group. “I will do my best,” he announces. “Things didn’t go so well for me in Travemünde and unfortunately I got injured. I’m really looking forward to the World Championships. I think we’ll all have a lot of fun and it will be something completely different with the waves there,” said Jasper Porthun.
Nicolas Tröger is a little worried that it won’t be so easy for him at the World Championships because he is very light and there is usually a lot of wind in the Argentinian World Championship area. But he is optimistic and wants to make the best of it. Jonny Seekamp hopes for a lot of wind and waves for the World Championship and that the team will have a good time together at the World Championship.