The Topcats have completed the first races in their international championships at Travemünde Week, with the J/22s, Dyas and H-boats even finishing their entire series. And the Finn dinghies and Corsairs are heading for their final on Tuesday. With Reiner Brockerhoff’s German Open victory in the J/22 and Arndt Fingerhut/Andreas Malcher’s win in the North German Championship in the Dyas, two serial winners continued their winning streak. In the H-boats, Holger Köhne’s crew was delighted not only with their own success, but also with the fact that the class was back racing off Travemünde after such a long time.
Although only a small fleet of H-boats took part, the crews enjoyed a few great days on the Baltic Sea. Photo: Christian Beeck/TW
After a fantastic weekend, the dreariness of the working week set in on ‘Manic Monday’. Rain replaced sunshine and weak, shifting winds made the races challenging. Nevertheless, Lorenz Buchler, the race director for course Golf, managed to complete the entire programme for his three classes, earning plenty of praise from the participants.
‘We were very happy with our performance, as well as that of the race committee. Everything was just right, including the breaks between races. They were perfect for recuperation, but not so long that we lost our rhythm,” said Reiner Brockerhoff from Duisburg, who celebrated another victory in the German Open in Travemünde with his crew, Christoph Declerque and Nils Hofmann. Although the series of six victories looked clear-cut, the title was not a foregone conclusion. “The first six were always close together. Some of the races were only decided after the last buoy. It was really fun,” said Brockerhoff.
As usual, Reiner Brockerhoff and his team sailed ahead in the J/22 class. Photo: Christian Beeck/TW
Wolf Jeschonnek, Frank Sturm and Steffen Dülsen from Berlin were the closest pursuers, ahead of Andreas Dillmann and Julia Harder from Hamburg, who took the experienced Silke Basedow on board to prepare for the World Championships in Naples at the end of the summer in Travemünde.
For Dyas sailor Arndt Fingerhut from Lake Edersee, Travemünde is his favourite sailing area; he proposed to his wife there a few years ago. Now, he was able to celebrate again — his third victory in the Bay of Lübeck with bowman Andreas Malcher. “This is our third title in Travemünde. We had perfect conditions on Sunday with beautiful wind and great waves. Today was a little trickier, but it worked out well with our new boat.” The duo now want to follow up with two days of rest.
