Regatta News

At the end of the Travemünde Week, there was once again a mirror image of the past ten days: sun, showers and thunderstorm, plus light to medium winds and a few strong gusts. The classes for the finals were able to let off steam again on the Lübeck Bay courses, each getting their own course. With another victory on their home waters, the brothers Helge and Christian Sach added to their record for the Travemünde Week. First place overall in the Formula 18 is equivalent to their 21st victory overall.

Loge place Nordermole: The visitors in Travemünde were offered a special treat on Saturday afternoon. Race director Uwe Wenzel had placed the finish line of the medium-distance regatta for the offshore yachts directly at the top of the Trave estuary. And so the guests could comfortably watch the crews' last manoeuvres while enjoying fish-and-chips.

After six qualifying races and four races in the girls' gold fleet and the boys' gold fleet, the new European champions in the ILCA 4 class have been decided. Six days of racing with very different, sometimes very challenging weather conditions lie behind the young sailors, who were represented by a field of 366 athletes at the 132nd Travemünde Week. Gold went to Annemijn Algra from the Netherlands and Athanasios Kyfidis from Greece.

Will win number 21 in 2021? The time seems to be ripe for adding to the record of victories at Travemünder Woche. The brothers Helge and Christian Sach are in top form to add another trophy to their collection of trophies at their home event. In 2015, they triumphed at Travemünder Woche for the 20th and last time so far, and now, with a new boat and great success behind them, they will be starting as top favourites in Formula 18.

"That was great cinema. You guys rocked it." With this short analysis of Thursday, when at least the RS Feva and the ILCA 4 took to the stormy regatta courses of Travemünde Week, Anderl Denecke, overall TW race director, sent his teams and the sailors out onto the water for another challenging day. It turned into a shifting action with start shifts and re-schedules for the seven classes. While the conger and O dinghies took the "early shift", the ILCA 4s formed a compact programme over the lunch hours. Formula 18, Canoe IC and Taifun as well as Musto Skiffs took a longer break on shore after a first day's racing to then have another go on the regatta courses in the afternoon.

Antonia Tschakert from Lübeck has already taken the sporting oath on behalf of all the athletes for Travemünde Week, but she still has to wait for her regatta entry. The first races of the Formula 18 were scheduled on yesterday's schedule, but the strong winds with heavy gusts did not allow any races in this class. So the first start for the catamaran newcomer will probably be on today, if the wind should drop a little.

The wind generator has turned up the heat on the Travemünde Week courses. Already on the morning of the sixth day of the regatta, strong gusts blew across the Bay of Lübeck, reaching the limit of the class regulations. First of all, the boats of the race committee were sent out on the water to check the conditions in detail. Afterwards, the decision was made that some races would be possible under intensive supervision. And so first the gold fleet of the RS Feva was sent out for their World Championship final and then the two gold fleets (female and male) of the ILCA 4 were sent out on the course - accompanied by a host of coach and safety boats. In the fight for gold, silver or bronze at the World Championships or European Championships, tough conditions have to be mastered. After all, the youth classes were the only fleets that had to deal with gusts of around 30 knots.

The regatta programme of the Travemünde Week could be continued on Wednesday with the complete, planned workload. This means that the RS Feva World Championship and the ILCA 4 European Championships are in safe waters. While the Fevas are heading for their finals with two more races today, Thursday, the ILCA 4 have now completed their qualifying round after six races for all groups. This means that the participants in the Gold Group who will be competing for the medals have been decided.

Good wind, full programme: After a day with few races and a complete cancellation, the weather on Tuesday fully compensated the athletes for Travemünde Week. With an early beginning of the day and fast starts, the race committee worked intensively on the six courses to make up for the lost workload. The corsairs were pushed particularly hard. They were without a race for their German championship so far, but went over the course five times today and thus secured another regular championship at their TW finale.

After three days at the 132nd Travemünder Woche, the world champions in the RS Venture Connect boat class were decided. Medals were awarded in two categories: the inclusion class and the para class. For the RS Venture Connect inclusion class, it was the first World Championship ever. The gold medal at the world championship premiere went to the Spaniard Gabriel Barroso and his coxswain Javier Serrano. The Swiss Philippe Moerch and Daniel Amiguet won gold in the Para class.

The heavy rain had just cleared, the sun broke through the clouds, but the next rumble of thunder was already rolling in as the J/22s strode to their prize-giving ceremony at the 132nd Travemünde Week. It was the typical daytime scenario of the third day of racing, characterised by weather extremes that did not allow any racing, even though the ILCA 4s held out the longest, hoping until 4:30pm that there would be a race.

After 729 days, it was finally time again: The Travemünder Woche asked for the award ceremony. The focus on 25 July 2019 as well as on 28 July 2021: the sailors. They decided on the TW two years ago and they now chose the first prize winners.
 

Sailors with strong nerves had an advantage on the second regatta day of Travemünde Week. In a game of searching for the right wind, the race committee managed to get races for the respective classes on five of the six TW courses, but it was a difficult business in which the factor luck definitely had an influence. Patience was also required from the sailors in the 13 classes on this Sunday. Already at the scheduled first start at 11 a.m., the sailors took to the course. After the first attempts and a lull in the breeze, there was a long wait. At 5pm, the decision was made not to sail on four of the courses. The ILCA 4s, however, were sent out on the course once more. They had not had a race on the list by then and worked into the evening hours to get usable results.

The class of ambitious single-handed youngsters defies all problems - whether licence disputes about the construction lisence of their own class or Corona requirements. 380 athletes for the European Championships for girls and boys in the ILCA 4 (formerly Laser 4.7) are on the entry lists. This means that the class has reached the European Championship level of the years before Corona.

The starting field of the World Championship of the inclusion and paraclass RS Venture Connect within the 132nd Travemünde Week is impressive. Eleven teams from a total of four nations are taking part. Three German Paralympic winners are on the starting list: Heiko Kröger, Jens Kroker and Sigmund Mainka. The trio looked forward to the first World Championships of the RS Venture Connect boat class with a strong international field.

The 132nd Travemünde Week starts with the first races on Saturday. A moderate breeze from east pushed a wave into the Bay of Lübeck, which just built up steeply on the near-shore course. Reduced fields, reefed sails in the inclusive class and some breakage on the sea lane were the results. In the end there were up to three races in the seven starting classes on the list, which made the race committee around Anderl Denecke look very happy in the evening.

After a year of forced break due to the Corona pandemic, it's starting again: The 132nd Travemünde Week has opened. SH Prime Minister Daniel Günther as patron of the regatta and festival week and Lübeck's mayor Jan Lindenau opened the event today, Friday, in front of invited guests. At 6 p.m., Jan Lindenau gave the starting signal for a Travemünde Week that will still be under special conditions in 2021 with the traditional "Raise the flag!"

For Antonia Tschakert and Maximilian Rüdebusch, it is the first time they are taking part in the Travemünder Woche. The two students from Lübecker Yacht-Club want to get involved in the competitions in the ILCA 4 and Formula 18 and are accordingly excited about what lies ahead for them. The LYC duo also took on other tasks at the same time and, on behalf of the 1,350 sailors from more than 30 nations, spoke the sporting oath that is traditionally taken at the start of the Travemünder Woche. For Corona's sake, this year the oath was not taken in person at the opening ceremony, but by video message.

After the cancellation of the TW last year, the Corona pandemic is still leaving its mark on the regatta programme in 2021. The originally planned workload of 27 decisions at global, continental and national level will not quite happen, but with 23 regattas - including two World and two European Championships - the programme is very high-class. By the closing date for entries, around 850 entries had been received with a total of around 1350 competitors from 37 nations.

There will be no Travemünde Week as usual in 2021. The pandemic is still leaving its mark this summer. But the signs are that there will be steps back to normality for the sailing week from 23 July to 1 August. In addition to challenging regattas, there will also be a small but fine range of cultural and culinary events.