126th Travemünder Woche 2015 - Day 3
by Travemünder Woche Media 22 Jul 2015 00:44 BST
18-26 July 2015
Brian Schweder, the overall race director of the Travemuender Woche, announced a great day for Monday in the morning race director meeting, which would rival the "wonderful Saturday" in terms of the wind. And he was right. The weather played into Schweder's hands, who is holding his position at the Travemuender Woche for the first time. Races were sailed on seven courses, the two national sailing leagues experienced a highly exciting conclusion to their race day in the Bay of Lübeck, the team of the Italian Roberto Benedetti became the European champions the Open Fun class as expected, and five other classes started their championships.
A total of twelve classes took advantage of the conditions with a good but gusty breeze to start off with and a dwindling wind later on to deliver spectacular duels on the six courses. The Bayerische Yacht-Club also had to end in a man overboard manoeuvre as a bowman went overboard shortly before the marker in a daily race in the second national sailing league. This left a gap in the track record of the Bavarians, who paid a high price on the unfamiliar Baltic Sea and came in second place. A team from the south is also at the top of the second national sailing league. The Lindauer SC gained victory ahead of the BYC. The local duel of the Lübeck clubs was won by the LSV in fourth place compared to the eighth-placed Lübecker YC.
The Travemünde league competition in the first national sailing league ran almost perfectly for the North German teams. Here the Kieler YC gained its first victory ever in the national sailing league, followed by the Flensburger SC and the WV Hemelingen from Bremen. "We are mega happy", beamed KYC helmsman Julian Ramm. "This time everything was right for us. The tight situations almost always worked out for us." The Kiel team has intensively prepared for this team combination on the two Baltic Sea race days in Warnemünde two weeks ago and now in Travemünde. We still had a few unlucky situations in Warnemünde but it was great sailing two events in succession", said Ramm, whose victory celebration was somewhat dampened as he was struck by a cold.
While the league sailors bring an important stage finish for the rest of the season with the final in Travemünde, the competitors of the Open Fun class have already experienced the final of their season highlight with the victory of the favourites: the Italian professional team of Roberto Benedetti won the European title and could even skip the last race without losing their place at the top. The German offensive for second place came too late. With the victory in the final race, Tobias Hoh (Munich) took the bronze medal closely behind the Italian team of Marco Redaelli in second place. The German class president Jan Kramer (Bad Zwischenahn) slipped down to fourth place overall in the last race. "We are happy with third place because we still had a bit of a construction site on the boat in the first two races of the day. And in the last race we touched the buoy at the start and then we had to jibe again and were initially at the back", Tobias Hoh reported. But in decreasing and turning winds, the Munich crew used their weight advantage and tactical ability to sail to a stage win. "However, we had hoped for more before the championship after two second-place finishes in the last two Euros. We even once had Philipp Buhl as helmsman with us", Hoh said.
With the award ceremonies, four classes concluded their rankings regattas of the 126th Travemuender Woche. In the fast-paced, two-man 505 dinghy class, there was no doubt about the victory of the duo Jens Olbrysch/Oliver Thies from Herrschinger SC. They dominated the competition of 13 boats with four wins in six races as well a second place and a third place. Harry Voss could claim the same in the O-Jolle class. The North German champion in 2012 from Schaumburg-Lippe could afford a slip-up after four wins, taking the overall lead in the end.
The regatta of the skiffs ended with successes of international guests. The British champion Simon Mussell kept the German champion Christoph Homeier (Bremen) at bay in the single-handed trapeze boat Contender class. The highest prominent Contender figures followed in the other places. Jan von der Bank (Eutin) gained his biggest career success in third place. In 2005 he was in front of the Travemünde world champion and now he has shown that he has not forgotten anything over the past decade. He impressed the spectators during the show races on the Trave River with a dive from the moderators' landing stage.
The biggest trophy of the 18-Footers went to Denmark. Although the fleet of the over-rigged skiffs was small with only four three-person crews, it was nevertheless highly international since the boats came from four different countries. Flemming Clausen won through in this field with his two teammates.
The competitors started their championships in five classes.
The appearance of the youth boat class RS Feva was eagerly expected. The approximately 320 sailors from 19 nations determine their world's best. And it looks as if the British would hold this world championship among themselves. In the lead is the team of Jack Lewis/Lucas Marshal with three first-place finishes, behind them are Iain Bird/Jake Hardmann and Fin and Dan Armstrong. The best ranked Germans are Svenja and Anne Steinborn (Würzburg) in 49th position with the highlight of the day when they crossed the finish line in fifth place in the last race. Justus Sauer/Maurice Brost from Lübeck are the second best Germans in 65th position in their first RS Feva regatta. Their eighth-place finish in today's last race is very encouraging.
The sailors of the IC canoe are competing for the European title. Three races were scheduled for today, the race director Olaf Stormer sent the 15 participants three times onto the course, right on the Mecklenburg coast. In front is the Welsh sailor Robin Wood from Llandegfedd Sailing Club. His followers are also all Britons – Gareth Caldwell in second with Philip Robin behind. The best German is Arne Stahl from Mardorf in fifth place.
The sailors of the related Typhoon canoe class are battling it out for the German championship title. After three races, Claudius Junge from Preetz is in the lead with two wins and one second-place finish. Niklas Steimann (Bad Segeberg) and Christopher Ossenkopp (Hildesheim) are on course for silver and bronze. Both classes will be sailing until Friday.
The youth Laser classes Radial and 4.7 have also started their search for the German junior champion. After two races, Sören Leinert (Storkow) is in the lead in the Radials with two brilliant wins. Tim Schlag (Königs Wusterhausen) and Alexander Schmidt (Britz) follow behind. Benno Marstaller from the UK, who started for Mylor Yacht Club, leads the field of the Laser 4.7. The best German is Nico Naujock from Berlin in second place, followed by Tim Conradi from Düsseldorf.
Two classes are preparing for their TW final on Tuesday. But there is no doubt who the winner will be. Holger Köhne (Potsdam) and crew are ahead in the Trias just as Ulli Kurfeld (Wismar) is in the Finns.
www.travemuender-woche.de/en