Baltic Sprint Cup at Travemünde Week
by Baltic Sprint Cup 6 Aug 2009 09:49 BST
17 July - 2 August 2009
A superb “Final Show Down” prizegiving party supported by SE Spezial
Electronic AG at Travemünde concluded in style on Saturday the 5th Baltic
Sprint Cup, the now classic international offshore series which began on
July 18th at Warnemünde, Germany. VIPs were fleet patron and Lübeck
Mayor Bernd Saxe, with Lübecker Yacht Club President Rolf Erwert.
This year’s course took in R¸nne (Denmark/Bornholm), Västervik
(Sweden), Liepâja (Latvia), Úwinoujúcie (Poland) and finally after 930
miles Travemünde where the celebrations were timed to coincide with the
grand finale of the 120th Travemünde Week.
The Baltic Sprint Cup was overshadowed by the tragedy in leg 2 (R¸nne –
Västervik) when the skipper of the all-female crew of DHH Cross Match,
Sabine Jüttner-Storp, during a difficult manoeuvre aloft fell overboard
apparently unconscious and despite valiant efforts by her crew to bring
her back on board, sank and was lost. Many yachts gave up their race to
search, alas in vain. A service in Västervik’s St. Petri Church was
conducted by Provost Clas Göran Thorell and heard a moving address from
each of ISAF President Göran Petersson who was paying a private visit to
the event, and also Event Director Henning Rocholl. Leg 2 was abandoned by
the Race Committee, but at the wish of Sabine’s family and friends the
flags went up again after the service at Västervik and the event
continued with Leg 3. A tribute preceded the party in Travemünde where
Sabine’s widower, all Baltic Sprint Cup crew members and organisers
joined in an act of homage as one family.
Champions in the final, 155-mile leg from Úwinoujúcie were Daikin Airco
in the IRC Division with Frans van der Heijden at the helm and Imagine in
the ORC-Club Division with Holger Streckenbach. Both secured with their
consistent top results, overall wins in the 4-leg series. Congratulation!
The sailing was varied –never unexciting- and was mostly characterized by
moderate to fresh westerlies, providing fast runs and reaches plus some
challenging beats, especially in the last two legs. The final race from
Úwinoujúcie to Travemünde delivered almost everything: hard beating in
up to 32 knots, lightning and rapid shifts in a powerful thundery low, and
a near-calm which made the spread at the finish line very long: It was
Saturday morning at 02:14 when the last boat Oline (delayed after fixing a
rig problem at anchor en route) crossed the finish line almost 13 hours
behind Dr. Uwe Lebens in Scho-Ka-Kola who took line honours and won the
silver cup for the fastest yacht in the series, given in 2007 by Catharina
Baronin von Toll.
The Youth Award, donated by the Stiftung Hochseesegeln Hamburg was won and
shared by the SVAOe-Youth Crew of Luv with Daniel Rüter at the helm (ORC
Club Division) and the youth crew of the Warnemünder Segel Club with
their hot racer Utsider under Jan Brügge. Last year’s 2nd winner over
all (IRC) David Aisher (RORC) and Felix Scheder-Bieschin (NRV and RORC)
re-donated the team prize they’d won 1998 as the ‘Faxe Skagen Cup’-
to the Baltic Sprint Cup as an IRC-Team Award won this year by the
C’n’C team Scho-Ka-Kola and Daikin Airco. The ORC Club Team Award,
presented by Heinz von Häfen was won by the Team ‘East/West’, König
& Xie and Imagine. Finally Scho-Ka-Kola won the Baltic Sprint Cup Award
for the best yacht in the last two Cups (2008 and 2009), donated by the
inaugural committee of 2006, Alan Green • Sven Herlyn • Henning
Rocholl • Michael Steen Jensen.
Line honours winner Dr. Uwe Lebens: “For seamanship this was the best
series and the closest finish ever. This event in 5 years has become an
offshore classic. The BSC race developed to high professional standard in
respect of sailing and organisation. The combination of long distance and
up and downs races with weather tactics and intense navigation makes the
BSC most challenging. I personally count it as the top event of its kind
in the Baltic and hope the organizers will soon find a new main event
partner to provide the financial backing it deserves. There is a lot of
potential in the event which a good partner can help enhance, in
particular through strong media output both in Germany, in the stopover
countries and internationally – plus building on the ‘warm welcome’
in the middle of the night, and – now I am only guessing – a more
powerful team of helpers in all ports. I have great respect for the
professional way the team of Alan and Henning managed to be the last one
at each start and the first one at each finish. It seems they listened
very carefully at school to the children’s story of ‘The Hare and the
Hedgehog!’ ()."
At the end of the prize giving ceremony Henning Rocholl thanked all members
of his team which were Alan Green, Pat Healy, Peter Cockayne, Deike
Schütt and Andreas Laub and handed over to each of them a helper medal.
He ended his speech with thanks to all of his partners which were SE
Spezial Electronic, LIROS, Ernst Kabel Druck, HanseNautic, Henri Lloyd,
Exinit, Färber Gas, MaxSea, Pantaenius, Container Ships, Riga Universal
Terminals, Witt & Sohn and WetterWelt.