NORD/LB Baltic Sprint Cup 2005 - Leg 3 finish

The ride to Riga was tricky and demanding

Hot when becalmed and wet when thunderstorms, rain and a lot of headwinds challenged the 45 crews on the third leg in the NORD/LB Baltic Sprint Cup from Tallinn, Estonia to Riga, Latvia. In the early morning of Sunday (17 July) the last yacht crossed the finishing line after more than 40 hours on the water. They all came in exhausted, hungry and thirsty, and the warm welcome in the Andrejosta marina, combined with beer and a barbeque buffet changed moods quickly.

It was Volker Andreae (Hamburg, Germany) with “Inschallah VI”, who took the overall victory on corrected times for this leg, followed by “Brinkmann & Partner”, a J-109 skippered by Hans-Juergen Riekhoff. Third place went to “Meltemi”, the Comfortina 42, by Harald Graf Saurma-Jeltsch, Eckernfoerde, Germany. Ten yachts had to retire from the race after causing breakages.

The overall lead after three legs still belongs to „Emil Reiseschwein“, the X-442 sailed by Stefan Hummelt from Buxtehude, Germany and his crew. Second over all legs is “Brinkmann & Partner” followed by “Inschallah VI”.

“The course was tricky and very demanding” said Volker Andreae, who kept his crew permanently busy with sail changes. But the team could consequently fight its way to the front in this leg, which was divided into two parts.

First, the yachts sailed 65 nautical miles from Tallinn to the Väinameri channel and later the second part led them over 88 miles from the south tip of Saaremaa island down to Riga.

When “Inschallah VI” finished just after seven p.m. local time the smaller yachts picked up good winds from behind. But in the end no one was able to catch up with the blue one off from Andreae on calculated time.

The crew from „Brinkmann & Partner” was nevertheless very happy about their second place. “A lot of tactical decisions had to be made, and to be made right”, said Bertold Brinkmann, totally tired after the race. „Our boat is very sensible in terms of ballast, so we had to sit on the rail throughout the whole race. We need to sleep and eat whilst we were hiking. But after so many hours my back hurts dramatically”.

When the Estonian entry “Ladybird” reached the harbor after ten a clock at night the sauna was already heated for the crew. “We’ve pre-booked the service before we left our home country”, said Skipper Jaanus Tagu, “and we are glad to having done this.” After a cold front with thunderstorm passed the fleet, everybody was pretty wet. Tagu: “We fought hard in our private duel with ‘Inschallah’ as they are similar in the rating. But they have done a bit better again.” “Ladybird” finished fifth in leg 3 climbing up on sixth overall.

The latest news was good news for Tilmar Hansen and his “Outsider” crew. The Elliot 45 is the fastest boat in the race and has to give time to all others due to their handicap factor. So they are ranked only at position 24 for the moment. But the aim of the Admiral’s Cup winner from Kiel is to collect all “first ship home” flags of the NORD/LB Baltic Sprint Cup and fly them on his backstay. And even though “Outsider” did not come in first in any of the two parts of this leg, their elapsed time was the fastest again and another flag can now be added to their collection. “That’s great. We already thought one flag would be missing. Now there is one more reason to party tonight”, Hansen said after the prize giving in the old town of Riga. “In the thunderstorms we had hail and big winds and a very choppy sea. The boat smashed into the waves quiet often and gave an ugly breaking sound. It was very uncomfortable out there”, he said.

The “Pippifax” crew from Gunter Persiehl, president of the organizing Norddeutscher Regatta Verein got becalmed in the first part of the race and said: “We saw the boats in front rounding the next mark, but immediately afterwards the wind dropped completely. So we could watch “Inschallah IV” disappear with the wind in front. Persiehl scored a seventh place in leg three which dropped him on position four overall now.

In the 40 mile passage between the two starts, the boats motored and everyone wanted to get some rest. But some had been wakened very suddenly by running aground in the channel. “I was a big crash”, said Persiehl when they hit a rock. And “XXL” a Sun Fast 52 from Christian Beutin (Luebeck, Germany) hit an underwater obstacle too, while towing “Emil Reiseschwein”, which still misses the propeller.

Nearly all yachts had to cope with some small damages, but some of the fleet had bigger problems. Ten retirements had been registered by the race committee. “Störtebecker” from Thomas Steinert had its boom broken. Sail damage forced Phillip Lubinus (Kiel) and the Vanguard crew to retire. “We hope to repair our broken rudder fitting until Monday when the next race starts” says Dieter Kruegel, owner of the big green schooner “Mistral”.

The leg to Klaipeda, Lithuania is 225 nautical miles long and starts at 13.30 h after a parade of sails out of the yacht harbour of Andrejosta on Monday.

Preliminary results after three out of seven legs of the NORD/LB Baltic Sprint Cup 2005:

1. Emil Reiseschwein 10pts
2. Brinkmann & Partner 17pts
3. Inschallah IV 19pts
4. Pippifax (Gunter Persiehl/Hamburg, Germany) 20pts
5. Meltemi 20pts
6. Ladybird 21pts