NORD/LB Baltic Sprint Cup 2005 - Leg 5 start

Full speed to Poland

The predicted winds for leg 5 of the NORD/LB Baltic Sprint Cup 2005 promise a fast ride from Klaipeda, Lithuania to Gdansk, Poland. And the fight for the overall winner’s trophy “Neptune” is getting hotter. Klaipedas habitants gave a great farewell to the sailors on Friday (22 July) after a wet but fantastic stopover.

The sky was grey and cloudy when the NORD/LB Baltic Sprint Cup fleet took off for the fifth leg to Gdansk, Poland on Friday afternoon (22 July). But a good breeze of three to four Beaufort from the Northeast pushed the 42 yachts onto their 110 nautical mile course.

It was Christian Howaldts First 36.7 “Marie” from Felde, Germany starting very good from the pin end of the line in class C. But the smaller J-109 “Brinkmann & Partner” came up with a lot of speed from behind and rounded the windward mark on second position. The crew with skipper Hans-Jürgen Rieckhoff from Schwerin, Germany has to defend the overall lead. All yachts started with a lot of power in good wind conditions and even the heavy schooner “Mistral” from Flensburg, Germany rushed over the line with speed to start the journey to the Polish city.

In the second start, the crew of “Pippifax” started first of all yachts in class B. “We have to score some points in the next leg”, said starboat sailor Michael Koch, who sails in the crew of Gunter Persiehl, the president of the organising Norddeutscher Regatta Verein (NRV, Hamburg, Germany). The “Pippifax” team noted good results with their Bavaria 42 match, but no first so far.

The X-442 „Emil Reiseschwein“ was first to round the windward mark in class B, followed by Comfortina 42 “Meltemi“ and „Pippifax“, before the spinnakers where hoisted and the yachts set course to Gdansk. “Our ambition is even stronger now, after we had to give the yellow tricot away”, said Stefan Hummelt (Buxtehude, Germany) owner of “Emil Reiseschwein”. The big yellow flag given to the temporary overall leader, was flown on the forestay of the X-442 for three legs. But in Klaipeda the honour was taken over by “Brinkmann & Partner”.

In the class A of the fastest yachts, Volker Andreae (Hamburg, Germany) with his one-off “Inschallah VI” set of best at the start and could place himself second behind the X-612 “World of TUI Hamburg” (Heiko Preuss, Glücksburg, Germany) at the first mark.

A very big event program was set up in Klaipeda during the stopover of the NORD/LB Baltic Sprint Cup. The fleet was given a great farewell with hundreds of spectators at the pier and a brass band playing. The prime minister of Lithuania, Algirdas Brazauskas even took a break of his holidays to visit the fleet and wish them a good trip to Poland. The stopover in Klaipeda offered a lot of communication between the sailors and the public while the fleet was very well cared for. “The welcome here in Klaipeda was extraordinary and we hope to come back soon”, said Hans-Jürgen Rieckhoff, Skipper of the leading yacht „Brinkmann & Partner“.

The fifth leg of the NORD/LB Baltic Sprint Cup is sailed by 42 crews. Rostock home-based “Stoertebecker” suffered a leakage on Wednesday and ha to withdraw. And Latvian yacht “Anita” left the race after sailed from and to their hometown Riga as a wildcard starter.

Weather expert Meeno Schrader predicted good to strong winds from the Northeast, shifting to Southwest. The fleet may be arriving in the night or morning of Saturday (23 July) in Gdansk.