126th Travemünder Woche 2015 - Day 5
by Travemünder Woche Media 23 Jul 2015 18:42 BST
18-26 July 2015
In the wind interplay of the Travemuender Woche in its 126th year, the specialists of lighter breezes and sailors with good nerves had the advantage on Wednesday. With less than three knots, the wind swung between northerly and southerly directions on the race courses in the morning. The overall race director Brian Schweder nevertheless ordered the crews out onto the five courses to start the classes quickly when a sailable wind built up. And the wind was ready by the early afternoon. The gradient wind pushed through with a slight breeze from the west, the gusts got up to 10 knots so that all eight classes could sail their races. As the busiest class, the J/22 class even managed four races, thus making up for the postponed races due to the stormy winds the day before and therefore putting them back on track in their world championship.
In the J/22 class, the smallest yacht type of the successful J boats fleet, the pendulum swung in favour of the American Christopher Doyle on the second day of the world championships. The favourite, who came fourth in the world championships in 2013, opened the day with a fourth-place finish, followed by two wins. It then looked like a drop result for Doyle in the fourth race. After an initially strong start, the wrong choice of side sent the US team behind the field. They then sailed through the entire field at lightning speeds to reach fourth place and are now three points in the lead in the overall standings, ahead of Jean-Michel Lautier from the Netherlands.
The day went badly for Martin Menzner and crew from Kiel. After a good start with second place in the first day races, they are in third place in the overall standings. The final race of the day completely spoiled things for the team. "We were right in the spinnaker manoeuvre at the windward mark when suddenly a Canadian appeared in front of us on the starboard bow. I have no idea where he came from", said Menzner, who could not prevent a severe collision and may still have to contend with an unclear outcome at the protest hearing in the evening. But it was not the only disaster. Mike Farrington (Cayman Islands), who came third in the world championships last year, picked out the Kiel crew as a personal opponent at the windward mark. The man from the Caribbean luffed the Germans completely out of the course shortly before the gate. Both lost their good positions and had to put in a lot of effort to get back into the field. "I have no idea what that was. In any case, I've had enough this evening", Menzner said.
After the qualifying races on the third world championship day for the large fleet of the RS Feva, the competition continues on with the final races in the gold group. Here the British top favourites came head to head and delivered a close duel. The brothers Fin and Dan Armstrong showed why they won the British title this year and took over the leadership after seven races.
The world championship of the Laser II is a purely German affair. The struggling class wanted to impart a new impetus to the activities of this dinghy type with the world championship off Travemünde. But only nine crews – all from Germany – came to the Trave River. With three wins in a row, Lisa Buddemeier/Matthias Düwel from Hamburg are in the lead. They already won the global title in 2011 when the class also sailed off Travemünde with 21 crews from two nations.
The British crews have the European championship of the IC Canoe under their control. After various shortfalls on Tuesday, as strong gusts swept through the field of the narrow skiffs, the fleet has grown again to an impressive size. Robin Wood was in full swing with two wins and is closely behind the leader and fellow countryman Gareth Caldwell with just one point between them.
It has also become uncomfortably tight at the top of the Typhoon canoes. Claudius Junge from Preetz defended his lead ahead of Christopher Ossenkopp (Hildesheim). But he has the leadership firmly in his sight after three wins in a row.
With the changing wind conditions, the cards have also been reshuffled for the German Junior Championship of the Laser Radial. The leader Sören Leinert (Storkow) achieved positions 15 and 16 after four wins. But since the other top sailors also stumbled, he still has a clear advantage at the top. Nico Naujock also suffered a shortfall in the Laser 4.7. But his 22nd place has no immediate effect as he can strike it off. However, the Berliner cannot allow another slip-up if he wants to keep Benno Marstaller from the UK at bay. Lasse Kaack from the Kieler YC follows in third place.
New in the TW action since Wednesday is the Laser Standard with its rankings regatta. Robert Schulz from Uerdingen soared into the lead after the first day.
Lübeck's mayor Bernd Saxe had a very bad day today. In the "best of three" mode, he lost clearly by 0:2. Minister President and TW patron Torsten Albig sailed far ahead on both occasions. The team led by mayor Saxe with senator Kathrin Weiher and the first chairman of the Lübecker Yacht-Club, Andrea Varner-Tümmler, twice had a very bad start. An eternity passed after the starting signal until the "Evaine" – a boat of the 12er class – crossed the starting line. By this time, Minister President Albig, who had his enthusiastic State Secretary Frank Nägele at his side, was already close to the first windward mark. With constant bad luck, Saxe didn't come near to his opponent's boat – the "Trivia" – at any time. The Volksbanken Raiffeisenbanken Schleswig-Holstein organised the Volksbank Rotspon Cup together with the Lübecker Yacht-Club.
The festival stage will be hot tomorrow with the popular Latino pop band Hot Banditoz with frontman Silva Gonzalez. Summer hits, sexy shows and high spirits are inevitable – at 7.30 p.m. Afterwards, "I-Fire" will bring the flair of Jamaica to Travemünde with hip-hop and dub influences.
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