5.5 Metre German Open 2025 in Warnemunde - Day 2
by Robert Deaves 30 May 22:47 BST
May 29-31, 2025
Otto (NOR 68, Lasse Berthelsen, Sam Haines, Kyle Gundersen) storm into the lead at the 2025 5.5 Metre German Open in Warnemunde after three wins from four races on Friday in winds from 8-15 knots.
New Moon III (BAH 25, Christoph Burger, Kim Chabani, Peter Vlasov) is just one point behind in second. The first German boat is Ali Baba in blue (GER 125, Andreas Haubold, Martina Klemmt, Daniel Brambeer) in third. Three possible races remain on Saturday with a light to lighter wind on the forecast.
It was another different day in Warnemunde, starting grey and overcast with a moderate westerly breeze in place, turning sunny and windy for a while, before the cloud returned and the breeze decreased. There was a bit of everything during the day, but at the front it turned into a match race between Otto and New Moon III. Unfortunately, the race 1 winner from Thursday, Beta Crucis (AUS 63, Martin Cross, Bob Stoddard, Simon Reffold), could not sail due to bilge pump problems.
New Moon had the early advantage in Race 3 and led until the second half of the second beat when Otto struck out further right and came back slightly ahead. New Moon came back downwind and after a brief luffing match, ended up doing a penalty turn. Otto won with Criollo (GER 30, Benjamin Morgen, James Christiansen, Felix Christiansen) in third.
Race 4 turned into a left-hand track with New Moon getting it right to lead all the way. Otto again broke away to the right but this time to no avail. Prettynama (GER 79, Max Müller, Max Steigl, Philipp Müller) crossed third.
Into race 5 in a decreased wind and Otto led at the top, though New Moon passed them downwind. After a tight second beat, Otto gybed first on the final run and found more pressure to round the final gate one boat length ahead to take a second win. Randale (GER 86, Frank Stein, Bernd Selig, Giacomo Cinti) took third.
By this point, many were losing track of which beat they were on, but there was one more race to come, and the breeze had filled in again. Otto led at the top and extended to take a third win of the day and take the overall lead. New Moon crossed second with Prettynama taking third again.
Randale found some form today with three races in the top four. Frank Stein said, "We had a pretty nice day today, with four races and wind changing a bit, sometimes strong, sometimes down a bit. But it was a good day for us.
"I joined the class in Autumn 2023. We started sailing in 2024 on Lake Thun then we noticed the boa needed more work than we thought so we stopped sailing for 2024 and now we are back again.
"The class is perfect sailing, a good group of guys, everything is fine, and we have a boat that is very competitive; that's why we are in the class and we are enjoying it."
Hanna Kahl, from Unicorn, is definitely the youngest 5.5 Metre skipper in Warnemunde, and at 14 years old, probably the youngest in the world. However, she is not the youngest sailor as she is crewed by 12-year-old Anna Eisenreich. Both of them are representing the youth of their club, Seebrucker Regatta Verein, on the Chiemsee, along with Johannes Bandtlow.
Hanna describes her experience so far, "Today was pretty windy, so it was quite hard, as we are not used to that much wind, but it was really fun. This is our first big regatta, having only sailed before on the lake.
"It's a youth boat of our club, and we got to sail it from all the youth in our club. We are good friends with Johannes, and he is good friends with Jorg [Sonntag] who owns the boat. We both started in Optis, and I moved to ILCA three years ago, and last year we started sailing 5.5 and now we are here.
"It's really fun and we want to do more. It's amazing. It's very fast and no danger of falling over, so it's all speed. Sometimes we have problems handling the boat, but as we get used to it, it gets easier. Today we didn't put the spinnaker up as Anna could not control it, but I think we were still doing OK.
"It's a super fun class, the people are really nice, and it's really cool actually."
Lasse Berthelsen, from Otto, "I think it was all about speed today. We were happy with two of the jibs we tried, but the medium jib we did not like at all. But the boat is going really well. We are pointing higher and have more power than before with the new mast, the same as the UK boats, with no runners, overlapping jibs. We can have more rake so can point higher than the others, so a few benefits. And tacking is also very quick. Very happy with three wins today and we can blame the second race on the medium jib.
"It's all on for tomorrow; will be match racing."
Three races are scheduled, with a light forecast on the cards.
Results after Day 2: (top five, 6 races)
1 Otto (NOR 68, Lasse Berthelsen, Sam Haines, Kyle Gundersen) 7pts
2 New Moon III (BAH 25, Christoph Burger, Kim Chabani, Peter Vlasov) 8pts
3 Ali Baba in blue (GER 125, Andreas Haubold, Martina Klemmt, Daniel Brambeer) 21pts
4 Prettynama (GER 79, Max Müller, Max Steigl, Philipp Müller) 23pts
5 Criollo (GER 30, Benjamin Morgen, James Christiansen, Felix Christiansen) 28pts