Kiel Week: Host without SGS medals, but five times ahead

In the 470 dinghy, the British pair Wrigley/Harris enter the final with a ten-point lead over the Spanish world champions Hernandez/Alcántara. Löffler/Hoerr (Lausanne/Röthenbach) are in seventh place, and Winkel/Schütze (Kiel/Schwerin) are well behind in tenth. With no German participation in the top ten, Mourniac/Retornaz (France) hold pole position in the Nacra 17, three points ahead of Gimson/Burnet (Great Britain). In contrast, the local pair shone, taking overall leads in five international classes.

Once again, ideal sailing conditions with moderate to fresh winds meant all boat classes had their fill. After average performances in the last two preliminary races (twice sixth), the leaders in the 470 will have to prove they can withstand the pressure of their pursuers in the medal race. The world champions moved up to second place, but still have to make up five places in the final. “We held back at the start under the black flag and then had to engage in tough battles for position,” reported Jordi Xammar Hernandez. Their boat speed downwind was outstanding, securing the top positions first and second.

After a disqualification at the start of the regatta, Malte Winkel/Paula Schütze recovered and finished the day in convincing third place. “It was extremely tricky, and we didn’t quite manage everything,” said the helmsman, “but I’m so glad that my grandma can watch me live on TV in the final on my home turf on KielerWoche.TV. We want to win! She’s my biggest fan.”

The cards for the catamaran final were only handed out in the twelfth and final qualifying race. Mourniac/Retornaz followed up with a second daily victory, while the Olympic silver medalist Brits finished third, losing exactly the three points they now carry as ballast. Behind them, Liddell/Brown of Australia have already secured bronze, but only have a mathematical chance of intervening in the battle for the lead.

Moritz Borowiak and Noel Jonas Theiner (Schwerin) remained clearly on course for victory in the 420 class. Filip Nosol and Filip Marjański from Poland are now second, just ahead of Jacob Cross and Finn Weigt from Rheingau. Christoph Homeier from Bremen extended his overall lead in the Contender ahead of Jesper Armbrust (Denmark) and Mark Bulka (Australia).

Michael Grau and his crew from NRV Hamburg showed a flawless record in the J/70. Despite three daily victories, a premature start disqualification and a hefty slip-up left them a whopping 26 points behind Dane Sten Mohr and his team. Kai-Uwe Hollweg and his crew from Bremen are tied on points in third place. In the J/24, Stefan Karsunke and his Hamburg crew are unlikely to be denied the Kiel Week victory after three more daily victories.

The best OK dinghy sailors of the day were locals. (Sweden) narrowly defended first place in the OK dinghies. Both André Budzien from Schwerin and his coach Stefan de Vries, who lives and works in Essen, each took one day’s victory and finished second once. However, Niklas Edler from Sweden defended the lead ahead of Budzien and Baabii’O Flower from Canada. “The podium will be tough, but I want to give it my all at the end now that things are finally going well,” said fourth-placed de Vries.

Man of the day in the ILCA 4 was Timmy Vassallo from Malta, who extended his lead with four of four possible daily victories ahead of Viktor Elfving of Sweden and Mats Silva Østvold of Norway. Vassallo’s counterpart in the ILCA 6 open class is Levian Büscher from Düsseldorf. With his daily victory in the ninth race, he pushed Benedek Héder of Hungary and Stefano Siebert Francavilla of Brazil into second and third place, respectively.

Scabolcs Majthenyi/András Domokos from Hungary have a bit of a buffer over their pursuers going into the final two FD races, as Kilian König and Kai Schäfers from Hanover lost their races in the ninth and final race of the day. The gap is now 6.6 points. The exceptional sailor from Ammersbek, Heiko Kröger, seems to have finally returned to winning mode. Even a quarter of a century later, the Paralympic gold medalist from Sydney 2000 still commands his 2.4mR boat “V8” like no other and was visibly pleased after crossing the finish line. Vice World Champion Christoph Trömer and Norwegian Frank Huth were unable to counter his three daily victories.

Jens Kuphal from Berlin became the International German Offshore Champion in offshore sailing in the ORC A/B category with his new XR-41 “Exciter.” After the Aal Regatta, his crew also won the Silver Ribbon, the long-distance overnight race from Kiel around Langeland and back. “Our trump card was a mainsail with a reef, which we also tucked in because the fresh to strong winds didn’t let up at night,” reported the skipper. Without losing speed, the racing yacht was easier to control. Kuphal: “More than 20 jibes in the dark were also quite a challenge. And we still have to fine-tune that for the World Championships.” After more than 16 hours on the water, the calculated lead over the “Sons of Hurricans” of Jon Sverre Hoiden from Norway was a whopping 76 minutes and 26 seconds.

The joy was just as great on Jürgen Klinghardt’s “Patent 4,” who was absent due to injury. Helmed by Oliver Voss, the seven-person crew of the Italia 9.98 won the ORC C/D title. “A fantastic performance with a new setup,” praised the owner. “We converted from an 82-square-meter spinnaker to a 120-square-meter gennaker. This makes the boat significantly more agile.” The team aims to improve boat speed in eight to twelve knots of wind for the World Championships. Bernd Dreyer and Jan Assmann from Flensburg won the IDM Double-Handed offshore sailing championship. They were bow-first in both the Senate Prize and the Silver Ribbon.

Text and images courtesy of Kieler Woche. Read more on the Kiel Week website.