Heavy winds restrict racing at Travemuende Week

by Event media on 22 Jul 2008 Heavy winds reduced the racing programme on day three (Monday, 21 July) of the 119th Travemuende Week dramatically. Gusts up to eight Beaufort forced race director Walter Mielke to abandon racing on five of the six courses on a day that qualified as 'Stormy Monday'.

Christoph Nielsen from Berlin took the lead in the Folkboat class after the opening of the German Championship. Only 47 of the 58 boats went out to sail two races in heavy south-westerly winds with 43 finishers. All other classes got a day off.

Principle race officer Walter Mielke decided carefully step by step. Two times he advised his six race officers to postpone the starts. The third announcement told all sailors to relax for the day, as sailing was cancelled except for the Folk boats. The conditions should ease a lot, when a depression had filled on Tuesday.

Nielsen won the title German Champion already in 2006 and was the first German for a long time to beat the best Danish competitors in the last two years. But in the first race he saw defending title holder Ulf Kipcke (Kiel, Germany) in front.

Nielsen protested Kipcke, as he saw his rights of way infringed at the leeward mark. The hearing was scheduled by the jury for late evening on Monday and the decision pending. The second race of the day went straight to Nielsen who took the overall lead for the day.

The Monday morning was only four minutes old, when the Yacht „Auriga' with skipper Max Lohlein from Munich crossed the finish line in Karlskrona. By then the international Crew of 'Danebury', the Rogers 46 from Mike Castiani had already won the first leg of the fourth Baltic Sprint Cup from Travemuende to Sweden in the racer division.

It was the much smaller X-332 'Flying Circus' from Wolfgang Uecker who became first on corrected time in the cruiser division. 56 yachts had started on Saturday (19 July) at the offbeat of the 119th Travemuende Week to sail the 216 nautical miles long leg.

The Baltic Sprint Cup leads in two weeks around the Baltic Sea in four legs, covering 710 miles altogether. Five countries will be visited and the finish is set on August 1 in Roenne on the Danish Island of Bornholm.