Kieler Woche 2011 - Christian Soyka wins fifth X99 Class Gold Cup

by Kieler Woche on 28 Jun 2011 Kieler Woche 2011, the final ISAF Sailing World Cup regatta, was held in Kiel, Germany between 18th and 26th June.

The conditions for the last day of Kieler Woche were so light and sunny that the Musto Skiff Class refused to sail the last races. The winds were fickle on their course area. Class president Iver Ahlmann celebrated the overall win on their first class showing at Kieler Woche.

There was fierce competition on the other areas. Especially the 505 win for Wolfgang Hunger and Julien Kleiner was hard fought. Schomäker/Jess were on the same points after winning the penultimate race but in the final race Hunger started to match his female opponent. After several circles around each other Hunger managed to block her. Schomäker/Jess were not able to approach the pathfinder start properly. They had to tack and pass many transoms. The third place finish was enough to give Hunger his sensational 19th Kieler Woche win in the 47 boat fleet. 505 celebrity Hasso Plattner delivered a strong 20th place.

Christian Soyka won his fifth Gold Cup in the X99 Class which is not a World title anymore after losing ISAF status. This did not make the racing less nerve wrecking. Soyka started the day four points behind Martin Christiansen and already congratulated his opponent for winning the title but afterwards he said that this was just a mind game. Soyka won the last race and Christiansen scored eight points which was not enough to endanger the winner. Soyka will now concentrate on his Melges 32 project he started a couple of month ago.

The Contender class got 53 boats at the start line and was one of the strongest fleets in the Kieler Woche. Christoph Homeier, who finished third in the last worlds, showed a strong performance in the stronger breeze and won convincingly although sailing his discard in the last race. A couple of weeks before the World Championship he has now got the favorite status.

In the Formula 18 catamaran class Helge and Christian Sach sailed convincingly with a 20 point lead to their fifth Kieler Woche win in front of Andreas John and Sven Lindstädt, who saved a one point lead from Jörg Gosche and Hannes Pegel.

The Kieler Woche organizers celebrated a fantastic number 129 race week with great wind conditions most of the week. Kieler Woche TV powered by Audi delivered the best media coverage ever. 'We are very happy with our regatta this year', said chief race officer Jobst Richter. 'But it is a pity that the final of the Sailing World Cup in the Olympic classes was not very well attended by the top Kieler Woche website