Kiel Week - Final Day

by Kieler Woche on 25 Jun 2012 Kiel Week. On the final racing day of the Olympic Star and the 14 international classes, there was no sunshine but the favorites showed once more their talent in light winds.

Five-times World Champion Wolfgang Hunger (Strande) with Julien Kleiner (Munich) took the chance to build his record series for Kiel Week and gained his 20th victory in the 505 and 470.

Johannes Polgar’s and Markus Koy’s (Hamburg) victory in the Star was remarkable after ten first places.

For Polgar, winning in the Star was his second victory of Kiel Week. For Detlef Mohr his first place in the Hobie 16 was also an anniversary, with changing crew on the foresheet he was already celebrating his tenth victory in Kiel. For Karen Wichardt as his crew it was the fourth victory.

Despite a gaffe on the final racing day, Steffen Stegger from Denmark brought home the victory in the H-Boat. Winning the last race, the 2010 World Champion defended the title at Kiel Week.

In the Folkeboat, local hero Walther Furthmann climbed up on rank one. Per Joergensen from Denmark, Kiel Week winner in 2010 and winner of the Gold Cup in 2002, was disqualified in one race and dropped from first place to the competitor from Kiel.

Soeren Andreasen from Denmark, who sailed in the Contender on rank three at the Worlds in April this year, won two races on the last day at Kiel Week and gained the overall victory. World Champion from 2005 Jan von der Bank finally was on rank two, while record World Champion Andrea Bonezzi (Italy) fell off the podium and had to give away the third place to Jesper Nielsen from Denmark.

In the OK-Dinghy, the leading teams offered another exciting day of racing. While the ex-world champions Thomas Hansson-Mild from Sweden and Greg Wilcox from New Zealand did not have a good day with some mishaps. Reigning World Champion Nick Craig (Great Britain) had a strong day with one third and one first place. Hansson-Mild won the series by a small margin, followed by Craig and Wilcox.

There was no doubt about the victory in the Flying Dutchman. Szabolcs Majthenyi/Andras Domokos from Hungary were untouched by Laser star Philipp Buhl (Sonthofen) with Adalbert Netzer as crew. The eight-times World Champions won eight out of ten races and could celebrate their fourth victory in a row at Kiel.

New faces were seen in the leading positions of the classes dominated by young sailors. The Spanish sailors Carlos Robles/Florian Trittel demonstrated an excellent performance in the 29er. In the class with most participants at Kiel Week, the 420, Nadja Horwitz/Francisca Fuentes from Chile won the race series.

Frenchman Silvain Notonier successfully defended the title in the Europe dinghy. He regained rank one on the last racing day.

Regatta Dates Kieler Woche 2013 - 22-30 June.

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