Gusty winds cause havoc at Travemuende Week

by Andreas Kling on 21 Jul 2009 Stormy gusts reduced the regatta program of the 120th Travemuende Week on Monday (20 July). On midday a front of a low pressure system crossed the Bay of Luebeck and all races were abandoned. Up to then in most of the classes one or two races were finished with the favourites in front.

The manroland German Open title of the J/24 surprisingly went to the Hamburg crew of skipper Jan Hoessermann. Philipp Nocke, Hauke Hand and Urs Wilfahrt from Berlin, Germany won the Euro Grand Prix of the 18-Footer. Georg Borkenstein and Eike Dietrich, both also locals, became INT. 14 Travemuende Week winners.

It was at about 1 p.m. when a heavy thunderstorm approached the racing area off Travemuende, said race director Walter Mielke. The ongoing ninth race of the J/24 had been abandoned as well as the races of the Dyas and Trias classes. On the J/24 'Pantha Rhei', an old Greek expression meaning 'everything is flowing', shortly after the last race flew beer and champagne. The young crew of Jan Hoessermann was celebrating their first victory in a class’ championship. The second place on the last racing day even confirmed their excellent results.

When the sight at the Delta course for the International German Championship of the 505 was limited to only one hundred meters in a squall, the race officer stopped the sixth race because it became too dangerous to continue. At this time Boris Herrmann and Julien Kleiner from Kiel, Germany were once again only a heartbeat away from the finish line. The winning round the world skipper of the current European Champion had already scored a bullet in the first race.

Boris Herrmann, 28 together with Felix Oehme won the Portimão Global Ocean Race on board the 'Beluga Racer'. Dietrich Scheder-Bieschin from Hamburg and his crew Holger Jess took the International German Championship pole position. Their slip (22) of the day before was discarded with a seventh rank in the only race of the day counting.

At the top of the Olympic Laser class Frithjof Schwerdt from Germany and Sergey Komissarov from Russia went on side by side. Both of them won one race and became second once. Schwerdt defended the overall lead by six points. 'When I finally lead him, I consequently covered like in a match race', said the 21 years old German.

The fresh and strong gusty winds didn’t impress Jan Kurfeld from Warnemuende, Germany much and he added two more victories the Finn Dinghy scoreboard. 'In real that was a near thing. Afterwards on the paper things look different. I passed the crews from Holland only at the end', he said. Karel von Hellermond trailed with four points and Gert van der Heijden with eleven points.

Stefan Schneider and Frank Thieme from Berlin, Germany climbed the overall results list up to the podium with a second and third place in the mixed 470 fleet. But it will be hard to beat Mikhail and Maxim Sheremetiev from Russia (2/1) at the end. They are clearly leading followed by the Danish female crew of Henriette Koch and Lene Sommer (6/3).

Man of the day in the Contender PreWorlds regatta was Andrea Bonezzi from Italy. After capsizing the day before, he sailed with a brace to victory and to the 3rd place. On Tuesday this could help him to jump into the top of the fleet when his DNS after he lost three teeth will be discarded. For now the Australian Champion Jono Neate is the top leader. After a fourth he scored a bullet and leads Jan von der Bank from Germany by four points. 'In the second race the conditions got worse, but when we tried to re-enter the port, the situation became really precarious', said the World Champion from 2005. Heavy gusts caused some mast breakages.

Results

Olympic classes

470 (after seven races): 1. Mikhail and Maxim Sheremetiev (Russia) 7 points; 2. Henriette Koch/Lene Sommer (Denmark) 15; 3. Stefan Schneider/Frank Thieme (Germany) 27; 4. Vitaliy Moshkovsyy/Sergii Polishchuk (Ukrain) 28; 5. Ekaterina Bessonova/Elena Khryukina (Russia) 40; 6. Martin Hauptmann/Timo Chorrosch (Germany) 46.

Laser (after nine races): 1. Frithjof Schwerdt (Germany) 10 points; 2. Sergey Komissarov (Russia) 16; 3. Maxim Semerkhanov (Russia) 20; 4. Oltmann Thyen (Germany) 22; 5. Tobias Feuerherdt (Germany) 32; 6. Finn Hinzpeter (Germany) 39.

Finn Dinghy (after six races): 1. Jan Kurfeld (Germany) 5 points; 2. Karel von Hellemond (The Netherlands) 9; 3. Gert van der Heijden (The Netherlands) 16; 4. Ulli Kurfeld (Germany) 16; 5. Dirk Meid (Germany) 24; 6. Uwe Kinast (Germany) 33.

International classes

manroland J/24 German Open (Final results after eight races): 1. Jan Hoessermann (Germany) 14 points; 2. Manfred Koenig (Germany) 19; 3. Kai Mares (Germany) 20; 4. Stefan Karsunke (Germany) 21; 5. Jan Kähler (Germany) 24; 6. Matthias Garzmann (Germany) 37.

International German 505 Championship (after five races): 1. Dietrich Scheder-Bieschin/Holger Jess (Germany) 12 points; 2. Jens Findel/Johannes Tellen (Germany) 15; 3. Lutz Stengel/Frank Feller (Germany) 16; 4. Boris Herrmann/Julien Kleiner (Germany) 19; 5. Michael Daisenberger/Bastian Henning (Germany) 21; 6. Christian Kellner/Hans-Heinrich Rix (Germany) 22.

Contender Pre-Worlds (after four races): 1. Jono Neate (Australia) 9 points; 2. Jan von der Bank (Germany) 13; 3. Michele Benvenuti (Italy) 20; 4. Stuart Brown (Germany) 28; 5. Joerg Dannemann (Germany) 30; 6. Andreas Voigt (Germany) 40.

Tornado (after nine races): 1. Roland and Nahid Gaebler (Denmark) 8 points; 2. Sebastian Moser/Thomas Posch (Germany) 17; 3. Fridtjof Unger/Christian Busdiecker (Germany) 21; 4. Heiko Söhle/Thomas Noll (Germany) 34; 5. Zdenek and Jiri Pavlis (Czech Republic) 36; 6. Andreas and Katharina Behem (Germany) 44.

Dyas (after four races): 1. Detlef Schweitzer/Norbert Schmidt (Germany) 8 points; 2. Holger Sueße/Frank Bender (Germany) 10; 3. Günter Roland/Johannes Stricker (Germany) 17; 4. Peter Brandt/Regula Baerlocher (Switzerland) 22; 5. Lothar Schmidt/Ingo Günzel (Germany) 23; 6. Eckhard Meyer/Jörg Muerau (Germany) 28.

Full result lists on www.travemuender-woche.de