Warnemuender Woche 2011 - 500,000 come out to see hallmark event

by Wernemuender Woche amended Sail-World.com on 13 Jul 2011 Visitors and participants at Warnemuender Woche (Warnemuender Week) enjoyed a week that started stormy and rainy with 40 knot winds racing across the Baltic and ended with good wind conditions and sunny skies. Over 3,000 athletes, including more than 1,400 sailors, participated in the nine day event, while over 500,000 people came out to enjoy the fun in the wind and sun.

The week ended in traditional pageantry with the Dragon Boat Festival, Shanty Choir, and a parade of traditional German costumes. 'This years Warnemuender Week was an important step towards next year’s 75th anniversary' said Roland Mething, mayor of Rostock, the ancient Hanseatic city where the regatta and festival takes place.' The regatta needs to expand further', he went on 'as it is surrounded by the Nieger Uemgang, Waschzuberrennen and Dragon Boat Festivals.'

Despite early inclement weather, the organisers and partners of the festivals did a great job. 'Thanks to all the guests, visitors and Rostockers, who came out to enjoy the parties. And of course to the many, many volunteers in the background, who made the Uemgang, Waschzuberrennen, Dragon Boat Festival, Shanty Choir Meeting, Parade of Traditional Costumes as well as the numerous sailing events even possible', the mayor continued.

The highlight of the final weekend was the Dragon Boat Festival at the southern end of the Alter Strom, in which 1,800 paddlers participated in 90 teams. Just as powerful was the Shanty Choir Meeting, which included 220 choristers from seven Shanty Choirs on stage at the lighthouse on Saturday evening. Then to finish the weekend off on Sunday a procession of groups dressed in traditional costumes entertained the throngs of visitors with a colourful parade in the afternoon. There was a special visitor at this year’s Warnemuender Week, the tall ship ‘Kruzenshtern’ which wowed and awed visitors all week.

The team of Ingo Lochmann, Christian Mädel, Jens Steinborn, Matthias Krüger, and Olli Levin are this year's winners in the Platu 25 class at the 2011 German Open. With a very comfortable advantage of 15 points, the crew including its helmsman Lochmann could afford to skip the last race today. Vice German Champion is the crew surrounding André Teutenberg (Dortmund), bronze went to Robert Heymann (Brandenburg) and his team. It was a Polish Championship triple on the same regatta track in the Europa Cup for the Skippi 650: Pawel Tarnowski, Piotr Kucharski, and Maciej Felski dominated the 13 strong field right from the beginning. Silver and bronze went to the team of Andrezej Wegner, Piotr Skupin, and Pawel Borowski while bronze went to Maciej Polansk, Leszek Krzyzanowski, and Jan Talaska.

André Budzien began his impressive pursuit race after a more or less failed start in the Olympic class Finn. Today's last race was a show down. Lennart Luttkus (Toenisvorst) sailed flawlessly and claimed top position with a nine point lead. It was an exciting contest for silver though. in the end Ulli Kurfeld, from Wismar, nosed ahead of Masters Champion Budzien by one point and claimed second place.

Mathias Kortke (Dresden), President of the 2.4m R Boat Class Association, secured his first position in the Paralympic class after winning races three days in a row out of seven. The sailor, who is visually impaired, held a four point lead. Jörg Feder from Kassel was second. After taking an early lead, Cor de Graaff from the Netherlands had to settle for third in a field of ten.

A traditional part of Warnemuender Week is the OK dinghy race. The German Vice Champion 2011 and this year's Kieler Woche winner Greg Wilcox from New Zealand held on for eight races to outpace Jörgen Svendsen of Denmark. Third place went to Stefan Myrälf from Denmark.

The German 2004 Champions, Lutz Stengel and Frank Feller (Rostock), confidently won the 505 class. They were in top form winning six out of eight races. Sophie Söllner and Pia Matscheroth came in second, with Norbert Dasenbrook and Sven Meier from Wilhelmshaven and Krefeld, third.

In the Pirat class, former three time 470 World Champion Inge Pingel and her bowman, Thomas Heldt, secured their first after eight races. 'Everything was just fine for us today', Pingel, who finished this year's Warnemuender Week with a victory, explained. Second and third places went to Marko and Thomas Anderssohn (Cottbus) and Bernd Höft and R. Burkhard (Rostock) respectively.

Lennart Klemp, a member of the organising committee, was very pleased and happy with the final day of the event, but also very exhausted. 'The implementation of new ideas and concepts was a full success. Elementary, organisational structures, for example the one-way-street system or the centralisation of the sailing facilities as well as the Race Office and Jury were simplified the running of the event, brought more space to rig the ships and brought more order and overview to the port. Especially, this was praised by the sailors' Klemp, who voluntarily took over the management of the sporting part of the Warnemuender Week last year, clarified.

'Even with dramatic weather conditions, going from steady rain and storm to fog and eventually bright sunshine and calm, the 74th Warnemuender Week produced many satisfied winners and enthusiastic sailors. Our aim is to keep the familiar atmosphere of the event and to offer great races to the sailors and a holiday and recreation off, and ashore'.