Kieler Woche 2015 - Day 9
by Hermann Hell 28 Jun 2015 12:00 PDT
20-28 June 2015
The Kieler Woche did celebrate the finish of its 133. edition with brilliant weather with sunshine and wind, making a great week even better in the end. At his first event as head of organisation Dirk Ramhorst was happy that sailors and visitors, who did show up with the supposed record number of 3.8 million to celebrate in Kiel, can leave with the feeling of a perfect summer day. But the biggest joy was with the winners in the 16 international classes. Eight are from Germany, four from Great Britain, two from the USA and one from Denmark and one from Slovenia.
In the junior classes, the visitors were dominating. The crews in the 420 on the podium were from the USA, France and Ireland. Wilay Rogers/Jack Parkin (USA) did leave the French team Marina Lefort/Lara Granier on rank two by two points and Peter Mccann/Harry Whitaker (Ireland) by four points on rank three.
The Slovenian team Peter Lin Janezic/Anze Podlogar did win in the 29er. Crispin Beaumont/Tom Darling (GBR) did leave the German hope Gwendal Lamay/Luke Willim (Kiel) on rank three. The Danish power could not be stopped in the Contender. Jesper Nielsen and Soren Dulong Andreasen ended up on rank one and three with the Australian Mark Bulka in between.
The British did dominate in the OK dinghy, the Musto skiff, the RS800 and the J24. Charlie Cumbley won in the OK dinghy, followed by Thomas Hansson-Mild (Sweden) and Bo Petersen (Denmark). In the Musto skiff, the British did bring home a one-two victory with Ben Schooling and Alastair Conn, who were in front of the best German starter Iver Ahlmann. The British earned another one-two victory in the RS800 class: Phil Walker/John Mather on rank one, and Hugh Shone on rank two. In the J24, Southworth did leave the German competitors on the ranks behind. On board was the coach of the national German team David Howlett.
The Germans could not play in the top fleet of the Laser Radial. "The competitors were really strong. If a US-American and a sailor from New Zealand are coming up all the way to Kiel, it shows, how important the regatta is", said Niko Steenbuck, who ended up on rank 13 being the best German sailor in the fleet. The journey from overseas to Germany was worth it, especially for Haddon Hughes (USA), who did win, followed by Susannah Pyatt (New Zealand).
In the 505, it was a duel on the razors edge. Meike Schomaeker/Holger Jess (Zwischenahn/Eckernfoerde) did not just have the advantage of having studied the sailing instructions in detail, but also could rely on their boat speed in the light winds. A second discarded result did turn out as an advantage for the mixed duo in comparison to the record Kieler Woche winner Wolfgang Hunger (Strande). He did not attack anymore in the final race, so Schomaeker/Jess were in top position in the end (with one victory) before Wolfgang Hunger/Julien Kleiner. "This is incredible. The victory is on the top of the list. We always said, that's still missing. Four years ago we were very close, but Wolfgang was more canny back then", the former European Champion Schomaeker commented happily. And Holger Jess took a deep breath: "That was a very difficult regatta with few amateurs, but top sailors. It was not easy with the wind, but the organisation on the race course was very good." After the success on Whitsun in Kiel, the duo had not sailed together in the boat anymore. "We wanted to keep the 'longing for success'", stated Jess. Hunger was also aiming for the victory. He was protesting after coming back ashore due to a violation of the rights-of-way. But this was however rejected.
It was exciting until the end in the F18 fleet. The brothers Helge and Christian Sach (Zarnekau) did score with a final victory against the Greek-Swedish team Dany Paschalidis/Gustaf Dyrssen. "That was really close. We are glad to have made it", Helge Sach is happy. With two tactical mistakes, the Greek did open the door to the top podium for the Germans. The brothers Sach did take the chance and only had to control the competitors.
Results for all classes at www.kieler-woche.de