J/Love at Väterchen Frost Regatta
by J/Boats 2 Dec 2018 09:53 PST
Uhhppps ... ..that will be close! - Väterchen Frost Regatta © Johann Nikolaus Andreae
It may not rank as the world's most notable "local" regatta, if there can be such a thing. However, it certainly ranks amongst the most competitive, picturesque regattas held on a lake in the middle of a major city in Europe.
That is what the Hamburger Segel-Club was hosting this past weekend for a fleet of fifteen J/70s, nineteen J/24s, and eight J/22s that LOVE sailing on the gorgeous Alster Lake in front of the Hamburg city waterfront.
Klaus Brinkbäumer, winner of the J/70 class had this to say about their experience: "Father Frost Regatta is becoming Father Late Summer! LOL. It was warm, and the moderate winds over the Alster Lake were spectacular. The wind was good, from the east, gusty and with many shifts, but that's how we know and like our lake.
We (tactician Carsten Kemmling, trimmer David Heitzig, bowman Florian Thoelen, all from Norddeutscher Regatta Verein) got off to a great start with our team on GER 958 BROOKLYN. It was a scramble at the start boat in the first race. We were over early, so had to restart. But, the races were long. Four laps. So, we were able to work our way up to third place. Then, we managed to get a 2nd and 1st, a perfect first day for us!
On Sunday, we made it exciting for us! We were a little early on the layline on the first windward mark. I misjudged it, and wrapped our keel on the anchor line! That was our discard race! Thankfully, we won the last race!"
Taking second behind them was Ulf Plessmann's crew of Katrin Jahncke, Ohle Vollmer, and Anreas Benkert on GER 966 with a tally of 1-6-4-1-4 for 10 pts net. Third was the top woman skipper, Johanna Meier's crew of Heinrich Hader, Matthias Rummel, and Milena Muller with a 7-1-7-2-5 record for 15 pts net.
In the J/24 class, it was a "Tale of Two Cities". The leaders and the almost leaders. In a battle of "not torpedoing ourselves" were Fabian Damm's GER 5316 and Frank Schoenfeldt's GER 5412. Both teams were experiencing an amazing roller-coaster ride all the way to the final finish. Winning that battle was Damm's crew on GER 5316 (Jannik Duehren, Moritz Boeoek, Jonas Lyssewski, Jan Eike Sihdiz) with a 1-6-1-8-1 for 9 pts net.
Wishing for a better outcome in their last race was Schoenfeldt's crew on GER 5412. In the end, their tally was the most consistent on the leaderboard, with a 5-1-2-3-4 for 10 pts net. Taking the bronze was Stefan Karsunke's team of Lina Nagel, Lars Hager, Lars Gibbe, and David Thompson.
See hamburger-segel-club.de/vaeterchen-ohne-frost for more Väterchen Frost Regatta sailing information.