Thursday, May 28, 2015

JUST IN TIME Winners @ Wannsee Woche

J/70s sailing Wannsee Woche in Berlin, Germany (Berlin, Germany)- As the first major J/70 regatta of the season hosted by Potsdamer YC on the Wannsee in Berlin, it was the team of JUST IN TIME skippered by Gordon Nickel (including Sebastian Rocke, Fiege Nils-Mathes, Nils Merten Farber) that took the thirteen boat fleet overall honors.  As they say in America, they were first to “punch out” on the time-clock after a weekend of long hard work!

The event had two days of racing with six total races- three each on Saturday and Sunday.  Both days were just about spectacularly perfect— 8 to 18 kts of breeze, some of the best sailing conditions anyone could imagine for the middle of Berlin’s beautiful lake (one of the coolest cities in the middle of Europe!)

J/70s sailing Wannsee in Berlin, GermanyFor the first day of sailing, the crew of DUFTe skippered by Frank-Uwe Fuchs was the runaway leader with a 1-7-1 tally.  Tied for second were Nickel’s JUST IN TIME team with a 6-6-2 and Maxmilian Nickel’s team on JUKEBOX with a 4-3-5.

The second day of sailing brought more good breezes, more sun and even shiftier, puffier breezes!  In the end, it was Nickel’s JUST IN TIME crew that closed out the regatta with a strong series of races and won with a scorecard of 6-6-2-2-2-1 for 13 pts net.

In what seems to be a rather normal scenario for incredibly close J/70 one-design racing, the next two boats on the podium ended up tied on points for second overall.  Winning the tie-breaker with a record of 1-7-1-5-6-4 for 17 pts net was Fuchs’ DUFTe from Yacht J/70 Berlin- Germany- Wansee Woche winnersClub Berlin Grünau.  Third was Max Nickel’s Berliner Yacht Club team sitting on a 4-3-5-1-4-5 record on the same 17 pts net (note- they were the only team in the top three to score all top five finishes).

Also of note was the family team aboard QUICKLY BEE- GER 728; Jürgen Freiheit sailed with his wife Birgit Freiheit and their son Oliver Freiheit and his girl-friend Martje Uecker.  After just taking delivery of their boat, this was their first major J/70 regatta and they managed a 3rd in their first race and a first in their 5th race of the regatta!  Perhaps more good news from this family effort in the near future!  For more Germany J/70 sailing information