Friday, July 15, 2016

Kiel Week Fun For J/24s & J/80s

J/24s sailing off Australia (Kiel, Germany)- The world’s largest sailing regatta, Kieler Woche hosted by Kiel Yacht Club, not only played host to the nearly 100 J/70’s sailing their European Championship, but it also hosted the Open German National Championships for both the J/24s and J/80s later in the week.

The twenty-five J/24s from Sweden, Germany, Monaco and the United Kingdom enjoyed great racing over four days of racing, despite the somewhat stormy conditions that befell them at the beginning of the regatta.  In the end, it was Tobias Feuerherdt’s TEAM ROTOMAN crew (Jan-Marc ULRICH, Lukas FEUERHERDT, Justus Fritz Kellner & Tobias PETERS,) that won the regatta after eleven races were sailed, with just nine counting (two races could be discarded).  As a result, Feuerherdt counted all top three finishes- 1-2-1-3-2-3-1-1-1 for a total of 15 pts net!  Taking second was the American skipper Travis Odenbach sailing with a British crew on HITCHHIKER (Andrew TAYLOR, Iain STRINGER, Paul WILLIAMS, & Izzy SAVAGE), posting all top seven scores to take the silver with 26 pts net.  Third was Stefan Karsunke’s German crew on SULLBERG (Tim HABEKOST, Carsten KERSCHIES, Christian CARSTENS, & Malte GIBBE) with all top ten finishes for 35 pts net.  The top Swedish team was Per-Hakan Persson’s crew sailing FRONT RUNNER in sixth place with 47 pts.

After just nine races with one discard, the nineteen J/80s from Germany and Denmark were treated to a virtual eclipse provided by fellow countryman Martin Menzner; his Kieler YC crew on PIKE (Mika ROLFS, Frank LICHTE, & Nils BELTERMANN) posted all 1sts and 2nds to with just 10 pts net!  Behind Menzner’s team it was a much closer battle for the silver.  After nine races, it was a close  between Soren Hadeler’s THE BEAST IS BACK crew (Guido UNGER, Ole WINTERBERG, & Nils WINTERBERG) and Hauke Kruss’s TAK FOR TUREN team (Ole SARTORI, Marco STANISCHEWSKI, & Jens TSCHENTSCHER), with Hadeler counting all top four finishes to take the silver with 20 pts net over Kruss’s team with 29 pts net. For more Kiel Week sailing information