They wanted this victory at all costs. And they got it. The crew from the Seglerhaus am Wannsee (VSaW) club - who started their home match on the Wannsee as leaders of the 1st Bundesliga - came, saw and won. With ten race wins in 13 flights, the team led by Jasper Wagner with Carl Naumann, Elias Rothe and Jen Steinborn demonstrated both determination and skill. The team from the capital won the three-day series with just 21 points to their name and an impressive eleven-point lead over second-placed Bayerischer Yacht-Club with Julian Autenrieth, Fabian Eisenlohr, Maximilian Hibler and Oliver Ocycz. Third place went to the Berlin Yacht Club with Philipp Bruhns, Valentin Gebhardt, Maximilian Nickle and Nikolas Warminski.
"Our joy is huge," said VSaW helmsman Jasper Wagner. "We brought the victory home cleanly. The pressure is naturally growing in view of the final. But we will continue to go all out." After six years in the league, the Berliners can now dream of the championship trophy for the first time in the seventh league season since the club was founded. If they can keep up the performances they have shown so far this season, the champions will be celebrating at VSaW.
This is because VSaW, with a total of just ten points in the first league table after four league weekends, has extended its lead over Wassersport-Verein Hemelingen (18 points) to eight points. The Bayerischer Yacht-Club (BYC) is in second place in the table with just two points behind Hemelingen ahead of the two remaining league regattas. The record winner slipped down to fourth place in the table: the Norddeutscher Regatta Verein finished the event in Berlin in twelfth place and had to relinquish its top three position for the time being. NRV helmsman Florian Haufe said: "Everything is perfectly organised here. You feel extremely comfortable on land. The sailing on the water is really good. The conditions are simply extremely challenging. Recognising patterns and getting used to them is a bit difficult on the Wannsee. Our performance at this event still has some room for improvement."
Here to the first division table.
In the 2nd Bundesliga, OneKiel won for the second time in a row ahead of the host Potsdamer Yacht-Club and the Westfälischer Yachtclub Delecke. In hot midsummer temperatures, the 36 teams from the first and second leagues had to concentrate hard in shifting winds and repeated very calm phases. "The conditions were pretty tricky - from unstable wind forces to changeable gybes. Of course, we are all the more satisfied with our performance. It was a great event," said Magnus Simon, helmsman of the club from Schleswig-Holstein.
After three regattas and two victories so far, the leaders from Kiel have accumulated just seven points in the 2nd Bundesliga. The Potsdamer Yacht-Club and the Blankeneser Yacht-Club are in second and third place with 13 and 15 points respectively. League action now moves on to Kiel, where both the first and second division teams will once again be challenged from 13 to 15 September. The final for both leagues will take place from 17 to 19 October in Glücksburg.
Here to the second league table.
Tatjana Pokorny
Sports reporter
