Sailing Champions League celebrates final off Porto Cervo: Finland wins, Flensburg Sailing Club takes third place
Thrilling club sport in a dream sailing area off Porto Cervo: 29 crews from 15 countries battled it out for the international club championship in the final of the Sailing Champions League at the weekend. The title of "Best Yacht Club of the Year" was won for the first time by the team from the Finnish Esbo Segelförening (ESF) ahead of the Swiss Kreuzlingen Sailing Association. The Flensburger Segel-Club with Gordon Nickel, Nils Drewniok, Tobias Konow and Cedric Menzel finished equal on points with the Swiss team in third place. With an outstanding performance, the Flensburg team also won the national comparison at this summit meeting. The Bundesliga leaders from OneKiel took fifth place. The team from the Seglerhaus am Wannsee club finished the thrilling sailing weekend in sixth place in front of a beautiful Sardinian backdrop. Twelfth place went to the Norddeutscher Regatta Verein, the German record champion, and 18th place to the Kieler Yacht-Club.
Sailors from all over Europe had been looking forward to four days of "champagne sailing", winds of around 20 knots and glorious sunshine. This year, however, the league sailors on the Costa Smeralda were almost too well served. Sailing was out of the question at the start last Thursday due to strong winds and waves up to three metres high. On Friday, the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda (YCCS) persuaded the local authorities to grant an exemption in a fast-track procedure, allowing sailing within the harbour. Normally it is not permitted to set sail in Italian harbours, but special permission was granted for the Sailing Champions League, which ensured that the sporting events of the SCL final could take place. The races in the harbour area, which was protected from the waves, marked a first in the history of the YCCS and brought powerful images and a large audience on site and on the live stream.
The young, talented Finnish crew of Lucas Karlemo, Victor Mesterton, Anton Eklund and Emil Lindblom made it exciting and only secured the triumph in the fourth and last final race of the "Final Four" with the second race win needed to take the 2021 Champions League crown. Tactician Anton Eklund said: "The conditions were similar to those we are used to in Finland. That helped us. We worked really well as a team. We stayed cool, sailed our own races, took the right wind shifts and stayed out of duels. Those were the keys to our success. We are delighted!" After 40 qualifying races, the final of the best four clubs was hard to beat in terms of excitement. As in the previous year, the decision was only made in the final heat. The Seglervereinigung Kreuzlingen started the final with a race win. The first final race was won by Flensburger Segel-Club, the second by the Finns and the third by the Danes. This meant that only the winner of the fourth final race would be the overall winner of the SCL 2021. Click here for the final results of the international league sport final (please click!).
With their success, the Finns have now also joined the list of winners of the European competition, which has been held since 2014. The Danish Kongelik Danks Yacht Club won the première. German clubs won the trophy in 2016 (Deutscher Touring Yacht-Club) and 2020 (Segel- und Motobootclub Überlingen). With two victories in seven years, they are tied at the top of the all-time leaderboard with Italy's League Sailing, which has also won the title twice.
