Kiel Week: Happy ending after a lot of bad weather

The 120th Kiel Week came to a conciliatory end after nine days with many weather-related cancellations in both halves. "I've never experienced a Kiel Week like this before. The ups and downs were too severe to be able to celebrate in the 132nd year after a perfect week in terms of wind last year," said Head of Organisation Peter Ramcke. Nevertheless, a total of 343 races were organised.

At the European Championship in the 29er youth class, local heroes Jasper Steffens and Tom Lennart Brauckmann from the Kieler Yacht-Club won silver behind the Swedes Adrian Salamon/Julius Hallstrom and ahead of the French Yrieix Brice/Loïc Fischer-Guillov after a successful final sprint. "We were 130th after the first two races and then started the race to catch up. It's great that it turned out like this," said Tom Lennart Brauckmann. The podium finish and many other good results also rewarded the outstanding youth work of coach Patrick Böhmer at the Kieler Yacht-Club, who has built up a strong 29er squad in recent years. A total of 184 youth teams from 21 countries took part in the title fights for the Olympic 49er in the advanced class - a great success for everyone involved.

Record hunter Wolfgang Hunger from Strande had to be satisfied with fifth place this year after seven victories in a row. Due to many race cancellations, the 54-year-old had little chance of catching up after a botched start in only five races. The multiple world champion was unable to extend his record of 21 Kiel Week victories with Julien Kleiner. Jan-Philipp Hoffmann from the Düsseldorfer Yacht-Club and his co-skipper Felix Brockerhoff secured victory in the challenging dinghy race. SAP co-founder Hasso Plattner sailed to 27th place in the field of 62 starters from ten countries.

Over a total of nine days, more than 1500 boats took part in the regatta for Olympic, Paralympic and international classes as well as the International German Sailing Championship and the offshore races. Several times, full or half race days had to be cancelled due to adverse weather conditions such as calm, storms or thunderstorms.

In the first week, the German sailors celebrated eleven podium places, including five victories, in ten Olympic and two Paralympic disciplines. The second half ended with six victories in 14 classes. Moritz Paschen from Potsdam won in the Laser 4.7 and Frithjof Schwerdt from Kiel in the Musto Skiff.

The crew of Frank Schönfeldt from Hamburg won the J 24. It was the ninth Kieler Woche victory for singer, sailmaker and sailor Schönfeldt. Laurits Bockelmann and Kim Liedtke were the fastest in the Hobie 16, while the old masters Helge and Christian Sach from Zarnekau were unbeatable in the Formula 18. This means that DSV starters won a total of eleven Kiel Week titles plus the three mid-week sailing champions, all of whom come from Hamburg.