125th Kiel Week: A little shorter than usual: the Silver Ribbon of Kiel Week

After six days of glorious weather, the flat winds are now affecting the Kiel Week programme for the second day in a row. While many Olympic sailors waited in the Kiel-Schilksee Olympic Centre for news on possible race starts, 27 yachts sailed overnight for the silver ribbon. The race organisers showed mercy on the sailors.

Ten knots of wind pushed the "Desna" through the newly laid finish gate as the first boat at around 8am on Friday morning. The race organisers had decided to shorten the course by around 20 nautical miles and let the tall ships pass the finish line after 100 miles at Langeland Süd. The second fastest yacht was Martin Balke's "Farr-Laessig".

"We wanted to get them safely to the finish and not let them sail into the wind hole," said race director Ralf Paulsen, explaining the decision to shorten the course. By this point, the sailors had already had a difficult night. In Svendborgsund they had to contend with a strong counter-current. Two boats ran aground and had to be towed free. This meant disqualification for "Harp8", which was competing in the Double Hand Offshore Challenge, and "Equity Kicker".

The "Desna" with Sven Wackerhagen (Kiel) at the helm took 13 hours and 22 minutes to cross the finish line. This was also enough to win ORC I according to the calculated time. The situation was different for Michael Schulz (Braunschweig) and his crew on the "Farr-Laessig". Although they were the second boat to cross the finish line with 14 hours and 17 minutes, they had to accept a greater loss than others in the calculation and ended up in seventh place. The winner in the ORC II classification was Christian Rönsch (Hamburg) with the "Piranha". In the field of smaller ORC III+IV yachts, Hauke Moje (Kiel) won the race with the "Quiron". Among the non-ORC yachts, Jochen Heinz (Flintbek) was able to sail to victory with the "Io". The Double Hand Offshore Challenge also came to an end with the Silver Ribbon. After three races, Johannes Christophers (Hamburg) and Coriolan Rousselle on "Fliege" won the premiere. Rasmus Töpsch and Andreas Deubel sailed to second place on the L30 "Sharifa". Knut Freudenberg and Nils Reichert brought their "Halbtrocken" home in third place after three races.

Originally, Lina Rixgens had also wanted to take part in the Double Hand Offshore Challenge with her new Mini 6.5, but the mast delivery was delayed. "I think it's a great pity, as I had planned on it and wanted to sail the first test routes with the boat at this event." Now everything has been postponed until Travemünde Week. The boat christening is planned for 19 July and then the first sailing sessions will take place, said Lina Rixgens, who is optimistic that the mast will finally have arrived by then. "I then received an invitation to sail on another Mini for the Silver Ribbon," she explains. She set off together with Fabian Buhse. "It was quite good overall. But the course wasn't particularly suitable for our Mini."

Here to see the results for the silver ribbon of the 125th Kiel Week.