Kieler Woche: Billerbeck rehearses for the World Cup, Winkel remains on the wave of success
Tatjana Pokorny
· 23.06.2023
Almost 1,000 active sailors were able to enjoy their sport on day seven of the world's largest sailing week in mostly light to medium winds into the evening hours. In eight international boat classes, several well-known German crews were in the lead at the halfway point of the second half of Kiel Week.
Battle of the champions in the Contender
Max Billerbeck from Wassersportverein Kollmar leads the Contender field at Kiel Week after six races ahead of two Danes. "Our World Championship will take place in Kerteminde, Denmark, at the beginning of July. So it's cool to be able to assess our position again here at Kiel Week. You also get to meet people who don't normally take part everywhere," said the boat builder and 2019 world champion.
A total of five world champions make the field of the Contender trapeze dinghy, designed in 1967, a sailing challenge. Veteran Luca Bonezzi alone has collected five world championship titles in his career. The Italian was in fourth place at the halfway point of the Contender regatta.
"Halbtrocken light" was the best boat on day seven with three day wins
In the keelboat class J/70, it is still the 470 mixed Olympic sailors of the national sailing team who are setting standards in part two after their successes in the first Olympic part of Kiel Week: Helmsman Malte Winkel, who sailed with his wife Anastasiya Winkel in the 470 mixed for Germany at the Olympic test regatta in Marseille in July, won three days in a row with the J/70 crew "Halbtrocken light" on Thursday and leads the field of 53 boats with a commanding lead.
"You can play with the waves on the J/70 like you can with a 470 on downwind courses. The race broadens our horizons," said Malte Winkel from the Schweriner Yacht-Club after finishing third in the 470 Mixed at Kieler Woche about the successful double race so far. As tactician on the J/70 "semi-dry light", Theres Dahnke, runner-up at Kiel Week in the 470 mixed, also brings a lot of experience from Olympic sailing to the boat.
"Hamburg Championship" in the J/24
"But we wouldn't be able to do it without J/70 expertise. It helps us a lot in the boat," said Malte Winkel. Moritz Klingenberg and Mika Trosien complete the dominant J/70 crew with Olympic and Bundesliga expertise. After the first six races, the German quartet is being followed by the Swiss crew led by helmsman Stefan Seger from Regattaclub Oberhofen and the Swedish team led by Erik Lindén from Oxelösunds Segelsällskap.
In the J/24, an intense "Hamburg Championship" is raging at the top of the Kieler Woche regatta. After six races, the SCOE team with helmsman Stefan Karsunke leads ahead of Fritz Meyer's SVAOe team and Manfred König's HSC crew. In the largest Kiel Week field of the 29er with 168 boats, the Irish Clementine van Steenberge and Nathan van Steenberge have taken command with five of seven possible race wins so far. The best German players in the 29er Euro Cup are once again Anton and Johann Sach in ninth place.
Factual and sailing stories in the 29er
The brothers had just finished fifth in the women's Olympic 49er FX in the first half of Kiel Week. The young sailors, aged 15 and 18, want to use the FX to work their way into the men's Olympic 49er in the near future. In the case of Anton and Johann, their father Christian Sach and uncle Helge Sach have obviously successfully passed on their sailing genes. The twin-hulled specialists had won eight European and World Championship medals in the Olympic Tornado and in the international Formula 18 class during their careers and had become famous as the "sailing farmers from Zarnekau".
Some boat classes sailed on the fjord until after 8.30 pm. On Thursday evening, the starting signal for the Silver Ribbon of Kiel Week was given for 39 yacht crews. The Baltic Sea rally takes teams and duos over one or two nights via Lyø through Svendborgsund and around Langeland back to Kiel.
