When was the last time the weather at Kiel Week was this good? A lush summer high ensured a festive atmosphere and a good mood for nine days at the world's largest sailing week. Despite many race postponements into the evening hours and some race cancellations, almost 3,000 sailors and more than 100,000 visitors enjoyed this long week of bliss at the Kiel-Schilksee Olympic Centre.
International stars were missing, the national sailing team shone
At the same time, it was obvious in the German heartland of sailing that 141 years after its premiere in 1882, Kiel Week was unable to return to its heyday with more than 4,000 sailors. In terms of quality, too, the bloodletting was obvious, especially during the Olympic half-term. This year, the course of the international sailing stars led past the world's biggest sailing week in the north of Germany.
It was mainly thanks to the national sailing team, the world champions and the Olympic hopefuls of the German Sailing Team that three German victories in the Olympic classes were celebrated in the first half of Kiel Week. The world-class training group of the 470 mixed teams in particular provided plenty of excitement. The young MSC sailors Marla Bergmann and Hanna Wille raced to victory in the 49er FX on the final day.
Training for the Olympic test regatta and the World Championships in The Hague kept the stars away
iQFoil world champion Sebastian Kördel also caused a furore with his victory and blatant series of 1, 1, 1, DNC, DNC, 1, 1, 1. In light winds, the windsurfing dominator got stuck in seaweed and calm for a day. At the start and on the final day, however, the man from Radolfzell, who competes for the Norddeutscher Regatta-Verein, dominated his rather weak international field.
As in the iQFoil, there was also a lack of veritable international competition in other Olympic classes. There are many reasons why European classics such as the Trofeo Princesa Sofía off Mallorca in the spring are outstripping Kiel Week with almost 1,000 athletes in the Olympic field. Overlaps with training windows in the areas for the Olympic test regatta off Marseille in July and for the World Championships for all Olympic sailing disciplines in The Hague in August kept many top athletes away from Kiel.
Weak World Sailing Federation cancels World Cup
The reason lies in the unfortunate timing of the season: Kiel Week is too close to the highlights of the pre-Olympic year with its June date. The implosion of the World Cup, whose final was originally planned for Kiel but was cancelled, caused by a lot of personnel changes and the weak presence of the World Sailing Association, made the work of the organisers difficult.
The Kiel Week organisers remained true to their policy of not admitting Russian and Belarusian athletes. Head of Sport Dirk Ramhorst said: "We decided this in conjunction with the DOSB and the DSV. World Sailing did not do this under Chinese leadership." According to Ramhorst, a resumption of the dialogue with World Sailing on the World Cup and related topics has been agreed for the time after the World Championships in The Hague.
Five German winners in eight international classes
Dirk Ramhorst does not believe that financial incentives need to be created for the Olympic sailors, who rarely draw on their full resources, to get them back on course for Kieler Woche: "Not everything can be solved with prize money. There isn't any in the Ocean Race either. It is clear that this year's figures do not meet our expectations. We need to talk even more intensively with the class associations and athletes."
The last international victories on Sunday went to Contender World Champion Max Billerbeck from Bokholt-Hanredder, the FD World Champions Kay-Uwe Lüdtke/Kai Schäfers from Berlin, the J/24 crew around Fritz Meyer from Hamburg, Levian Büscher from Düsseldorf in the Ilca 4 and Paul Ulrich from Zwischenahner Segelclub in the Ilca 6.
With light and shade: the J/70 class in the spotlight
The 129th Kiel Week could have ended on a sunny and blissful note. But an "advert" in the J/70 class and its consequences made for an unpleasant final score. An email from a participant in the top ten to the International Class Association triggered a chain of reactions. In essence, the email was about the request to check the status of a "professional" helmsman. The fact that this had not been done by the class association as organiser when the participants were registered and before the start of the International German Championship during Kiel Week was part of the problem, which quickly became very big.
The Technical Committee had to act
Due to ignorance or forgetfulness, many J/70 sailors either had no or only an expired certificate of their status, usually 1 ("amateur") or 3. In the J/70, among other things, this rule applies if it is not overridden - as is usual in the Bundesliga, for example: If the helmsman has category 3 status ("professional"), he must own at least 50 per cent of a J/70.
The Technical Committee became aware of the email request to the International Class Association and felt compelled to act accordingly within the scope of its duties. As a result, the vast majority of the field were found to have missing or no longer valid category certificates and a hearing was scheduled.
The official statement later - which can be read in the IDM results lists for all results with "DPI" added - was: "The Technical Committee has received information regarding the validity of a sailor categorisation of a J/70 skipper. Upon further investigation, the following boats are deemed to be in breach of class rule C.3.2(a) by not having a valid Group 1 categorisation." The following is a list of 40 of the 53 sail numbers!
The Winkel crew successfully promoted J/70 sailing
A hearing of those affected took place on Saturday evening. The stone or skipper of the offence was also present: Olympic sailor Malte Winkel had put the J/70 class in the spotlight for three days with his crew on "semi-dry light" and remarkably good performances up to that point. There was a lot of public interest in the class. "And everyone knew the whole time that I'm a category 3 sailor and that I don't own a J/70," said Winkel at the end of the storm of rules. Neither the 470 mixed helmsman, who qualified with his wife Anastasiya Winkel for the Olympic test regatta in July, nor his crew, nor many, many other sailors in the J/70 field had Rule C 3.2(a) in mind as binding for the IDM.
To understand the background to this unfortunate story, it is important to know that sea sailor Michael Berghorn and his wife Mareike Berghorn founded the Halbtrocken e. V. association in 2022 to promote talented sailors and Olympians. At Kieler Woche, they sailed two J/70 boats called "Halbtrocken light" with helmsman Malte Winkel and "Halbtrocken twi-light" with helmsman Michael Berghorn for the first time. The fact that 470 ace Malte Winkel with Theres Dahnke, Moritz Klingenberg and Mika Trosien dominated the field straight away and shared their joy of J/70 sailing in an infectious way obviously didn't please one player in the field.
What we will remember are the great days we had as a team on the water" (Malte Winkel)
As a result of the hearing, Malte Winkel and his crew were disqualified for the first six races, dropping them to 53rd and last place. They did not take part in the last four races. The list of losers in this unfortunate case is long: the class association failed to check the entries - as usual - before the start of the regatta with regard to the category certificates.
The consequences hit Malte Winkel and his crew hard: "After so much fun we had together as a team and after the strong performance we put in in the J/70 class, it's pretty much the worst thing that could have happened to us. To be disqualified after three days of sailing just before the end due to a class rule is brutal. Like all the other participants, we weren't aware of this class rule. What remains for us are the great days we had on the water as a team and our outstanding sailing performance, which was honest and hard-earned"
We are just speed junkies who like to sail their boat fast" (Malte Winkel)
Malte Winkel, who is considered a professional because he sails in the Olympics, but is neither paid for the J/70 entry nor has he ever sailed a major regatta with a J/70 before, continued: "After the hearing, I had a very nice chat with the class president, who was sorry. We parted on good terms. They asked me what I was doing after the Olympics and said that I would be very welcome at the IDM 2024 so that they could put things right." Winkel also told us how sad his crew mates were about the shock exit: "The championship was a great goal. We're just speed junkies who like to sail boats fast."
The Technical Committee also expressed its regret. There is no question that it had to act after becoming aware of the information. Michael Berghorn also said: "Rules are rules. We didn't know them." What Berghorn doesn't like is the message sent by the "advert": "Why is this happening after three days? And what is the message behind it? That Olympic athletes, who can't draw from the full anyway, are being thrown a spanner in the works because they can't afford their own boat?"
Small point penalties for the majority of participants
The fact that a Swiss team ultimately won the International German Championship during Kiel Week almost seemed like a Solomonic judgement. However, in an interview with the "Kieler Nachrichten" newspaper, the Swiss said that they had "sailed to silver and won gold". And then there was this: It does not reflect well on the class to alienate young ambitious sailors in this way. Incidentally, the majority of the class were able to clarify their status afterwards and only received a one-point penalty for their previous failure to provide proof of category.
What is unfortunate about the case, or "unfair" as Kieler Woche sports director Dirk Ramhorst put it, is the timing of the "report" to the International Class Association. The KV was not made aware of the Winkel case right from the start, but only when the team had already put in a compellingly strong performance and had established a clear chance of victory. The author of the email was still unknown on the final evening of Kieler Woche.
