Kieler Woche: Olympic sailors with double shift, record winner Hunger missing
Tatjana Pokorny
· 22.06.2023
The second international half of the 129th Kiel Week has begun. After the medal decisions for the Olympic sailors, the entire planned programme of international boat classes with almost 1,000 active participants in eight classes and the Senate Prize for double-handed sailors was completed on Thursday.
National sailors attack in the J/70
Not competing this year is record winner Wolfgang Hunger, whose 505 boat class is no longer part of the Kieler Woche programme this year following a disagreement between the organisers and the class association and due to insufficient entries. "I am disappointed that it has turned out like this, but whether I have 24 or 25 Kieler Woche victories is not so important," said Hunger, who only experiences Kieler Woche on his own doorstep as an observer.
Some Olympic sailors, on the other hand, are even taking part in Kiel Week twice. The best 470 mixed sailors of the German Sailing Team are once again in action at the International German Championship in the J/70 sports boat class with crews of four to five in a new distribution: Malte Winkel (Schweriner Yacht-Club), who had just finished third in the Olympic Half-Term with his wife Anastasiya Winkel and took part in the Olympic test regatta in Marseille in July, led the J/70 classification just one day later together with 470 mixed opponent Theres Dahnke, Moritz Klingenberg and Mika Trosien in the boat.
Sailing was premium today" (Malte Winkel)
"I can also take a lot of this experience back into the 470. J/70 sailing is a bit like slow-motion sailing on an Olympic 470. Especially when it comes to the processes. The J/70 reacts so much slower. If you're wrong, you know it right in the middle, but you can't change it," said Malte Winkel after day one of the second half of Kiel Week, which his crew had mastered remarkably well with 2nd, 1st and 5th places. Winkel raved about the sailing conditions: "It was premium today!"
As the helmsman of the J/70 "Halbtrocken light" and a member of the Halbtrocken Sailing club, Malte Winkel is not the only one who is delighted to have the opportunity to sail at a high level with the J/70 boats at Kieler Woche. The same applies to Winkel's former co-skipper and current team-mate of 470 mixed helmswoman Theres Dahnke. Together, Dahnke/Cipra sailed to second place in the 470 mixed in the first half of Kiel Week. Now they are competing against each other.
Contender world champion Max Billbeck with a lightning start
Matti Cipra sails as a mainsail trimmer on the second club boat "Halbtrocken Twi-Light" with dedicated talent promoter and helmsman Michael Berghorn. The crew opened the J/70 series with places 6, 10 and 17 in seventh place, but was later disqualified for the first race. An inspection on the water revealed that the crew had completed the race without the prescribed life jackets. "That's in the Notice of Race, so it's annoying and shouldn't have happened," said Matti Cipra.
In the Contender, the 2019 world champion Max Billerbeck from Wassersportverein Kollmar took the lead on day one of the international half-time with a third place and two wins on the day. In Ilca 4, Levian Büscher from Düsseldorfer Yachtclub got off to the best start with second place and two wins on the day. In Ilca 6, Paul Ulrich from Zwischenahner Segelklub was unbeatable with three day wins in a row on the sixth day of Kieler Woche. Fritz Meyer and his SVAOe crew topped the J/24 field with 1st, 2nd and 6th place. The international half of Kiel Week continues until 25 June.
The best summer sailing for the double-handed crews
The two-handed crews were challenged on the sea course in the middle of Kiel Week and were served up the most beautiful summer sailing. After a brief postponement of the start, race director Ralf Paulsen sent the 15 crews in two groups onto the 27 nautical mile course. In an initial four to five knots of wind and later increasing breeze, the "Hunky Dory" of father-daughter team Martin Görge and Lotta Wiemers from Strande was the first to cross the finish line off Schleimünde after 4:14 hours at sea and the two were able to enjoy fish sandwiches and beer.
However, they had to settle for fourth place in the yardstick group. Here, the "Black Jack" of Kai-Gunnar Kersten/Nils Lindström (Hamburg) has the bow in front. Among the three ORC yachts in the Red group, the "Kia Ora" of Ansgar Chorhummel/Markus Busse (Kiel) is in the lead. In the ORC Green group, Leif Kemmerich/Benedikt Kolbrink (Kirchlinteln) on the "Fakse" will start the return race to Kiel tomorrow at 9am as the leaders.
