Kieler Woche shows the positive way out of the pandemic: "Resurrected and on course as a pioneer"

Admittedly: The first half of the 127th Kieler Woche was a sporting blast, offering, in the words of head of organisation Dirk Ramhorst, "the whole range of conditions from unsailable to a perfect sailing Sunday". The cautiously calm start on the water was followed by Sunday sailing bliss in Kiel's imperial weather, before little to nothing happened for two days in the doldrums. "It was," says Ramhorst, "a first half of extremes. But it was also clear that Kiel Week has risen from the pandemic and is once again showing what is possible as a pioneer." In the late summer sunshine, the Kiel-Schilksee Olympic Centre was almost as busy as it had last been in 2019, and there was a lively atmosphere of optimism throughout the harbour. On Tuesday afternoon, the first winners of the international classes were honoured at the Kiel-Schilksee Olympic Centre. Two of the originally planned four regatta days had to suffice to determine the best. Among them were once again 505er helmsman Wolfgang Hunger from Strande and his coxswain Holger Jess from Eckernförde. Hunger raised his Kiel Week record to an incredible 24 victories. Who will ever catch up with him?

"It's always a challenge to win a Kiel Week," explained serial winner Hunger, "our victory is of course nice, but more important is the fun of sailing, which we still enjoy very much. The keys to victory are our expertise and a very motivated coxswain," said the 61-year-old orthopaedic surgeon and seven-time world champion in the Olympic 470 and 505, who also thanked his energetic and hard-working coxswain Holger Jess. Exceptional sailor Hunger learnt the art of sailing as a boy on Berlin's Wannsee. As a twelve-year-old, he won his first German Optimist Championship in 1973. Half a century later, he is one of the most successful players in German sailing history. He was only denied the longed-for and well-deserved Olympic medal in three Olympic starts, finishing fourth (1984), fifth (1988) and eighth (1992). Hunger combined his joy at his renewed Kiel Week triumph in Kiel with an invitation and a challenge: "Anyone who wants to compete with us is invited to enter the 505 class. It offers high-calibre dinghy sailing that can be classified just behind Olympic sailing." Hunger and Jess, who won together for the tenth time off Kiel, want to compete for Hunger's 25th anniversary title in 2022.

Paralympic winner Heiko Kröger from the Norddeutscher Regatta Verein in the 2.4mR also repeated his previous year's victories with his Kiel Week title number twelve and Batbold Gruner from Ganderkesee in the ILCA 4. For Heiko Kröger, who was one of the "early birds" with the 2.4mR field on the final day of part one of Kiel Week, but also found no wind on the India course at half past nine, it was at least one less day of tinkering. The Paralympic sailing ambassador and defending champion had worked intensively on his borrowed boat during the regatta days in order to secure his twelfth overall victory. "The podium in Kiel is and remains something special, because it is prestigious and has great appeal. I am proud and satisfied to be at the top again," said the 55-year-old.

Batbold Gruner, who is only 17 years old, celebrated the end of his Laser career in style, had everything under control again this year apart from a capsize in the last race and relegated his club mate Paul Ulrich from Zwischenahner Segel-Klub to silver with a six-point lead. The helmsman, who weighs just under 60 kilograms, lacks the weight and length for a subsequent career in the Olympic ILCA 7 (ex-Laser standard). Gruner is therefore switching classes. "I'm going into the Waszp," says the talent from the Zwischenahner Meer, where he already has one of these foilers, "so I'll be back in Kiel next year." The green light for this has already been given indirectly by regatta director Dirk Ramhorst, who commented that the attractive performance of the foiling "Wasps" was "certainly not a one-off" and was one of the highlights of the first half of Kiel Week. Looking at the sailing disciplines on offer at the start, the regatta director was delighted with the great popularity of the 420er, Europe and ILCA 4 junior classes, adding that the OK Dinghies were also rightly a permanent fixture due to their high degree of internationality. There is no doubt that Kieler Woche will remain open in the future, including the 2.4mR.

Click here for all the final results of the first half of Kiel Week and the intermediate results for the sea sailors (please click!).

At least the ORC yachts were able to complete one race on the calm but sunny Tuesday on the sea course. In the large ORC I class, Michael Berghorn's Mills 45 Custom "Halbtrocken 4.5" (Kieler Yacht-Club) won ahead of the Ker 46 "Van Uden" with the crew of Gerd-Jan Poortmann and Ralf Lässig's XP-44 "Xenia" (Wassersportverein Wulsdorf). The eleven-strong Berghorn team also won the combined ORC I + II classification. With only two yachts in the ORC II classification, Torsten Bastiansen's victorious "Sydbank" crew and the "Farr-Lässig" with Michael Schulz's team turned the race into a duel. In ORC III + IV, the "Nemo" crew led by Uwe Kleinvogel finished ahead of the second-placed "Immac Fram" with the team led by Kai Mares. Kiel Week is set to continue on Wednesday with the Kiel Cup regatta series and the Starboat World Championship, where the athletes are still waiting for their first race. The world title fights in the former Olympic Starboat class will continue until Sunday. From Thursday, three of the ten Olympic disciplines that have been mobilised for Kiel will also start the competition. These include the iQFoil male and female surfers, who will be competing for Olympic medals for the first time from 2024. The participation of other Olympic fleets was not even advertised for this year in view of the post-Olympic time window and after Kiel Week was postponed again to September. "Next year, it will only be two years until the next Olympic Games," said Dirk Ramhorst, "so it will be hot again." In other words, the Olympic fields will once again be increasingly turning up off Kiel from 2022. "That applies to both quantity and quality," said Ramhorst.