It was a wet Kiel Week for the king: on Saturday, record winner Wolfgang Hunger and his co-sailor Julien Kleiner capsized for the first time in stormy winds of around 6 Beaufort. The second capsize followed on Sunday in the penultimate race of the 505 series with plenty of sail chaos on board. The double mishap demanded a lot of strength from Hunger and Kleiner. They were unable to finish the race and then had to score points in the eleventh and final race in order to secure the 21st Kieler Woche victory for Hunger after all.
In the final, winds of up to 25 knots were again blowing on the Stollergrund, offset by a heavy wave that favoured the heavier crews. No chance for the too-light European champions Meike Schomäker and Holger Jess, who came sixth overall. And no chance for the Hamburg world champions Claas Lehmann and Leon Oehme either, who had to be satisfied with eighth place.
In the final Hunger/Kleiner successfully avoided a third capsize and crossed the finish line in third place. That was enough to set a new Kiel Week record, the 21st Hunger victory and the sixth triumph in a row for the successful Hunger/Kleiner crew. "It was really rough out there today," said Hunger, "the capsize in the tenth race made it difficult for us. We had to deal with 5 to 6 Beaufort and plenty of waves on the Stollergrund. Julien and I lacked a bit of sailing experience together in such conditions. All the better that we still managed to win in the end."
In addition to Hunger/Kleiner, German teams came out on top in a further nine of the 17 international classes. For Peter Ramcke, Head of Organisation, his first Kiel Week under his sole responsibility offered reason for optimism: "We still have to make some adjustments to the temperature, but with over 400 races in nine days, we offered a challenging programme, had very good entry numbers, especially in the youth classes, and are well on the way to achieving our goal of putting the focus more on the sailors. We will continue to pursue this goal."
The brothers Helge and Christian Sach sailed the best series of all participants in the Formula18 catamaran. Only on the last day did they get a tiny stain on their clean slate, when they were only able to cross the finish line in second place behind the overall third-placed team of Sven Lindstädt/Maren Odefey (Norderstedt/Lübeck). In the other ten races, the brothers from Zarnekau were in a class of their own and won the series ahead of Arne Gosche and Michael Walther from Kiel. This is the sixth success for the Sachs in the eight years that the F18 cat off Kiel has been part of the international half.
"We had trimmed the boat for a storm and then we were lucky that there was wind the whole time," said coxswain Christian Sach. Helmsman Helge Sach gave the organisers a good report card: "The focus is back on the sailor. It's really great to sail here."
There was also a lot of tension in the "Flying Dutchmen" on the last day. Despite a confident performance, Kilian König and Johannes Brack (Edersee) put themselves in trouble once again with an early start disqualification on the penultimate day. However, they made up for their slip-up with a first and a second place at the end. Christoph Nielsen from Berlin, who crowned his 40th Kieler Woche year with his fourth victory off Schilksee, had to do without the last race in the Folkboat category.
In contrast, the guard was changed in the Hobie 16: Stefan Wiese-Dohse and Susanne Gehrmann (Sütel) defended their lead over serial winner Detlef Mohr from Reinfeld with his foresailor Karen Wichardt (Hohwacht) with two wins on the last day. "The conditions here were perfect for us. We love the strong wind and are almost unbeatable in it. We've been sailing together for nine years and of course the work on the boat runs smoothly," said a delighted Wiese-Dohse about his first Kieler Woche victory. As the new strong force in the OK dinghy, André Budzien is sailing from victory to victory. Last year he won the German Championship and the World Championship, and this year he secured the Kieler Woche title with consistently good performances.
In the 29er, on the other hand, the German youngsters had to admit defeat in the dress rehearsal for next year's European Championships during Kiel Week. Frenchmen Lucas Rual and Emile Amoros continued their impressive winning streak and had twelve victories and two second places to their name at the end of the 14 races. In third place, however, Jasper Steffens and Tom Lennart Brauckmann from Kiel demonstrated that they will be a force to be reckoned with next year.
The youngsters from Audi Sailing Team Germany almost equalled the success of the German national sailing team from the first part of Kiel Week. Eric Toralf Malach came out on top in the Laser 4.7, as did Jan Borbet and his co-skipper Kilian Northoff in the 420.
Tatjana Pokorny
Sports reporter
