They were able to cancel their only second place. A further five race wins meant that the "immac all4one" was the undisputed ORC I winner of the Kiel Cup regatta at Kieler Woche. Kai Mares and his ambitious young crew took advantage of the 121st Kieler Woche to make a clean sweep of the big yachts. The helmsman from Dänischenhagen and his team completed their laps almost flawlessly and gained revenge for the botched second part of the Welcome Race on Sunday with a commanding overall victory. Axel Seehafer's Heiligenhafen "Sportsfreund" took second place ahead of Kirsten "Kirsche" Harmstorf's "Tutima" crew.
The women started the stormy final day of the three-day series in third place overall. This was also indicated by the pink flag in the stern, which on the large boats corresponds in colour to the bibs worn by the top three crews in the Olympic classes. "The flag looks good on us, we definitely want to keep it," was the message on the "Tutima" team's Facebook page the morning before the final day. And that's how it stayed. The women, traditionally dressed in pink, fulfilled their own wish with good performances, finishing the Kiel Cup with the results (7), 3, 4, 2.5, 6, 3 on the podium alongside "immac one4all" and the second-placed "Sportsfreund". That was "pretty in pink" ahead of Kiel. For the women, third place tasted as good as the triumph for the winners. They wrote on their Facebook page in the late evening shortly before midnight: "Friends, we've done it: our place on the podium of Kiel Week 2015! After the wind came back in full force overnight, we sailed three long, exhausting races in choppy waves on the Stollergrund today with results of 2, 6, 3! In the end, we came third overall and are incredibly proud of this successful finish. KiWo once a year - oh, that's something nice!"
In ORC II, Sven Christensen's Flensburg "Xen" won the series ahead of Peter Beck Mikkelsen's "BM Yachting" and Jörg Hiller's Kiel "Hoppetosse". As the confident winners in ORC III/IV, Knut Freudenberg's "Halbtrocken" was even able to forgo the start in the final race, while in ORC II there was a thrilling duel in which Christensen's "Xen" crew snatched the trophy from the "BM Yachting" crew in the final race, which was already within their grasp.
The highly praised race director Stefan Kunstmann said after the furious finale in winds of up to 25 knots: "We are happy to have managed three challenging races in high waves today. However, more were planned. But the crews were really shivering in the 13 degree air temperature and the additional wind chill, so we sent them ashore earlier." The Farr 30 classification was won by world champion Harald Brüning with his "Topas".
Tatjana Pokorny
Sports reporter
