In the 127th year of Kieler Woche, Wolfgang Hunger fulfilled his last remaining sailing wish. The victory was also his 17th success in Strander Bucht and thus a Kieler Woche record - the highlight of this year's sailing competitions.
In addition, the catamaran sailors Detlef Mohr and Karen Wichardt (Hamburg) in the Hobie 16 and the brothers Helge and Christian Sach (Zarnekau) in the F18 also ensured German success, as did Contender ace Jan von der Bank (Eutin) and the keelboat crews led by Peer Kock (Hamburg) in the J 24 and Christoph Nielsen (Berlin, Folkeboote).
The staging at the SAP 505 European Championships could hardly have been better. The title race was wide open right up to the last spigot, then Hunger's closest rivals Jan Saugmann/Morten Ramsbæk (Denmark) took the wrong side in an all-or-nothing action, and the way was clear for Hunger/Kleiner, who turned their dream title into reality with a win on the final day. They crossed the finish line with thumbs up, and Julien Kleiner was beaming: "I was already German champion with Boris Herrmann, but this is my first international title."
Jan Saugmann could not hide his disappointment: "After winning the Pfingstbusch, we had hoped for the European Championship title, and when you are so close, you naturally want more," said the silver medallist, who won the World Championship title in 2007. Third place went to 16-time Kiel Week winners Jørgen and Jacob Bojsen-Møller from Denmark.
There were also beaming German faces in five other of the 14 international disciplines on the triangular courses. Hobie ace Detlef Mohr won his eighth title on the fjord. Despite a clear lead, he didn't want to claim an easy victory: "It looked easier on paper than it actually was. The high wave in particular gave us a lot of trouble." The Sach brothers made life difficult for themselves with an unexpected mishap. They were in the lead when they capsized in the light wind due to a lack of concentration. "The last time that happened to us was ten years ago in Sydney, so we had no experience of righting ourselves and had to make a real effort," reported helmsman Helge. And foreship skipper Christian dismissed all blame with a grin: "I was just sailing along, I can't help it." The Sachs had to chase their deficit until the last day, but still managed a clear success with two victories at the end of the day.
Jan von der Bank sailed to success in a very relaxed manner. The screenwriter from Eutin had recently taken a long break to go on a long voyage with his family and came to Kiel Week almost untrained: "But it's like riding a bike, you don't forget how to do it. I also had a lot of fun and that's the most important thing. If you're tense, you can't ride at the front. For me, it works according to the principle of increasing pleasure through withdrawal."
Old but powerful was the motto for the J24 and the Folkboats. Peer Kock achieved his J-24 premiere victory at Kiel Week with a 26-year-old boat: "But that doesn't matter in this class. The boat is absolutely competitive. Things are simply going well for us at the moment. As European champions, we perhaps had a duty to win in front of Kiel, but so far we've often fallen just short," says Kock.
Christoph Nielsen and crew were even travelling in a 31-year-old folk boat and could not be beaten. The team was particularly pleased with the strong wind conditions: "We are glad that we sailed in these conditions. The Folkboat is just made for this," explained Nielsen, who is now packing his boat for transport to San Francisco. "We want to take part in a big invitational regatta there and show the US fleet how good we are. That's why we're taking our own boat with us. The transport is almost more expensive than the value of the boat, but it's worth it to us."
There was also half a German success in the Dragon class. Markus Wieser from Munich had the lead here, albeit at the helm of a Ukrainian boat. The Danes and French were the next most successful nations with two wins each. Peter Wibroe (Platu 25) and Steffen Stegger (H-Boat) brought home the silver medals for their northern neighbours. Thomas Ribeaud (Europe) and Kevin Fischer (29er), on the other hand, took the trophies home to France. The winners' medals in the 420 class for Britain's Philip Sparks and in the Flying Dutchman for Hungary's Majthenyi Szabolcs also remained in Europe. Greg Wilcox, who triumphed in the OK dinghy, had a supposedly long journey. In fact, the New Zealander has lived in Berlin for years, is active there as a sailmaker and has already proven his skills in various classes before Kiel.
Final score - International part:
505 (8W): 1st Dr Wolfgang Hunger/Julien Kleiner (Strande) 11 points, 2nd Jan Saugmann/Morten Ramsbæk (DEN) 16, 3rd Jorgen Bojsen-Moller/Jacob Bojsen-Moller (DEN) 16, 4th Jens Findel/Johannes Tellen (Kiel) 30, 5th Meike Schomäker/Holger Jess (Kiel) 30, 6th Ian Pinnell/Carl Gibbon (GBR) 34,
Hobie 16 (6W): 1. Detlef Mohr/Karen Wichardt (Reinfeld) points 8, 2. Keunsoo Kim/Minjae Song (KOR) 14, 3. Knud Jansen/Merle Siebrecht (Kiel) 16, 4. Jens Goritz/Simone Monreal (Wyk/Föhr) 18, 5. Georg Backes/Barbara Siebrecht (Kiel) 26, 6. Jochen Sierck/Anke Delius (Kronshagen) 33,
Formula 18 (6W): 1st Helge Sach/Christian Sach (Zarnekau) points 6, 2nd Andreas John/Sten Höpfner (Hamburg) 13, 3rd Adam Skomski/Jakub Kopylowicz (POL) 15, 4th Justus Wolf/Rea Nies (Hamburg) 18, 5th Daniel Paysen/Nico Heinrich (Hamburg) 27, 6th Rübling Frank/Martin Bach (Oststeinbek) 29,
Europe (6W): 1st Thomas Ribeaud (FRA) points 5, 2nd Sylvain Notonier (FRA) 11, 3rd Marc Keene Pedersen (DEN) 21, 4th Moritz Kuralt (Essen) 28, 5th Jacob Nikolajsen (DEN) 35, 6th Monti Nicola (ITA) 35,
OK dinghy (7W): 1st Greg Wilcox (NZL) points 12, 2nd Karsten Hitz (Kiel) 25, 3rd Oliver Gronholz (Kiel) 28, 4th Martin von Zimmermann (Hamburg) 30, 5th Antoni Pawlowski (POL) 53, 6th Jørgen Lindhardtsen (DEN) 64,
Contender (7W): 1st Jan von der Bank (Eutin) points 14, 2nd Jacob Lunding (DEN) 16, 3rd Sören Andreasen (DEN) 20, 4th Jens Langendorf (DEN) 21, 5th Christoph Homeier (Kiel) 30, 6th Marco Versari (ITA) 45,
Folkboats (9W): 1. Christoph Nielsen/Krzystof Paschke/Torben Dehn (Berlin) points 11, 2. Ulf Kipcke/Gero Martens/Dieter Kipcke (Neumünster) 18, 3. Christian Thomsen/Claus Schou/Henrik Holk (DEN) 20, 4. Heines Nielsen/Helmuth Schwarz/Ole Mathiesen (DEN) 21, 5. Sönke Durst/Matthias Adomat/Karsten Butze Bredt (Mönkeberg) 24, 6. Walther Furthmann/Paul Girolstein/Hans-Christian Mrowka (Kiel) 43,
Platu 25 (9W): 1. Peter Wibroe/Ida Laurent/Niels Kink/Chris Goldhammer/Hugge Hviid-Nielsen (DEN) points 12, 2. Mads Christensen/Michael Casparij/Anders Fisker/Alexander Recnitzer/Ulrik Andreasen (DEN) 16, 3. Daniel Nauck/Jörg Pilava/Conelius Heeschen/Jens Ole v. Studnitz/Thorben Nowak (Berlin) 22, 4. Lars Baehr/Moritz Stegmann/Stefan Ullrich/Hermann Müller/Felix Krabbe (Berlin) 29, 5. Thomas Sörensen/Bo Andersen/Garvin Grebe/Lars Kirk/Torben Kjelsmark/Thomas Sörensen (DEN) 29, 6. Reinhard Hübner/Helmar Nauck/Thomas Piesker/Bernd Jäkel/Steve Bärtle/Frank Barownick (Berlin) 33,
J24 (9W): 1. Peer Kock/Markus Kleineidam/Ole Hilcken/Hannes Pagel/Marc-Daniel Mühlmann (Hamburg) points 18, 2. Kai Mares/Mattias Wallentin/Tobias Peters/Tim Becker/Jan-Marc Ulrich (Dänischenhagen) 25, 3. Jan Kähler/Nils Keck/Carsten Kerschies/Andreas Bergmann/Olaf Zietz (Hamburg) 36, 4. Anna Gunnarsson/Max Hølzer/Henrik Hansson/Dan Fredskov/Marianne Schoke/Anna Gunnarsson (SWE) 38, 5. Stefan Karsunke/Thorsten Paech/Falco Feindt/Tim Habekost/Malte Gibbe (Hamburg) 42, 6. Manfred König/Tina Lülfing/Nils Glockow/Sasha Tippe/Olaf Schmidt (Hamburg) 43,
420 (7W): 1st Philip Sparks / Ben Gratton (GBR) points 12, 2nd Julian Autenrieth / Philipp Autenrieth (Augsburg) 14, 3rd Justin Liu / Sherman Cheng (SIN) 25, 4th Svenja Weger / Wiebke Lechler (Kleinmachnow) 41, 5th Fabian Kaske / Alexander Schätz (Berg) 45, 6th Kalderon Rebecca / Rosie Sibthorp (GBR) 54,
29er (7W): 1. Kévin Fischer/Glenn Gouron (FRA) points 14, 2. Bleddyn Mon/Nick Redding (GBR) 15, 3. Max Richardson/Alex Groves (GBR) 15, 4. Mark Walraven/Kaj Böcker (NED) 16, 5. Justus Schmidt/Max Boehme (Schönwalde) 27, 6. Becky Diamond/Fiona Hampshire (GBR) 32,
