The Hamburg-based "König&Xie" at the European Championship in the X-41 class and the Italian "Lelagain" as world champion in the X-35 class are the winners of their championships. Both teams impressed with outstanding performances.
The exciting races for the first European Championship title in the X-41 one-design class were won by Hamburg-based Sven Erik Horsch's "König&Xie" with an impressive series. After nine races with four daily victories, three second places and one third place, the "König&Xie" won by 13 points ahead of its closest rival "Lexigton". The team of Thomas Foyen's Norwegian yacht scored 17 points. Third place on the podium went to the "Extasy" owned by Thomas Brügge from Neumünster.
With a wind force of five to six from an easterly direction, but still powerful waves after the previous day's storm, the "König&Xie" had secured the championship title early with a commanding victory and was already on its way home when the remaining fleet of eight boats sailed the last European Championship regatta on the Stollergrund. "We are very happy about the title," said a delighted helmsman Sven Erik Horsch over a victor's beer on the jetty as the fleet of X-35 yachts moored behind him after their races. The man from Hamburg was particularly pleased with the consistency with which his crew sailed the European Championship. "We kept well on track for eight races," said Horsch, who had not expected such a "great performance" in the run-up to the European Championship. "But we also had good opponents in the Lexington&apos and the Extasy&apos." Thomas Brügge was satisfied with the result. "We just couldn't do any better," said the man from Neumünster, who didn't line up with his full crew. "But we are very satisfied."
Things did not go so well for the third German team on the last day of racing, as tactician Roland Gäbler admitted after the two sixth places of the "Galatea". For the Tornado sailor, sailing on the X-41 is a great experience. "Even though it's a big change for me, sailing in this class is a lot of fun. The young crew - half Italian and half German - still makes a few mistakes. It's somewhere between good and disaster," says Gäbler. In the end, they finished sixth. "That's quite okay."
After an unfortunate fourth place at the 2008 World Championships in their own country, the Italian crew of the "Lelagain" around helmsman Alessandro Solerio finally made it: World Champion 2009, with a performance recognised by the competition. "That was a great series. The Italians performed well in all conditions and deserved to win," commented Torsten Bastiansen on the title win.
The Flensburg "Celox" missed out on a place on the podium again with an unfortunate last race. The day before, the crew around helmsman Achim Griese had touched the windward mark and had to turn a curl. Yesterday, the team took the buoy with them (caught in the rudder) and caused chaos at the mark. The rescue took at least three minutes, and the team was the last to take up the chase. "That was great cinema," said co-owner and mastman Sven Anderssen, taking refuge in sarcasm. "You can't do anything more stupid than we did," said Achim Griese, bemoaning himself and his tactician Morten Henriksen. The disappointment of eighth place overall was huge. "That really hurts, the mood here is really bad. Especially because the last race ruined everything," said the man from Hamburg. The "Celox" also incurred a protest because it had previously crashed into Christian Soyka's "Immac X".
A completely different mood prevailed at the end of the jetty, where the "Xen" had been moored for the week. Steersman Torsten Bastiansen answered the day's question about the performance rating on a scale of one to ten as if from a gun: "Definitely nine and a half." With a second and a third place, the Flensburg "Xen" had not only moved up to sixth place (best German ship), but had also driven her tactician sitting on the accompanying boat to storms of joy. Especially in the last race, when the "Xen" crew professionally shot to the finish line in third place on the wave and even outperformed the new world champions on the spi course and kept them at bay. "We really had a good hand today," commented Torsten Bastiansen on the last day of racing, but also regretted that the Dutch crew of "Just4Fun" was unable to actively participate in the race after a collision the day before. The German-Italian crew led by Dutch helmsman Albert Koijman received compensation points and ended up on the podium after all.
Race director Eckart Reinke received much praise from all participants. The unanimous opinion of the sailors was that laying out such perfect courses in this wind and with these waves was quite a feat. Praise also went to the entire race committee on the start and finish ship "Alpha Tauri". "With the swell over the last few days, I wouldn't want to have been on board there," said Thomas Brügge.
X-35-WM (9 W):
1st "Legagain" (Alessandro Solerio/Sanremo) 3, 3, 1, 2 (10) 5, 4, 1, 7, 26,
2. "Roxana" (Kimmo Vähätalo/Turku) 2, 5, 3, 9, (12) 3, 3, 4, 2, 31.
3. "Just4Fun" /Albert Kooijman/NOORDWIJK) 1,1,9,1,(19),6,6,6,6, 36,80,
4. "X.O" (Kekkonen Teemu/Espoo) 12, 13, 2, 3, (21) 4, 2, 17, 1, 54.
5, "Giochelotta" (conte francesco/Italy) 7, (12) 6 11, 8, 7, 5, 10, 58,
6, "Xen" (Torsten Bastiansen/Flensburg) 9, 8, 13, (18) 9, 6, 9, 2, 3, 59,
X-41-EM (9 W):
1. "König&Xie" (Sven Erik Horsch/Hamburg) 1, 3 2, 1, 2, 1, 2, 1 (DNC) - 13 points, 2. "Lexington" (Thomas Føyen/Oslo) 3, 1, 3, (6,00) 1, 2, 1, 4, 1 - 17, 3. "Extasy" (Thomas Brügge/Neumünster) 5, 6, 1, 2, (9), 3, 4, 3, 3 - 27, 4. "Premium" (Priit Tammemägi/Viimsi) 4, 8, 4, 4, (8), 4, 5, 2, 2 - 34, 5. "X-Effekt" (Jan Birger Jansen/Oslo) 4, 5, 3, 5, 6, (8), 3, 7, 7 - 40, 6. "Galatea" (Florian Fahr/NOR) 8, 2, 5, (9), 3, 5, 6, 6, 42.
