They are regarded as light wind specialists and had already left the international 470 celebrities standing several times in training before the first starting signal. Now Luise and Helena Wanser from the NRV Olympic Team have achieved the same feat at the Spanish classic Trofeo Princesa Sofía Iberostar. On Wednesday, the 21-year-old helmswoman from Hamburg and her 20-year-old sister shone in the bay of Palma de Mallorca with two victories in a row. This catapulted the women from Hamburg into fourth place in the 470 women's fleet after a total of six out of ten races up to the medal race.
"The two are absolutely world class in light winds. In stronger winds, they lack a bit of weight," says NRV Managing Director Klaus Lahme, who knows the crew well. The sisters grew up sailing in the Opti on the Alster and are currently training in the junior team with coach Ulf Lehmann in Warnemünde. "Today was fun," reported helmswoman Luise Wanser after the successful races. "We were already extremely fast the last few days, but didn't get off to an ideal start. We focussed on that today." Obviously with great success. Her team-mates Frederike Loewe and Anna Markfort are in eleventh place at the halfway point of the 50th anniversary edition of the regatta, while the NRV crew Fabienne Oster and Anastasiya Winkel are in 17th place.
The 25-year-old Laser Radial helmswoman Svenja Weger from Potsdamer Yachtclub also won the day, moving up to ninth place in the main round, while top sailors such as Anne-Marie Rindom from Denmark, the Belgian world champion Emma Plasschaert, the American Erika Reineke and the Olympic champion Marit Bouwmeester are battling for the lead at the front of the field.
Among the 49er sailors, three German crews made it into the gold fleet on Wednesday: Tim Fischer and Fabian Graf (NRV/VSaW) finished eighth in the main round, Justus Schmidt and Max Boehme eleventh. The Rio bronze medallists Erik Heil and Thomas Plößel, who had not yet got going the day before, also survived the tough 49er cut, which only allows the best 25 crews to pass, with aplomb in the end. The Miami winners finished 13th, 2nd and 5th on Wednesday and entered the main round in 21st place.
For Paul Kohlhoff and Alica Stuhlemmer from Kiel, who made such a brilliant start to the series, it was a mixed day at the regatta, which the German Nacra 17 crew started with 23rd place, but then consistently improved with 13th and 6th place. The dynamic North German duo are in fourth place overall after nine races and have kept their medal chances alive.
Laser helmsman Philipp Buhl did not cope well with the conditions on Wednesday, dropping back to 40th place with 19th and 56th and now has a very long way to go if he wants to sail into the top ten in the remaining four races before the medal final. For the world number three himself, the course of events is reminiscent of the botched World Cup opener off Miami at the start of the year, for him it is almost déjà vu. With a view to the light conditions that persisted in Spain, Buhl said: "I really wish there was a bit more wind again instead of the choppy conditions here." The conditions were sailable, however, and he does not want to blame his poor results on that. The Allgäu native's current problem in Mallorca is that he suffered an early start at the beginning of the regatta and therefore now has to add the 56 points from the unsuccessful race on Wednesday to his score. His motto for the next two days is clear: "I'll try a new start on Thursday without looking at the results. Every place is important and theoretically the medal race is still possible, although things would have to be ideal from now on."
Tatjana Pokorny
Sports reporter
