In the end, there was no wind. Which is why the last two days of racing at the Swan OneDesign World Championship off Scarlino in Tuscan waters fell victim to a persistent lull. Prior to this, however, the 26 participating Swan crews had delivered thrilling races in three classes. From a German perspective, the teams in the ClubSwan50, the largest world championship division with 15 boats, provided plenty of excitement, as several prominent teams competed for the world championship crown. In the end, as is so often the case in regatta sport, the title was awarded to the most consistent team: Marcus Brennecke's "Hatari" crew and tactician Markus Wieser won the race with two second, one fourth and one ninth place and a total of 17 points on their World Championship account. Owner Marcus Brennecke said: "We are very happy. We had a lot of fun and were able to show good crew work - as a team and also individually. It's a very competitive class with nice people and a good spirit."
The German "Niramo" sailed by Kieler Sönke Meier-Sawatzki with Ocean Race veteran Bouwe Bekking finished in second place ahead of the third-placed Russian "Skorpidi" and the German "Early Bird" of former Swan 45 World Champion Hendrik Brandis. Brandis said: "Swan sailing is still characterised by the spirit of good seamanship. That is an advantage. It's always a challenge to find the right balance between ambition, sport and maintaining that spirit - Swan has done a good job of that. I love this boat-versus-boat competition and certainly expect the ClubSwan 50 class to grow."
Stefan Heidenreich's "OneGroup" with helmsman Magnus Simon and tactician Jochen Schümann even managed to win two of the four very different races, but still missed out on the podium in fifth place overall because an eleventh and a tenth place weighed on their World Championship account. Nevertheless, Jochen Schümann's overall assessment was positive: "It's a fantastic class. The owners are enthusiastic about it and we can expect 20 or more boats on the starting line soon." Austrian August Schramm, whose "Stella Maris" sailed to tenth place, explained why this might be the case: "I like the idea of the OneDesign principle. That's the reason why we got into this class. It means fast learning, fast development, and the owner/steersman idea goes in the direction of gentleman sailing."
In the Swan 45 class, Lennard van Oeveren's crew on the Dutch "Motion" took victory ahead of his compatriots on "K-Force" and the Swiss "Ange Transparent" in a small field of five yachts that was not quite ready for the World Championship. Andrea Lacorte's "Cetilar Vitamina" crew took the Gold Cup in the six-boat ClubSwan 36 division after four races, ahead of their Italian compatriots on "Sease" and Nikolai Burkart's German "Goddess".
Tatjana Pokorny
Sports reporter
