Starboat World Championship: Max Kohlhoff and Ole Burzinski are world champions!
Tatjana Pokorny
· 24.09.2023
Max Kohlhoff and Ole Burzinski left half a dozen Starboat World Champions in their wake during their golden run off Scarlino. Among them was two-time champion Diego Negri, who won World Championship gold off Kiel in 2021 with Berlin-based Frithjof Kleen and would have loved to win his third title in a row after successfully defending his title in 2022. This time, however, the Italian had to be satisfied with bronze alongside Alessandro Sodano on his home turf off Scarlino. Swiss rider Piet Eckart took silver with Frederico Melo.
Max Kohlhoff from Kiel and Ole Burzinski from Flensburg celebrated gold. They were able to lift the famous Starboat trophy into the sky, which was won by sailing giants Dennis Conner, Paul Cayard, Torben Grael, Robert Scheidt and many more before them. German sailors have also held the legend trophy in their hands before: Walter "Pimm" von Hütschler with Hans-Joachim Weise (1938) and with Egon Beyn (1939), Willy Kuhweide and Karsten Meyer (1972), Alexander Hagen with Vincent Hoesch (1981) and with Marcelo Ferreira (1997), Robert Stanjek and Frithjof Kleen (2014) and once again Frithjof Kleen as Diego Negri's foreship in 2021.
I think we made fewer mistakes than the others" (Max Kohlhoff)
Even though the Star made its last Olympic appearance in 2012, the level of performance has remained high. The young German duo left 95 opposing teams behind them in this latest edition of the 101-year history of the Starboat World Championships. Among them were experts such as former America's Cup tactician Enrico Chieffi with Nando Colaninno, the American world champion Eric Doyle with Payson Infelise and the Olympic Laser silver medallist Tonci Stipanovic with Tudor Bilic.
How did the coup succeed? Max Kohlhoff says: "We sailed a clean regatta without any major incidents. We knew that our speed and performance were good. The long courses with two-nautical-mile sections worked in our favour. Good boat speed is a real advantage here. And I think we made fewer mistakes than the others."
With a commanding lead to the gold star
The 30-year-old former Finn sailor from Kiel was still at a loss for words when he spoke to YACHT online on Sunday evening. "I can't even estimate the extent of it yet," said Max Kohlhoff, "the reactions have been coming in from everywhere in the last few hours. My mailbox is overflowing."
It is a positive response to a week of World Championships that was contested with confidence with 1st, 14th, 2nd, 8th, 1st and 5th places, which demanded all-round qualities from the participants at the Yacht Club Isole di Toscana. "We had to deal with offshore sea breezes, a champagne day and two days with offshore northerly winds," says Kohlhoff, describing the range of conditions. With 17 points on their final World Championship account, the German duo had an eight-point lead over Eckart/Melo in the final standings.
You have to bring a lot of knowledge and work hard" (Max Kohlhoff)
Four years ago, Arnd Glunde from Flensburg approached Max Kohlhoff at the International German Finn Class Championship at the Flensburger Segel-Club to see if he would like to join the Star boat. Max Kohlhoff, who races for the Kieler Yacht-Club and the Norddeutscher Regatta Verein, was keen. From then on, he sailed with Glunde's former co-skipper Ole Burzinski (29) from the Flensburg Yacht Club. Together they threw themselves into the technical and sporting work with the demanding keelboat that produced so many Olympic stars.
"You have to bring a lot of knowledge and work hard," says Max Kohlhoff, describing the challenge for his team since 2020. Arnd Glunde and the Heinz Nixdorf Verein zur Förderung des Segelsports have supported the duo. Until now, the new world champions had not planned to show up at the World Championships off San Diego next year. They had no idea how they would manage the overseas event financially. Now they are hoping that with the gold star in their sails, which the class association only grants to its Olympic and world champions, they might find partners and a way.
The world champion boat is called "Playmate"
"As defending champions, we would have to show up," muses Max Kohlhoff. His crew and their star boat would be ready. It is called "Playmate". The choice of name has a humorous background. Max Kohlhoff's last Finn was called "Workmate". "Olympic sailing was my job, my work, hence the name. And as I now do Starboat sailing alongside my actual work (Editor: Max Kohlhoff is project manager at the family business and yacht chandler of the same name) for fun, the star boat is now called 'Playmate'."
