The sailing competitions at Kiel Week had to be cancelled due to a lack of wind. After two and a half hours, head of organisation Jobst Richter decided to send the participants from 16 international boat classes back to the Olympic harbour.
Nothing was happening on the sea course either, so the X 35 World Championships had to take an unwelcome break. This was obviously good for relaxation, as the head of organisation of the sea course, Tom Ross, who is taking part in the World Championships himself, and Thomas Jungblut from the "Excitement" (Dreyer/Kiel) seemed very relaxed.
Instead, they chatted about times gone by, the wild 60s to be precise, and the reason for this was the milestone birthdays of two international boat classes being celebrated in Schilksee. The OK dinghy will be 50 years old this year. Jungblut won the world championship in this single-handed class in 1971 and can still easily list the many advantages of the dinghy today: "Back then, it was the youth class and the pre-Olympic class par excellence," says Jungblut, "there was no Laser, you could build the boat yourself and use sails from the Pirate. You were independent, not reliant on anyone and could go anywhere with it." There were then a lot of people who "wanted to go everywhere" - world championships were always sailed in fields of 120 to 140 participants, and in keeping with the times, the OC sailors were "rather revolutionary" in their outlook. "We actually wanted to set up our own sailing association, because although we were aware of the statutes of the German Sailing Association, we didn't accept them. There was also the idea of joining the German Sailing Association in the GDR - we had all sorts of ideas," says the once rebellious OK sailor and current North Sails representative, chatting about the turbulent years in what was probably the most popular single-handed class of the time. Somehow, even the German class leader Norbert Petrausch, who is keen to promote youth sport and is tactically cautious in his arguments, lets this shimmer through - at least in his clothing: "We are different" is written on the chest of his T-shirt - "but quite OK" is emblazoned on the back.
While the OK dinghy is available as a new build for 15,000 euros - and much cheaper on the second-hand market - prospective buyers have to dig much deeper into their pockets for an H-boat. The price is 50,000 euros, and this class is also celebrating a milestone birthday: it has turned 40. The German class chief, Hannes Heinz, who is also President of the International Class Association, flew in from Munich especially for the occasion. In short - the H-boat fans also want to bring young people on board, and in order to remain modern and attractive, the H-boat class regularly revises its rules. Four people are allowed to sail in the world championships, the H-boat is certainly challenging and has many fans, as there are a good 5300 H-boats worldwide.
