With an impressive series, the Dutch "BRS X" with skipper Cees Wieringa secured the first world championship title in the X-35 after a total of nine races, ahead of Mark Richmond with "Cool Running" and Mati Sepp with the "Hermes-X" from Estonia.
"We made clean starts, always made good use of the turns and worked a lot on the right trim settings in the changing winds of between four and 20 knots. Our recipe for success was to sail in the centre of the course and concentrate on speed," said the visibly satisfied tactician John den Engelsmann from the "BRS X".
The minimum target was top five, "but of course we are over the moon about the win," said the Dutchman, who enthused about the World Championships. It was a great event all round.
Mark Richmond from "Cool Running" (GBR) was a fair loser: "We are a little disappointed, as victory was within our grasp. But we congratulate Cees Wieringa and the crew on a consistently good performance."
Mati Sepp (Hermes-X) exceeded his own expectations. "We are more than satisfied with third place," said the Estonian. Nic Bol, who had sailed everything into the ground in last year's Best of the Best, came fourth.
The best German X-35 was the "Immac X" (Christian Soyka/Flensburg) in seventh place. "Our tactician comes from Kiel and knows when to sail to the left when in doubt. We did that in the right races and sailed well, especially as we had no speed problems," said helmsman Christian Soyka, who was able to hoard numerous victories with his X-99 "Baltic Bay Laboe". Christian Soyka's crew triumphed at the 2004 World Championships and also won silver medals at national championships in Europe. This year, the team looked for a new challenge and went from being champions back to being students who learnt quickly.
"I was disappointed with our performance on the final day, but we are happy to be the best German boat. And seventh place is ok in this top field."
In the current season, the crew is concentrating on the X-35 in a joint project with the former Danish X-99 competitor from the "Eriksson". Although the new ship, the "Immac X", is only around half a metre longer than its predecessor class, the 44-year-old helmsman had to realise in preparation for the World Championship that the X-35 is very different to sail: "The ship is not easy. As we don't have overlapping sails here, unlike the X-99, the set-up is completely different. We are still learning every day."
Despite this learning process, the crew of the "Immac X" is having fun. "For me, there is nothing better than a standardised class, I have no desire to settle. The Xs are well built and have established themselves here. The shipyard has put a lot of thought into it," says Soyka. The German-Danish duo are delighted with the friendships they have built up over the course of their time together on the X-99. That's why even the distance between their homes in Bremerhaven and Copenhagen doesn't stop them from getting on the boat together as often as possible and getting to know the X-35. And finishing in seventh place and as the best German crew naturally also increases the fun factor.
Torsten Bastiansen and the reigning IMS vice world champion crew of the "no limits" (IMS III) finished ninth with the "Xen" (Flensburg).
"To finish on the podium in this field, you always have to be in the top five. And that's not so easy with this level of competition," summarised Bastiansen. A premature start in the last race prevented a better result. The same fate befell Dirk Manno with his "MannOMann", who had pushed himself further forward from race to race. In the end, he finished twelfth.
The other German Xs had already squandered their chances on the penultimate day of the regatta. "Excitement" tactician Thomas Jungblut was particularly annoyed about the last Friday race. "We led the field up to the finishing cross and then dropped to twelfth place." In the end, the "Excitement" (Dreyer/Kiel) finished eleventh.
Achim Griese (Hamburg) was no less disappointed. "No matter what I decided on Friday, it was wrong," said the DSV Olympic Committee Chairman, who had exuded so much self-confidence the day before. "We have enough speed. We just have to avoid making mistakes," said Griese. But that's exactly what they did.
"We brought it all on ourselves," said Tom Ross ("four sea") at the end, who was also disappointed with 27th place, but the organisation manager was very satisfied with how the X-35 World Championship went. "It was a real highlight of Kieler Woche 2007 and the sport was of an extremely high standard," enthused Ross.
