The currently most successful players in international sailing are adding a golden glamour to the 125th Kieler Woche: Peter Burling and Blair Tuke are heading for the Kiel Fjord to challenge the Olympic skiff elite in the 49er. The 2016 Olympic champions from New Zealand, 2017 America's Cup dominators and Ocean Race world circumnavigators are aiming for Olympic gold again in 2020 off Enoshima. Before then, the summiteers would like to take a closer look at their most important opponents at the Kiel Classic, as they did in 2016. Germany's best 49er sailors can certainly take their appearance in Kiel as a compliment. "Golden Boy" Burling and his equally prominent co-sailor, who sailed for the Brunel and Mapfre teams in the last Ocean Race, only celebrated their international comeback in the 49er at the start of the year and are almost back where New Zealand's Olympic flag bearers left off in 2016.
Their most serious opponents include three world-class German teams as well as other aces of the skiff scene: Olympic bronze medallists Erik Heil and Thomas Plößel will have to miss out on Kieler Woche because helmsman Heil is completing his physics degree before fully returning to the Olympic campaign. However, both the European champions Justus Schmidt and Max Boehme (Kieler Yacht-Club) and the World Championship bronze medallists Tim Fischer and Fabian Graf (Norddeutscher Regatta Verein/Verein Seglerhaus am Wannsee) are aiming to stand up to the high-flyers from overseas in the top-ranked Kieler Woche field of 89 49er teams from 28 countries.
Beautiful pictures from last year give a good foretaste of what awaits participants and visitors from 22 June in Kiel and at the Olympic Centre in Schilksee
The Laser class, on the other hand, is less strongly represented this year, with five-time Kieler Woche winner and defending champion Philipp Buhl from Sonthofen missing because he and his classmates are already preparing for the World Championships in Japan at the beginning of July. However, Buhl does not want to say goodbye to the World Championships in the future Olympic area without a boost of motivation. The 29-year-old will be visiting the sailing festival and many sailing friends on the first weekend. Things are also looking thinner than usual in some of the other Olympic classes. The 470 regattas even had to be cancelled for men and women due to a lack of entries. "In fact, we have been observing for years that not only are there more and more events, but that they are also clashing with our Kiel Week dates. However, in close cooperation with World Sailing and the German Sailing Association, we are currently working to ensure that there is once again a binding calendar that protects classic events such as Kiel Week from adjacent or overlapping dates," says Kiel Week organisation manager Dirk Ramhorst, explaining the aim of the efforts in the international network.
The world's biggest regatta week will open on 22 June with the "Big Boats" eel regatta, followed by the Welcome Race and the Kiel Cup races. In the first part of the nine-day series, the international boat classes are challenged in parallel from Saturday to Tuesday, followed by the Olympians from Wednesday to Sunday. The "KiWo" showcases sailing in all its diversity with sea-going yachts, dinghies, flying moths, mixed competitions and inclusive regattas. Dirk Ramhorst said at a press conference in Kiel: "Even on its 125th anniversary, Kiel Week feels youthful." 4000 participants from 50 nations are expected. Among them is the Kieler Woche record winner: Wolfgang Hunger will start with Holger Jess in the 505 and is chasing his 22nd title. The orthopaedic surgeon from Strande achieved his 21st triumph in 2013.
Promoting inclusion
Kieler Woche's co-operation with the once Paralympic boat class 2.4mR remains as close as ever. The class was included in Kiel Week for the first time back in 2002 and has been openly advertised since 2008. Internationally, the integration of the Para World Sailing Championships into Kiel Week 2017 made a big splash, and there was much praise from the international sailing world. "It is one of our biggest goals that sailing is back. There is no other sport that is so suitable for inclusion," said Kim Andersen, President of the World Sailing Federation, with a view to the Paralympic Games. The strong signal from Kiel to the IPC (ed.: International Paralympic Committee) could not have gone unheard, said the highest representative of sailing: "Many thanks to Germany, many thanks to Kiel. We need an inclusive society with fully accessible environments that enable people with disabilities to engage in sporting activities and experience safe and fair participation."
