Last weekend was stormy and wet on Lake Wannsee in Berlin. A week after the championship celebrations The team from the North German Regatta Club also came out on top in the League Cup final there. The senior team from the successful Alster club once again proved their fighting spirit at the end of the Bundesliga season, winning seven out of nine races and never finishing lower than second place.
A flood of trophies at the North German Regatta Club
The NRV sailors can now place the League Cup in the NRV clubhouse right next to the championship trophy they have just brought home. And on top of that, there’s also the German Junior Sailing League trophy, which the Hamburg juniors won by finishing third at the final league round of the year – also held this weekend in Berlin – thereby securing 24 points in the junior standings ahead of the Kiel Yacht Club (27 points) and the Potsdam Yacht Club (32 points).
Yet it was not just the trophies that were at stake in the capital, which was bathed in autumnal splendour. The host club, Seglerhaus am Wannsee, also awarded the final four places in the 2nd Sailing Bundesliga, as well as nine starting places in the German Junior Sailing League. It was the Westfälischer Yachtclub Delecke in particular that sailed into the limelight here. Apart from a sixth-place finish in the seventh race, they too finished exclusively in first or second place, thereby putting up strong resistance even against the NRV in the battle for the cup.
In the end, however, they fell six points short of victory at the event on Lake Wannsee, where the NRV quartet were celebrating. However, the Westfälischer Yachtclub Delecke has deservedly secured its return to the 2nd Bundesliga for the 2027 season, ahead of all other competitors. The club had left the league at the end of 2024 as second-division champions and is now sailing towards its comeback.
League Cup: four clubs qualify for the 2027 2. Bundesliga
Twelve teams had battled it out for the four Second Division places. Alongside Delecke, the Hansa Münster Sailing Club and the Rheingau Sailing Club secured their places in the Bundesliga’s second tier. The Erlangen Sailing Association clinched the fourth Second Division place. Their junior team prevailed over the Rhineland Yacht Club in the head-to-head battle for the fourth and final Second Division spot, having finished level on points.
Following the cancellation of the Cup regatta last year, 27 senior and junior teams took part in the races this year. DSL board member Lukas Voigt said: “I am delighted that the DSL Cup was able to take place again following last year’s cancellation and that we were once more able to crown a cup winner. In addition, numerous teams have taken up the challenge of qualifying for the 2nd Sailing Bundesliga and the German Junior Sailing League. This shows that demand for league sailing remains as strong as ever.”
"The VSaW has once again organised a fantastic event." Lukas Voigt
Changes to the Bundesliga format for the 15th season in 2027 The German Sailing League (Deutsche Segel-Liga) had already announced this following last weekend’s league final. The Bundesliga will kick off the new season in Friedrichshafen from 16 to 18 April. The series continues in Überlingen, Berlin, Kiel/Strande and Warnemünde, culminating in the final from 14 to 16 October in Hamburg.
The league is heading into its 15th season
According to the DSL, the annual budget for the new league season will remain roughly at the same level as before. The registration fee for first-division clubs is 14,100 euros. Second-division clubs will pay 10,000 euros for the 2027 season. The next general meeting will take place on 7 November in a ‘hybrid’ format at the Düsseldorf Yacht Club.
Tatjana Pokorny
Sports reporter