Kieler Woche: "Crime scene" fjord - sailing sport galore and final thrillers on Sunday

For the "eXciter" team led by Jens Kuphal from the Berlin Yacht Club, the championship title in the "Offshore" classification on Saturday came as a balm after a shackle break had dashed the crew's podium hopes in the last race of the "Inshore" classification. "Offshore, neither the crew nor the new XR41 faltered.

As in the Aalregatta at the start of the 131st Kiel Week, Jens Kuphal, Robert Stanjek, Max and Karl Gurgel, Ludger Gawlitta, Heiner Wilkens, Finn Klein, Philipp Blinn, Jacek Wysocki, Daniel Frahn and Philipp Kasüske also prevailed in the Silver Ribbon on the course from Kiel around Langeland and back.

"Exciting": Kuphal crew wins the offshore title

With two victories on the middle distances, "eXciter" won the "Offshore" title with aplomb ahead of Jon Sverre Hoiden's Norwegian Sinergia 40 "Sons of Hurricanes" and Julian Schaarschmidt's XP-44 "Surprise". Jens Kuphal commented happily on the success and said: "Our trump card was a mainsail with a reef, which we also included because the fresh to strong wind did not die down at night."

According to the newly crowned German Offshore Champion in ORC A&B, the regatta yacht was easier to control without losing speed. Jens Kuphal's view of the race in the Silver Ribbon: "More than 20 gybes in the dark were not without their problems. And we still need to fine-tune that for the World Championship." After more than 16 hours on the water, the calculated lead over the "Sons of Hurricanes" was a whopping 76 minutes and 26 seconds.

Kieler Woche: Patented team with new setup

On Jürgen Klinghardt's "patent 4", who himself was absent due to injury, the joy was just as great. With helmsman Oliver Voss, the seven-strong crew of the Italia 9.98 took the title in ORC C&D. "A great performance with a new setup," praised the owner, "we converted from an 82 square metre spinnaker to a 120 square metre gennaker. That makes the boat much more agile."

In addition to skipper Oliver Voss, the German offshore champions are Arne Krogmann, Dan Bauermeister, Sören Hesse, Ulf Böttger, Nadja Schmidt and Vanessa Wagner. The team wants to improve its boat speed in eight to twelve knots of wind for the World Championships. Offshore" silver in the group of smaller boats went to Torsten Bastiansen's X-35 and "Inshore" champion "Sydbank". Bronze went to Eike Claas Carmincke's Mat 1010 "Matchbox".

Bernd Dreier from the DHH Regatta Group and Jan Assmann from Flensburger Segel-Club secured the "Doublehand" title for the sea sailors. With the X-332 "Xalty", they were ahead in both the Senate Prize and the Silver Ribbon. Two-handed silver was won by Bernd Lenz and Tim Katscher from Segler-Vereinigung Kiel ahead of Manfred and Mattis Franken on the JPK 10.10 "Freizheit".

National sailors without further medals

The national sailing team, meanwhile, will be left with three medals in eight Olympic disciplines at the 131st Kiel Week. Windsurfer Fabian Wolf (Kiel) won gold and the skiff sailors Sophie Steinlein/Catherine Bartelheimer (Norddeutscher Regatta Verein) and Jakob Meggendorfer/Andreas Spranger (Byerischer Yacht-Club) came second in the first half of Kiel Week.

In the two remaining Olympic sailing classes 470 Mixed and Nacra 17, the European frontrunners and their chasers will be battling it out for the podium on Sunday in the absence of the top German crews. In the 470 Mixed, Great Britain's Martin Wrigley/Bettine Harris start the double scored medal race on Sunday at 11am with a ten-point lead over the Spanish world champions Jordi Xammar/Marta Cardona (25 points) after eight races.

Here, Theresa Löffler and Christopher Hoerr, in seventh place with 45 points on their Kiel Week account, no longer have any medal prospects. The German 470 Mixed World Championship runners-up Simon Diesch and Anna Markfort had to cancel their home match after their competition was postponed to the second half of Kiel Week due to other commitments.

Kiel Week hope: a victory for Grandma

Malte Winkel and Paula Schütze (61 points) also reached the 470 mixed medal race in tenth place after the main round. After a disqualification at the start of the regatta, they recovered and finished third at the end of the day. "It was really tricky and we didn't manage everything," said Malte Winkel.

I'm so glad that my grandma will be able to watch me live on TV on my home turf in the final on KielerWoche.TV. She's my biggest fan. And we want to win this!" Malte Winkel

In the Olympic Nacra 17 catamaran, French leaders Tim Mourniac/Aloise Retournaz will be battling it out for Kiel Week gold with Great Britain's John Gimson and Anna Burnet, who are just three points behind, from 11.40 am on Sunday. The Brits dramatically missed out on their hoped-for Olympic medal in Marseille in 2024 due to a very close early start disqualification in the final and then got married. Now they want to give it another go as a married couple on the LA28 course.

Once again, ideal sailing conditions with moderate to fresh winds meant that all boat classes got their money's worth on Saturday. Moritz Borowiak and Noel Jonas Theiner (Schwerin) in the 420 remained on course for victory. Poland's Filip Nosol and Filip Marjański are the new runners-up, just ahead of Jacob Cross and Finn Weigt from the Rheingau. In the Contender, Christoph Homeier from Bremen extended his overall lead ahead of Jesper Armbrust (Denmark) and Mark Bulka (Australia).

Of white waistcoats and four victories in four races

Michael Grau and his crew from the Norddeutscher Regatta Verein have impressed with four wins in a row in the J/70, but despite their three victories on Saturday, they are a whopping 26 points behind the leading Dane Sten Mohr and his team after an early start disqualification in race three and a slip-up in race five. Kai-Uwe Hollweg and his crew from Bremen are level on points with Grau in third place.

In the J/24, the Kieler Woche victory should be hard to take away from Stefan Karsunke and his Hamburg team after three more victories on the day. The lead in the OK dinghy was defended by the Swede Niklas Edler with a four-point lead over André Budzien from the Schwerin Yacht Club and Baabii'O Flower from Canada.

Man of the day in Ilca 4 was the Maltese Timmy Vassallo, who extended his lead with four out of a possible four wins on the day ahead of the Swede Viktor Elfving and Mats Silva Østvold from Norway. Vassallo's counterpart in the Ilca 6 in the open class is Levian Büscher. With his victory in the ninth race of the day, the man from Düsseldorf pushed Hungary's Benedek Héder into second place and starts the final day in the lead.

Fjord crime scene: FD thriller ahead?

A thriller is on the programme for the FD sailors on Sunday: Hungarians Scabolcs Majthenyi/András Domokos will start the last two races with a tiny buffer of 0.6 points on their pursuers Kilian König and Kai Schäfers. The "scene of the crime" for the duel between the Hungarians and the crew from the Hanover Yacht Club will be the fjord. In the 2.4mR, on the other hand, the exceptional Ammersbek sailor Heiko Kröger is almost unstoppable. The Paralympics winner from Sydney 2000 still masters his boat "V 8" like no other a quarter of a century later. All Kiel Week results can be found here.