The third day of the European Championship was a perfect one for the German 49erFX sailors: Tina Lutz and Susann Beucke catapulted themselves into third place with two commanding wins on the day and a second place and are among the co-favourites in the battle for the medals with the start of the main round on Wednesday, as are the Olympic bronze medallists Vicky Jurczok and Anika Lorenz. The crew from the Seglerhaus am Wannsee club moved up to sixth place with 3rd, 3rd and 4th place.
The two best German FX teams have thus created a good basis for their start in the gold fleet. Tina Lutz said: "It was the same race three times today in light but constant winds. In the past we would have been out of it. But this way it's mega fun." The former strong wind experts have clearly mastered light wind sailing brilliantly.
The Kiel 49er sailors Justus Schmidt and Max Boehme, on the other hand, had a bad day. The 2015 European champions had started the final day of qualifying as a top ten crew, but only found themselves in 21st place in the evening. As a result, they were in danger of missing the cut to the gold fleet of the top 20 teams, including all medal hopes. However, there was a protest later in the evening, which Schmidt/Boehme hoped would give them a last-minute jump into the gold fleet(YACHT online will update the article after the protest decision). The crew from the Kieler Yacht-Club had to cope with two 26th places on Tuesday. In the first of these two unsuccessful races they were thwarted by a crash, in the second they touched a turning mark and were no longer able to reach the field after the necessary penalty circle in a light five knots of wind. "We sailed badly there too," admitted Boehme. Tim Fischer (NRV) and Fabian Graf (VSaW) improved significantly with their first win of the day, moving into the main round in 13th place. The Bavarians Jakob Meggendorfer and Andreas Spranger also qualified for the gold fleet in 14th place.
Unequal conditions in the new Nacra17
Paul Kohlhoff and Alicia Stuhlemmer dropped back to eighth place at the European Championship premiere of the fully foiling Olympic Nacra17 catamarans, but are still in the top ten at their first regatta together after the spontaneous crew formation almost a fortnight ago. In contrast to Jan Hauke Erichsen and Ann Kristin Wedemeyer from Flensburg, the Kiel team are sailing a new Nacra17, as are 19 other competing teams. Erichsen/Wedemeyer, on the other hand, like four other international crews at this European Championship, had to convert an old Nacra17 into a full-foiler with the conversion kit because they won't get their new Nacra17 until the end of the year.
Erichsen/Wedemeyer are now realising every day on the European Championship course just how big the technical differences are between the new and the converted boats. "On the cross today, we were ten degrees lower and one knot slower than the new boats. That's a bit frustrating. We can only try to make the best of it." Following the modification of the new Olympic boats, which celebrated their Olympic premiere off Rio de Janeiro in 2016 - still with C-foils - and are now taking off on L-foils, the unequal ratio will ensure that performances are not quite comparable until the new full-foilers are delivered to all teams with Olympic ambitions.
Tatjana Pokorny
Sports reporter
