Vice world champion Philipp Buhl was not entirely satisfied with his performance on the third day of the Trofeo Princesa Sofía off Mallorca. With 41st place in the sixth race, the man from Sonthofen has once again put a heavy strain on his account after the early start in the third race and will have to start the remaining four races on Thursday from 20th place until the medal final on 1 April. "I'm very annoyed about this second race today," said the German Sailing Team's active spokesman, "I just wasn't consistent with my decisions. On the other hand, I'm happy about the very successful fifth race with second place. And about the fact that we have developed a very good speed as a training group with Theo and Nik. I've known that ever since we sailed together in the qualification group. Really outstanding!"
Buhl's fellow competitors in the training group led by coach Alexander Schlonski have made further visible progress since last year and are already reminiscent of the glory days of the Grotelüschen/Buhl/Kamrath trio. They are so fast that the 20-year-old Nik Willim from the Norddeutscher Regatta Verein (North German Regatta Club) has already achieved a one-day victory and a third place before Mallorca. Theo Bauer has shone so far with two third and one fifth place in a field that is still largely without overseas teams, but nevertheless well-staffed internationally. The helmsman from Röbeler Segler-Verein, who celebrated his 22nd birthday last week, was extremely annoyed that he was sailing confidently in the top trio in race five on Wednesday, about a minute before the windward mark, when he missed the outhaul at a tack and "jumped" out of the boat instead of into the harness. "He was so strong," Buhl sympathised, "Theo is sailing extremely well at the moment."
Although the German trio are "only" in 18th (Willim), 20th (Buhl) and 26th (Bauer) place after six races, this does not cloud their judgement on the European season opener. "There are still a few points to be won and lost in the coming days. I remain optimistic for our group," says Buhl.
German 49erFX crew Jurczok/Lorenz set the standard off Mallorca
Olympic athletes Vicky Jurczok and Anika Lorenz continue to set the standard off Palma de Mallorca: the crew from the Seglerhaus am Wannsee club have won five (!) of the nine races so far and lead the 49erFX fleet with a commanding lead. In the 49er, Tim Fischer (Norddeutscher Regatta Verein) and Fabian Graf (Verein Seglerhaus am Wannsee) remain at the front of the pack in the absence of the Rio bronze medallists Erik Heil/Thomas Plößel and the European champions Justus Schmidt/Max Boehme - both teams will not start the post-Olympic season until later. In fifth place overall after nine races, they too have already secured a win on the day and have so far kept several Olympic participants at bay. In the Nacra 17, the newly formed crew of Jan Hauke Erichsen/Ann-Kristin Wedemeyer (Flensburger Segel-Club) completed their first regatta together. In tenth place after nine races, they are the best German crew in the catamaran class and are climbing up the results list place by place. Jan Hauke Erichsen said: "The first day here was our first day of racing together. We realised that. But we've been able to put a lot of what we've learnt into practice since then." The mixed duo are testing for a possible joint Nacra 17 campaign with a view to the 2020 Olympic Games. In the 470, Simon Diesch (Württembergischer Yacht-Club) and Philipp Autenrieth (Bayerischer Yacht-Club) defended their strong sixth place after six races. The regatta to kick off the European Olympic sailing season ends on 1 April.
Here to see the results.
Tatjana Pokorny
Sports reporter
