Sailing World Cup: Out of loyalty: Kiel says "no" to the World Cup final

What a shame for international sailing and its fans in Germany: the World Cup final of the Olympic disciplines, which the World Sailing Federation and the Kieler Woche organisers have set their sights on, cannot take place in Kiel in 2018. The staging of this sporting delicacy with a star-studded line-up will not fail due to the organisational possibilities of the Kiel organisers or the sailing area, but due to clashes between the major partners and sponsors of the World Sailing Federation on the one hand and Kiel Week on the other. For example, World Sailing is supported by Volvo, while Audi is traditionally in the same boat as the Kiel organisers. There are also conflicting interests in the watch sector (Rolex vs. Tutima) and in other areas.

"After many good discussions, we have come to the point that we can't solve it," Kieler Woche organisation manager Dirk Ramhorst told YACHT online. Several scenarios were evaluated by those involved. Including the possibility of bringing the World Cup final forward before Kiel Week (and thus possibly out of its usual sponsoring environment) because the Worlds will take place in Aarhus, Denmark, afterwards. "The Schilksee Olympic Centre has been branded and shaped by Audi for eight years. This is a point at which we simply didn't come together," explains Ramhorst, whose team highly values its loyalty to its business partners.

"The sporting cooperation with World Sailing fits, the date is right, but we have too many competing partners from the industry," says Sven Christensen. The Managing Director of the Kieler Woche marketing agency Point of Sailing explains: "We want to guarantee exclusivity to the partners of Kieler Woche and therefore unfortunately do not see a sufficient opportunity to enable the partners of the World Sailing Federation to appear in the context of Kieler Woche without jeopardising long-standing partnerships." However, the development did not lead to a dispute with World Sailing. Ramhorst says: "The good contact with World Sailing continues and we are endeavouring together to implement joint concepts in the future, but not in 2018. We have returned the event for 2018. The final will now be re-tendered. We worked passionately to bring the World Cup to Kiel. That's why I'm sad after the decision."

The people of Kiel now want to focus more on attracting other major sailing events such as the World and European Championships to the fjord. "Of course, we can only conjure these out of a hat to a limited extent for 2018, as world and European championships in Olympic disciplines are organised two to three years in advance. But we are hoping to attract many top sailors to Kiel Week in 2018, which takes place in the immediate vicinity of the Worlds in Aarhus and in a very similar area."

The World Sailing Federation is now looking for a new organiser for the 2018 World Cup final. The finals are scheduled for 2018 and 2019, with the 2018 World Cup leading via stops in Japan (October 2017), Miami (USA) and Hyères (France) to the final, the organiser of which is now being determined. Kiel Week will take place from 16 to 24 June 2018.