Robbe & Berking Sterling Cup: Challenging fjord conditions for the classic summit

In the 30th anniversary year of the Robbe & Berking Sterling Cup, the classic dragons and 22er archipelago cruisers sailed for world championship honours. The first world championship held as part of the Sterling Cup was the 5.5 mR yacht championship in 2001, won by Jochen Schumann, who was aiming for the European Championship this year on the twelve-man "Jenetta". It all began in Flensburg in 1995 as a rendezvous for the classic sailing scene. Oliver Berking on the beginnings: "I simply invited everyone and by the third year there were already 200 boats. Then at some point we said they had to be built before 1970 and finally started inviting specific classes."

For over 20 years, the regatta has been a permanent fixture at the Flensburg Sailing Club in Glücksburg. On the doorstep lies the "most beautiful fjord in the beautiful Baltic Sea", as it says in the maritime classic in book form, The Riddle of the Sandbank. The Meierwik coastal forest with its wind-swept beech crowns is proof that the wind can blow here. Their shapely curvature was echoed by the participating yachts with their mouldings, sculpted cabin superstructures and spoon bows. And yet the rows of trees tell of the impact of strong air currents from the west, which the crews of the wooden treasures experienced more often than many would have liked this year.

Unhappy end for the Dragons

Right at the start on Thursday, it blew across the fjord with up to 25 knots from W-NW. As a result, both the six twelve-man crews and the 28 dragon crews from six nations decided not to set sail. Instead of a break on the first day, the dragon boats had three races the following day in slightly more moderate conditions and sunshine. After an early start on Saturday deep in the fjord with still weak SW winds, a front accompanied by squalls forced the race committee to abandon the race, which meant the end of the regatta day.

As they were the only class that only wanted to sail up to and including Saturday, the dragons only managed three races. This meant that they were one race short of being categorised as a world championship. Those who had travelled a long way to get to the event made long faces during the speedy craning, including two Japanese who had bought a boat in Germany and were sailing with Briton Martin Payne. At the top of the results list were Niklas Ganssauge and crew from the NRV, followed by Rob Dekeukeleire, Timo Claassen and Inky Lampe from the Netherlands. They were followed by the Danish dragon sailors Frank Berg and Markus Glas from the Bavarian Yacht Club.

22er archipelago shines with strong wind qualities

The situation was quite different for the 22er skerry cruiser who completed seven races and were the only ones to show up at the line for two coastal races at the start of the strong winds. Although the whip masts with violin stays have largely disappeared and aluminium masts have been installed on deck, the skerries with their glossy painted decks and fine shapes look like floating stringed instruments. Most of the gunwales are also free of mouldings. Hatches, stages, jibs or cleats provide support on the forecastles.

The cracks of the 22s vary immensely, even in their overall lengths and bow shapes. They are all maximally narrow and constricted. The differences can be seen in two adjacent designs by Knud Reimers: One hull appears flat-bottomed, the other high-sided. The design class makes very few specifications. The central one: the total sail area must not exceed 22 square metres. What almost all of them have in common is the proud cabin superstructure with the characteristic oval windows compared to the spindle-shaped hull, which is also favoured by the vast majority of GRP representatives.

Long keeler planing and foreshipman overboard

Of the 15 skerries, 13 sailed out of the harbour, or rather were pulled out of the harbour or moored themselves into the open wind via dolphins. The 22s do not have auxiliary drives here, but they do have paddles and some impressive sail wardrobes. Torkel Sintorn, one of eight Swedish starters, said before setting off on day one: "We want to sail and have put up a seven square metre smaller genoa." A few relied on barely overlapping headsails, which made for unusual sights.

And foreship-man-overboard manoeuvres had to be carried out. No wonder with the glossy painted decks. Thomas Ericsson was caught out after the finish when recovering the spar, which seven crews set in the first race. When asked whether it really had to be that slippery at the front, Ericsson replied: "That's also what makes the class so appealing." During the downwind leg, the Swede saw a value of 13.2 knots on the log. Andreas Haubold from VSaW was among the long keelers displacing around two tonnes that briefly left their own wave system. The Berliner steered "Ramona II" to the World Championship title with a comfortable points cushion, leaving a phalanx of seven Swedish skerries behind him.

Five boats found their way north from the capital, where they met spectators who had travelled a long way. Two Swedish sailors travelled 750 kilometres by car just to see their father's former archipelago cruiser, "Pilgrim", in action. Georg Milz came from Fehmarn and, like most of the German archipelago sailors, passed the coastal race number two on Thursday. Peter Müller was the only sailor from the south of Germany to start on Friday with "Lill Tutti".

Permanent subscription for the twelve at the Sterling Cup

The twelve came to the Sterling Cup well prepared. One week before the European Championships, seven of them met in Dyvig for a tune-up. "Jenetta" confidently won the warm-up exercise on the neighbouring fjord. After seven races, they were followed by "Nini Anker" and Alexander Falk's "Flica II", which had entered the Robbe & Berking Sterling Cup in seventh place but was unable to take part in the European Championship and the race from Sønderborg to Glücksburg. It's a good thing that the long haul already appeared as the first source of points in the results list. Like the Dragons, the twelve-man owners also decided against starting on Thursday.

On the beautiful fjord, the grandees, united by the racing value 12, were able to prove themselves in three course races over two days. On Sunday, mild winds favoured the upmarket sailing culture: the twelve-oared boats cut majestically through the flat sea with streamlined, flat bodies on the teak decks. With gusts of over 20 knots, Friday challenged the crews, who lay or sat on the cross on the sea fence-free edges in a jockey position. Fiercely contested starts and dense fields on the windward barrel were evidence of the high sailing standards within the premier class.

Close race for the 12mR European Championship

The latest addition to the fleet had its stainless steel stern cap at the front most often "Nini Anker"who won the European Championship title with an almost clean series of 2-1-1-1-1-2-2. Close behind was "Jenetta"on which Jochen Schümann acted as tactician. Third place went to the twelve-man "Vim" built for Harold Vanderbilt. It was the first with an aluminium mast, which continues to perform just as well as the original two-gear coffin grinders. "Heti" was the only first-rule twelve-man to compete in the vintage division. The gaff-rigged Max Oertz design excelled as she battled the squalls from the south-west and fought her way back into the harbour after breaking off on Saturday.

The twelve-piece team is a fixture at the Robbe & Berking Sterling Cup and is sure to make an appearance every year. "This is the third European Championship. Exactly ten years ago today, we also organised a European Championship for the Twelve. There were 15 boats then, never before in the history of the class. And they have been around since 1906," explains Oliver Berking in Glücksburg. Among the seven 12mR yachts, "Sphinx" was a very special representative. The Flensburg silversmith acquired her in 2005 as part of a trio of owners from the German Navy, where she served as the "Ostwind" for officer training.

Flensburg as the epicentre of Scene of twelve

When Berking restored "Sphinx" to its former glory at an initial pop-up construction site, he laid the foundations for both the current shipyard and the Baltic Fleet, which is over a dozen strong. He turned Robbe & Berking Classics into one of the first addresses for wooden twelve-piece watches, opened a Museum for international sailing and became the guardian of the grail of the largest metre class. His boatbuilders create stylish reconstructions based on original cracks such as "Nini Anker" or complete restorations such as "Jenetta". The S&S yawl "Baruna 1938" and the 41-metre-long Fife slup "Cambria", which was overhauled in Flensburg until 2024, already relied on their expertise. There is also something going on with the twelve-metre yachts: Robbe & Berking Classics is rebuilding the Nicholson design "Evaine" for a US owner by autumn 2026.