Travemünde Week: Many titles and a record at the end
YACHT
· 29.07.2024
The past nine regatta days in the Bay of Lübeck offered a colourful mix of conditions on the eight courses off the Brodten shore and along the Mecklenburg coast. There was everything from strong winds to balmy summer breezes. This meant that the all-rounders in particular prevailed in the 21 competitions. Although two days were characterised by very light winds, the evening breezes meant that a regatta programme could be offered to the athletes on the water every day. This made it possible to sail 240 races of the 278 originally planned - a top figure for a regatta week.
There were participants from all over Europe, North, Central and South America as well as Asia and Australia. The podiums of the championships were particularly colourful. Athletes from Great Britain, the Netherlands, Sweden, Ukraine and Germany were among the winners
IC-Canoe-WM
The Bay of Lübeck seemed to have rolled out the red carpet for Glen Truswell over the past few days. Regardless of the conditions, the Brit was the undisputed star among the IC Canoe sailors. He crossed the finish line as the winner in seven of the nine races, winning the world championship with aplomb, even though the US American Michael Costello was always close on his tail.
"I was in Travemünde over ten years ago and was delighted to be back," said Truswell. The Brit's boat is called "Sleeping Tiger", but the Tiger has definitely not slept during the races. "My boat was built in the UK and is one of the most sophisticated. The freedom of design is what makes the International Canoe so special." But technical sophistication doesn't have to be the only route to success, as Truswell went on to say: "My direct rival Mike Castello has a very simple boat and is still almost as fast as me. That shows that it doesn't necessarily have to be complicated. But it feels great to win in a boat that you've built yourself."
Behind Truswell and Costello, Mike Fenwick completed the World Championship podium in the sailing canoe class.
Canoe Taifun IDM
While experienced canoe sailors took the podium in the IC Canoe class, it was a young player in the Canoe Taifun class who came out on top against the competition from the German Open. Felix Mosebach from Neuruppin only ventured into the Taifun last year after his youthful days in the Cadet and competing in the German Sailing League. He immediately finished third at the German Open. Now he has even won the gold medal in the unofficial German Championship. "I got a new boat and new sails. That went very well. The conditions suited me with few waves and an offshore wind. But I also did quite well on the one day with a stronger breeze," he said, pleased that he "closed the bag" on Friday in shifting winds.
With his consistent series, he beat Johannes Meyer from Bremen and Claudius Junge from Preetz.
Starboat IDM
Even fresher in his class and already champion is Nick Heuwinkel. The man from Kiel has only been in the Star boat with Jesper Spehr (Malente) for a few weeks and originally comes from the Ilca 7. With the series 1, 2, 4, 3, 3, Heuwinkel/Spehr had the highest prominence in the stern water. Former European champion Hubert Merkelbach from Lake Constance followed in second place with Kilian Weise on the foresheet. Third place went to world champion Max Kohlhoff (Kiel), who first had to sail in with his brother Johann Kohlhoff after foresailor Ole Burzinski had to pull out due to injury.
"Of course, that's great for further motivation. We are completely surprised, we just wanted to see what would come out," said Heuwinkel. The result was gold at the DM, which now gives them confidence for the tasks ahead. "The goal is the World Championships next year. We want to be well up the field in the U30 classification." Heuwinkel saw the experience from the Ilca as the reason for the strong performance: "Tactically, you can transfer a lot. And on the downwind course, the Ilca and Starboot are surprisingly similar."
Opti IDJM
There was a mixed picture on the podium at the International German Youth Optimist Championships. Two girls and one boy from three nations were represented. As there was no more sailing on Saturday, the result from the preliminary round remained valid for the overall standings: Sweden's Cornelia Baldoch Frost celebrated winning the title ahead of Olha Lubianska and Paul Fiete Hickstein (Dümmer), who gained a lot of self-confidence for the World Championships in Argentina at the end of the year with third place at the IDJM.
Conger, keel draft bird, O-dinghy
At the award ceremonies of the ranking list regattas in the national classes, the top teams in the German ranking list also made their mark off Travemünde: Sven Naumann/Jördis Weichsel (Hamburg) won the Conger class, Manfred Brändle/Stefanie Gouverneur (Duisburg) showed the greatest consistency in the Kielzugvögel and took the TW victory, and Harry Voss from Steinhuder Meer is number one in the Olympic dinghy when sailing off Travemünde.
Flying Junior World Championship
The Flying Junior class remains firmly in the hands of the Dutch. Hylke Sasse took gold at the last two championships at European and global level. And the 30-year-old was once again at the top of his game - even though he had a new force on the foresheet in the form of 17-year-old Doete Vogelaar.
The new world champions were delighted: "The World Championships were our first regatta together. We had only trained together four times before and travelled here without any expectations. We could have imagined anything up to fifth place. We absolutely didn't expect to win. It was super close and exciting right to the end," said Sasse. The next regatta for the newly crowned world champion team is in September, the Dutch Championship, before which the world championship title will be celebrated tonight in Travemünde.
With Matthias Riffeler/Justus Rüthing (Ville/Lippstadt), a German team was able to break the Dutch dominance, finishing in silver ahead of the pair of sisters from Brassemermeer, Esther and Miriam de Jong.
Javelin Euro Cup
Christian Wirts/Thorsten Fischer from Steinhuder Meer celebrated a successful defence of their European title with the Javelins. Just like last year, they won the Euro Cup title again. "It was a strong field with very close races. The first three all had a good chance of winning the title," said Wirts and saw the key to success in the consistent series: "On the first day we needed a bit of a run-up, made a few mistakes and also capsized once. But overall we had fewer runaways." The different conditions during the championship days made for a great regatta, "even if it was a bit too windy for some of us at times". Overall, however, the Javelin class was delighted with the Travemünde Week and the organisation on land and on the water, said Wirts.
Behind the gold winners Wirts/Fischer, the uncle-nephew team Jens and Robin Schlittehard (also from Steinhuder Meer) came second ahead of the Brits Eddy and Neil Reid.
Formula 18
Three years ago, brothers Helge and Christian Sach from Zarnekau claimed their 21st victory at their home regatta. Now they have added triumph number 22, a record win at the Travemünde Week. On the last day of the Formula 18 regatta, however, they had to grit their teeth and ultimately saved themselves a start in the last race. The victory was no longer in jeopardy at this point and caused great joy among the former world champions. "We are very happy and very proud of our sailing performance. It was a clear victory, but we had to struggle on the last day," reported Helge Sach. The reason: foreskipper Christian had injured his upper arm in a tack the day before.
Teeny IDJM
The teens completed nine races at their IDJM as part of the 135th Travemünde Week. The defending champions Lotte-Marie Kirchesch and Mina Tratar (Berlin) took the lead in the second race and were not to be denied their leading position.
The two 14-year-olds won by a clear margin and were delighted to stand at the top of the podium once again - just as they had in 2023 at the IDJM in Berlin. In the very last race of the championship, there was still a change in second and third place. It remained exciting right to the end. In the end, Moritz Klein and Leo Wisnitzka took second place ahead of Lukas Balzereit and Tim Bauknecht in bronze. This made the Teeny IDJM an all-Berlin podium.
"The championship didn't start so well for us on the first day with eighth place because there was little wind, for which we are now too heavy. That's why we were glad that no races were sailed on Saturday in the light wind. Today the conditions were good with a lot of wind in places. As we didn't have a high stringer, not much could happen. And our friends did a great job of cheering us on," said the two winners, looking back on the IDJM. As happy as the two teenagers from Berlin were that they were able to defend their title, there was still some sadness, as it was their last IDJM in the teen class. "I could sail another year in Teeny, but Lotte will be 15 next season and therefore too old for the class. And I won't sail without Lotte," said Mina Tratar, hugging her sailing partner Lotte-Marie Kirchesch. The pair are already sailing together for the sixth season and there is no end in sight. "We'll be sailing Pirate from next year, but we'll definitely miss the Teeny class," they revealed. The family atmosphere in the class is simply great.
It is precisely the teeny family feeling that characterises the class, said sports director Detlef Hillers. "What characterises the class is the fact that we promote talented sailors on the one hand, but also keep an eye on the midfield. That's why, for example, we award the special prize 'The Hero of the Midfield', a challenge cup. There is also an additional prize for the youngest participant. The teenagers are one big family," he explained. Oskar Kühne was honoured as the youngest active participant. "The hero of the midfield" is Claas Drews, who competed with his co-skipper Malte Aeukens.
Not only the winners, but also the representatives of the Teeny class were satisfied with how the IDJM went. "This is the third time we've been in Travemünde with the teens, we're totally satisfied with the IDJM and have absolutely no complaints. The kids were in a great mood, and apart from the calm day, the weather conditions were good. We used the calm to take the kids on a guided tour of the 'Passat'," said Matthias Dachs, Technical Chairman of the Teeny class.
The prize money from the teens' Trave Race went into the class fund and was immediately spent on an evening out with everyone involved in the IDJM. The teens had 70 pizzas delivered to the Mövenstein Travemünde Week area for a meal with the class, from where the teens set off on their races during the championship.
