Travemünde Week: Teenager cheers, Schönfeldt wins, the final is underway

Frank Schönfeldt has just celebrated his 70th birthday. Now he has given himself a belated present at the Travemünde Week by winning the Variantas title with Gerd Becker. There was never any doubt about the success of Schönfeldt/Becker (Mühlenberger Segel-Club/Segelclub Prinzensteg) during the series of nine races. The duo took the only second place and catapulted themselves to the highest podium position with eight victories.

Travemünde Week winners: champions of many classes

With his DM and European Championship titles, Frank Schönfeldt has been one of the most successful title holders in German sailing for more than half a century, and is also a master of boat classes such as Pirat, Conger, J/24, H-Boat - and the Varianta, as he successfully demonstrated with Gerd Becker at the Travemünde Week. Olaf Bertallot and Jörg Klein (Hanover) and Arnd Ritter/Thomas Overkämping from Möhnesee followed on the podium in the cabin centreboard class, which is also affectionately known as the "VW Bulli of sailors".

In other classes, the 136th edition of the Travemünde Week came to a gentle close on Saturday. For some it was "tricky", for others not at all. For seven classes, the final day in light winds was a shortened pleasure. Due to the lack of breeze on the Mecklenburg coast, the three Topcat fields finished the international championships without any further races. With the twins Sascha and René Teichel in K1, Robert Zank and Tim Stiegler in K2 and Paul Säger in K3, they crowned two two-handed crews and a soloist from Wolfsburg, Ammersee and Frankfurt as their best.

German champions Jens Olbrysch and Norbert Schmidt (Herrsching) confirmed their title from last year in the Dyas class. The Travemünde Week was not only a sporting success for the old and new German champions in the trim-intensive boat class.

Travemünde Week: best friends on the podium

IDM winner Jens Olbrysch, who was delighted with more than just a class trophy with his skipper Nordert Schmidt, said: "It's a family atmosphere here. That's why we always like to come. It's great to camp here. We had good weather. And the fact that we didn't have the mega wind here was also okay. We had fun." IDM silver went to the North German champions Arndt Fingerhut/Andreas Malcher (Edersee) ahead of the Mosel sailor Michael Weber with Ralf Stuhlemmer from Kiel on the foresheet.

The 13-year-old Mila Weniger finished the Open Skiff series with extreme confidence. The teenager from Segelclub Talsperre Zeulenroda sailed to the top spot on the podium with ten wins in ten races. Neither her strong rival from Thuringia and club mate Amy Konrad nor helmsman Florian Schlupp from the Lausitzer Seenland water sports club were able to beat her even once during this Travemünde week.

Mila Weniger also repeated her title win from the previous year - this year so convincingly that one of the race wins was included in the classification as a streak. "I'm mega happy. I didn't expect it to be like this," beamed the winner after her success. She was also delighted with her rivals, saying: "The three of us are all best friends, we're together every weekend and train a lot together."

After the Travemünde Week to the European Championships in Barcelona

The trio wants to continue to enjoy this young but already strong community. "I definitely want to sail an open skiff next year. After that, I want to try out what's the most fun. That's what it's all about," explained Mila Weniger, who still has her sights set on the European Championships in Barcelona in October this year - also Amy Konrad's goal.

The regatta organisation teams scored lots of extra points on Saturday after the shortened light wind programme. They took large entourages in tow. To make it easier for the athletes to get home, they had cast out their tow lines and pulled the fleets home. This service went down well - even with the European champions of the Topcat K1 class.

Sascha Treichel, who won the European Championships and the parallel World Cup with his twin brother Rene, said: "Everything was really well organised here - even the return transport from the course. Apart from the last day, the wind was really good. And as sailors, we know how to weather the rain in between."

Treichel twins with downwind skills to victory

The team from Wolfsburg utilised their home advantage over the competition from the Alpine regattas. "The north is closer to us than the south," says Sascha Treichel, "so we are often on the Baltic Sea and know the Bay of Lübeck from the regattas in Scharbeutz." However, the fast twins gained the decisive advantage over their chasers thanks to their better performance on the downwind sections.

Further winners' trophies were already awarded on Saturday for the winners of the ranking list regattas in the 470, the O dinghy and the keel draft bird. In the only race of the day, France's Bernard Boime/Gilles Espinasse confidently defended their lead in the 470. Behind them, however, there was a change of positions: Kristof Doffing/Jan Kaminski (Langen) from Hesse ensured a German medal in the international field. With second place in the final race, they also moved up to silver overall ahead of Switzerland's Frederik Huck and Gabriele Konrad.

In the O dinghies, things did not go at all smoothly for the leader. However, Dutchman Thies Bosch was able to cancel the early start disqualification he received in Saturday's race. He thus defended first place ahead of the two Lübeck sailors Ingo Hüter and Arne Assmann.

The Sach brothers fight for title number 23

The decision in the keel-pulling birds was razor-thin. Axel Fischer/Michael Schiermann (Gifhorn), who had led from the start, had used up their lead over Wolfgang Emrich/Klaus Ebbinghaus (Wörthsee) after the eighth race. With equal points, the majority of victories decided in favour of Fischer/Schiermann. Third place went to the mixed duo Manfred Brändle and Stefanie Gouverneur from Duisburg.

Even before the end of the Formula 18 series, Paul Kohlhoff (Kiel) and Tom Heinrich had finished their stint at the Travemünde Week. The Olympic Nacra 17 bronze medallist had started with Tom Heinrich from Pönitz and a borrowed cat. But things didn't go smoothly for the spontaneously assembled duo: "We put a lot of strain on the borrowed boat. After a broken sail on Thursday and a collision on Friday, we decided not to risk any more damage and to end the regatta early," reported Kohlhoff.

The exciting question remains as to whether the brothers Helge and Christian Sach can raise their record for the Travemünde Week to 23 victories with another success. In the only one-day race on Saturday, they landed another victory. The brothers from Lübecker Yacht-Club were tied on points with Jesse and Sven Lindstädt (Norddeutscher Regatta Verein/Lübecker Yacht-Club).

Seascape 18: German or Swedish winners?

In the Seascape 18 class, Germans and Swedes will battle it out for the medals at the German Open on the final day. After six races, the advantage was on the German side: Jan Wilkens/Tobias Rieger (Yachtclub Hohen Wieschendorf/Segelclub Schloßbucht Schwerin) were just ahead of Walter Wüllenweber/Martin Schmidt (Hamburger Segel-Club) with only nine points on the Travemünder-Woche account. The Swedes Anders Joensson/Henrik Aulin (Borstahusensegelsällskap), who are only three points behind, also want to attack them.

A maximum of three races will decide the Sunday final of the Seascape 18 class. The second medium-distance race of the sea course sailors rounds off the programme of the 136th Travemünde Week. All interim results and final results can be found here.

Fast-paced Travemünde Week fun in Formula 18 and Open Skiff: