Kraya won the "Miniyacht" class at the Beach Sailing World Championships in Cherrueix, Brittany, France. The 42-year-old, who competes for the Sankt Peter-Ording Yacht Club, won all races on three days of the regatta and outclassed the 80-strong field of sailors from twelve nations. No German pilot had ever managed to win a world championship in beach sailing before.
Together with Horst Helm from Hamburg and Heiko Hartmann from Emden, Kraja also took the silver medal in the nations' ranking and was only beaten by the favoured mini-yacht team from France. The fastest three beach sailors from a country are categorised in the national ranking.
The sailmaker from Schleswig had equipped his team's mini yachts with sails from his own sailmaking company Frog Sails. The mini yachts are a new class of beach sailing and have been conquering beaches worldwide since 2008. The class was only approved by Fisly, the international beach sailing association, in October last year and is enjoying growing popularity.
The three tyres of the yachts must not exceed a circumference of 5.60 metres, the tyres are standardised and the mast must not have a profile. All other parameters, such as sail size and material, are up to the pilots.
Kraja also competed in Class 5, the constructors' class, in which he has been among the top ten of the world elite for years. Continuous rain had turned the course into a track of mud, sludge and mussel shells, unusual for German pilots who are used to the hard sandbanks off the North Sea islands or St. Peter-Ording.
Kraja had to bow to the superiority of the local heroes from France, but finished in 6th place as the best non-French pilot. However, together with Georg Steemann from Borkum and Christian Nostheide from North Rhine-Westphalia, he once again made it onto the podium and added bronze to his medal tally in the Class 5 team classification.
Beach sailing is the fastest sport in sailing. In Class 3, the so-called Formula 1 of beach sailing, the boats reach speeds of up to 130 kilometres per hour.
