The "Glücksburg" (Baltic 63), flagship of the Hanseatic Yacht School, with Uwe Roch at the helm, won the competition for the "Blue Riband" for the fastest ship based on the Flensburg Fjord.
The "Glücksburg" was back at the start this year for the first time since 1998 and won the "Blue Riband" for the ninth time. The slightly favoured "Babs" (Swan 54F) of John Welding (FSC), which crossed the finish line around seven minutes later, was defeated in the competition for the coveted trophy. The "Blue and Yellow Ribbon" for the fastest foreign boat was won for the second time by the Hamburg "Chrila" (Swan 56) of Claus Bressler (WVG). She was the only yacht to finish the race in under five hours.
The overall winner of the Flensburg Fjord Week was the Kiel yacht "Extasy" (IMX-40, Thomas Brügge, KYC). She won the "Rubin Prize" for the most successful foreign ship according to calculated time. The 92nd Flensburg Fjord Week came to an end on Saturday with the Flensburg Pilsner Cup. The "Transit Express" won the IMS category and the almost 40-year-old "Nautila" of Dr Wolfgang Gresch (FSC) won the Dansk Handicap category in ideal conditions. For this exceptional performance, she received the Mayor Haase Memorial Prize for the fastest boat in the Dansk Handicap category.
Even though the wind didn't always play along, the fjord showed its best side throughout the week. On the first weekend, the 160 registered yachts of all classes sailed the first races for the Sonwik Cup (winner: "Extasy") and the Hanseboot Cup (winner: "Sim", Martin Menzner, KYC) on the Flensburg inner fjord on various short courses. While conditions were almost perfect on Saturday, Sunday suffered from a lack of wind and "chance sailing", so that only one race could be sailed. The catamarans also took part in this second weekend of the Fjord Week. For the first time, they tested the Glücksburg Kurstrand as a berth for the expansive multihulls and thus gained their first valuable experience with a view to the International German Championships of the Olympic classes, which will be held next year with more than 500 boats on the Flensburg inner fjord. The Tornados will then use Glücksburg Strand as a berth.
On Thursday 12 September, the Knierim Cup took place on the long distance in the Little Belt. The impressive Swan yachts, which have been sailing their "Baltic Sea Challenge" during the fjord week for many years, were also there. Unfortunately, the winds were flat on this day too and the race had to be timed on the outer fjord off Neukirchen. Nevertheless, many participants did not reach the finish line in time. The overall winner of the IMS classification on the shortened course was the Flensburg "Babs". During the Komtel Cup (15 nm) on Friday, the wind was still blowing steadily from the north at the start with wind forces of around 3 Beaufort. However, these dropped in the course of the late afternoon, which particularly affected the smaller yachts. Thomas Brügge's "Extasy" (KYC) came first, ahead of Jens Kellinghusen's "Varuna" (IMX-45, NRV/KYC) and the "Babs" from Flensburg.
However, everyone was rewarded on the last day of racing. After the morning cloud cover had cleared, it became very sunny again and a strong, steady wind blew from a northerly direction. The biggest handicap on this day had to be overcome before the start, as the wind had led to rare low water in Glücksburg harbour. Some of the large yachts were only able to leave the harbour with outside help. But once they had made it out, they all sailed a fast race in the best conditions. The big yachts sailed 42 nautical miles out into the outer fjord and the smaller yachts sailed a course to Langballigau. The Folke boats were the first to return around midday and crossed the finish line on the beam reach. First place went to Karl-Heinz Eichholz (FSC) with his "Tranquiliser". In the early afternoon, the first yachts in the IMS and Dansk Handicap classification groups crossed the finish line under spinnaker or gennaker. Now it was time to do the maths and for the race committee to get down to the main task of the evening, the distribution of prizes. More than 100 daily prizes, 25 challenge prizes and 3 vouchers were presented to the successful winners. The "Dreamteam", consisting of "Extasy" (KYC), "Dantronik X press" (FYC) and "Hanseatic Lloyd" (KYC), received this year's Cup-90 (team classification) sponsored by Volvo Car Germany. The Nautor Swan Baltic Sea Challenge was won by the "Babs" (FSC). However, this prize will not be presented until the hanseboot in Hamburg.
Lars Bolle
Chief Editor Digital
