Who would have thought that the 2016 Bundesliga final in Hamburg could turn into such a sailing thriller? The signs did not speak in favour of it. After an impressive season, the German Touring Yacht Club had travelled to Hamburg for the final with three regatta victories, a second and a sixth place and a twelve-point lead over their rivals from the Seglerhaus am Wannsee club. Hardly anyone would have thought it possible that the Berlin team could put the leaders under pressure again with such a deficit. But that is exactly what they did.
Skipper Malte Kamrath, Tim Elsner, Jens Steinborn and Julian Bergemann got off to a flying start for VSaW, starting the three-day series with two race wins and putting up such a strong fight against the favourites from Tutzing with consistently good performances that they even sailed on a championship course at times. The Berliners not only benefited from their own gala performance, but also from the weakest performance of the German Touring Yacht Club this season.
But the Bavarians got their fluttering nerves under control just in time. Tenth place in Hamburg was enough in the points poker for the second club championship in a row for one of the youngest league teams around helmsman Julian Stückl, who was only 23 years old and represented a total team of 17 members under the leadership of coach Norbert Wagner and manager Michael Tarabochia. The German Touring Yacht Club with skipper Stückl, Patrick Follmann, Jonas Vogt and Luis Tarabochi beat VSaW by two points in the overall season standings and took the silver championship trophy back home to Tutzing.
Here is the replay of the last day of the battle for the German club championship
The showdown between the Bavarians and Berliners only came in the 45th of a total of 49 races for the 72 sailors in 18 teams. In their last regular race before the two final races, the German Touring Yacht Club and the Seglerhaus am Wannsee club met once again directly. On several occasions, the Berliners fought their way into a position against the Bavarians that would have brought them a decisive step closer to the championship. But at the finish line, it was the Bavarians who successfully defended their title with third place and celebrated the nail-biting victory with loud cries of joy, while VSaW's hopes of winning the title were dashed with sixth place.
What remained for the Berliners was the battle to win the regatta in Hamburg. This was also a gripping affair and captivated the spectators on the pontoons of the host Norddeutscher Regatta Verein and on the screens. In the meantime, the Düsseldorfer Yacht-Club had taken the lead in the last league summit of the season and started the two final races of the best six teams as the front runners on equal points ahead of VSaW, which the victorious Tutzingen team were able to enjoy as spectators, drunk with victory.
In the first of the two final races, the team from Düsseldorf with helmsman Jan-Philip Hofmann, Patrick Treichel, Nils-Henning Hofmann and Alexander Swade crossed the finish line in second place, one place ahead of the Berlin team, and increased their lead by one point. The Berliners were threatened with another runner-up title, but then they struck back. In the nerve-wracking final race, the teams changed positions in such rapid succession in the typically gusty Alster winds that it was almost impossible to recognise a winner. It was only in the dramatic final sprint that VSaW was able to come second and - given their consistently good placings, hardly anyone could believe it - celebrate their first regatta victory in the Bundesliga. The team from Düsseldorf finished fourth and had to be satisfied with second place in Hamburg. Their performances with a total of five daily victories were top class.
The third place on the podium in Hamburg was secured by Segel- und Motorboot Club Überlingen. The Bavarian Yacht Club with Philipp Hibler, Andreas Plettner, Andreas Achterberg and Maximilian Hibler took third place on the podium at the championship ceremony with Hamburg's Senator of the Interior Andy Grote, one point ahead of the Lindau Sailing Club. It is remarkable that these two southern clubs have only just been promoted to the 1st Bundesliga and sailed so well that they were even able to relegate the two-time champions from the Norddeutscher Regatta Verein to fifth place. "That speaks for the dramatic rise in standard in the 2nd German Sailing League," says League Manager Jocky Hellmich. It is also striking that three of the top four teams are from Bavaria!
Kieler Yacht-Club (16th), Seglervereinigung Itzehoe (17th) and Yachtclub Berlin-Grünau (18th) have been relegated to the 2nd German Sailing League. This year, YCBG helmsman, America's Cup winner and Olympic champion Jochen Schümann did not come to the rescue to save his club from relegation as he did last year - he would not have managed it even with one of his exceptional performances. On Sunday, the relegation-threatened first division clubs (Berliner Yacht-Club, Lübecker Yacht-Club and Flensburger Segel-Club) and the best three second division clubs of the season (Mühlenberger Segel-Club, Konstanzer Yacht-Club and Potsdamer Yacht-Club) will meet in the relegation battle for the last three places in the 1st Bundesliga for the 2017 season. So the thriller continues.
Tatjana Pokorny
Sports reporter
