What a celebration for sailing! More than 220 sailors battled for a place in the 2nd Bundesliga off Glücksburg on the Flensburg Fjord at the weekend. 56 clubs sent their teams into the league battle. In the end, six clubs were able to cheer and compete in the 2nd Bundesliga in 2017.
In the end, the winner's podium was a little fuller than usual: the victorious Segel Club Ville with Dirk Strelow, Matthias Riffeler, Gerald Roos and Heiko Riffeler, the second-placed Joersfelder Segel-Club with Daniel Frost, Timo Chorroch, Daniel Schwarze and Jeronimo Landauer and the third-placed Lübecker Segler-Verein with Kim Brandt, Niklas Reisenauer, Mirco Jacobs and Jan Dabelstein were able to celebrate. In addition, the Duisburger Yacht-Club with Reiner Brockerhoff, Ann Kristin Wedemeyer, Pia Sophie Wedemeyer and Marc Wedemeyer, the Entdecker und Seefahrer Fördervereinigung with Frank Schönfeld, Tom Gosch, Antje Gosch and Matten Jaetschke and the Seglervereinigung Gelting-Mole with Sören Hadeler, Henning Buchmann, Ole Burfeind and Hauke Köller.
Just how close the battle for one of the coveted last six places in the 2nd Bundesliga was was demonstrated by the narrow points gap at the end: the winners and sixth-placed Seglervereinigung Gelting-Mole were separated by just 6.25 points. Seglerverein Stade with helmsman Sebastian Röske missed the jump into the 2nd Bundesliga by a painfully narrow margin of just 1.17 points. Four of the six second league qualifiers are old acquaintances: Segel-Club Ville, Lübecker Segler-Verein, Duisburger Yacht-Club and Entdecker und Seefahrer Fördervereinigung managed to stay in class on the Flensburg Fjord. The races were sailed on the J/70 league boats and the great sailing sports festival was organised by the formidable hosts from the Flensburg Sailing Club and the German Ocean Sports Association Hansa.
While the two national leagues are now numerically complete, the final line-up for the 1st and 2nd Bundesliga will not be determined until the end of October at the 1st Bundesliga final in Hamburg (27 to 29 October) and the relegation to the 1st Bundesliga (30/31 October). Both regattas will be held on Hamburg's Outer Alster.
Tatjana Pokorny
Sports reporter
