The north turns up the heat: After the recent Bundesliga successes of the southern clubs, the northern clubs celebrated their comeback off Travemünde at the fourth meeting of the season, which was somewhat shortened due to the weather. The Kieler Yacht-Club (KYC) with helmsman Julian Ramm, Oliver Lewin, Malte Päsler and Florian von Wieding secured victory in the first league regatta as part of the Travemünde Week ahead of the Flensburger Segel-Club (FSC) with veteran Michael Ilgenstein, Cedric Menzel, Oliver Huber and Jörg Rothert. Third place went to Wassersport-Verein Hemelingen from Bremen with Jan Seekamp, Jens Tschentscher, Björn Schütte and Tjorben Wittor.
Click here for the replay of the final races of the first and second division teams off Travemünde in the third league season
In reverse order, FSC and KYC are in second and third place in the Bundesliga table behind the leading German Touring Yacht Club, whose team finished seventh before Travemünde to defend its top position. KYC helmsman Julian Ramm said after the success of his KYC team: "The victory is unexpected for us. We wanted to avoid high placings and big mistakes. We managed to do that and the spirit on board was just right."
The two-time German champions from the Norddeutscher Regatta Verein and helmsman Carsten Kemmling fought their way to sixth place in Schleswig-Holstein and thus moved up to fourth place in the table after some weaker results and the victory off Warnemünde. The Seglerhaus am Wannsee club had a slip-up at the start of the Travemünde Week. Helmswoman and Olympic participant Petra Niemann and her VSaW crew did not manage to finish higher than second last among the 18 first division teams in eleven races. As a result, the Berlin team slipped back to ninth place in the table. At the halfway point of the third Bundesliga season, the battle for the German club championship remains exciting due to the changing regatta winners and the close points gap.
The top places in the 2nd Bundesliga are just as hotly contested. The Bavarian Yacht Club, which had just won off Warnemünde, also led the classification in Travemünde for two days before Philipp Hibler's team had to let the league leaders from Lindauer Segler-Club with helmsman Veit Hemmeter pass them. After second place before Tutzing and third place on the Baltic Sea before Warnemünde, the club from Lake Constance achieved its third top-three finish and extended its lead in the table to eight points ahead of the second-placed Berlin club on the Rupenhorn. The Bavarian Yacht Club, which has just been joined by top sailor, America's Cup helmsman and ice sailing world champion Karol Jablonski, is in third place in the league.
All 36 club teams will continue with the 1st and 2nd Bundesliga from 21 to 23 August in Berlin. The host will be the Seglerhaus am Wannsee club.
Tatjana Pokorny
Sports reporter
