Apparently, even the wind in Hamburg was so tense for the relegation duels at the season finale of the 1st German Sailing League that it was unable to develop nicely. As a result, only two rounds were initially completed at the start of the sixth and final regatta of the second premier league season. Tino Ellegast's team from the Konstanzer Yacht-Club got off to an ideal start with two race wins in light winds. The runner-up championship behind the already prematurely celebrated club champions from the host Norddeutscher Regatta Verein (NRV) will be contested on the Outer Alster by the Seglerhaus am Wannsee (VSaW) with helmswoman Kathrin Kadelbach and the Deutsche Touring Yacht-Club (DTYC) with skipper Maximilian Weiss. Both clubs got off to an inconsistent start in the exciting duel: VSaW, which was just ahead, came first and sixth, while DTYC came sixth and first. VSaW thus maintained its second place in the table with a two-point lead over the Bavarians. The north-south duel is expected to provide suspense until the decision on Sunday afternoon. Behind the rivals, other teams are lurking for a place on the podium.
The relegation and relegation zones are in the balance. The Mühlenberger Segel-Club (MSC), bottom of the table with little chance of avoiding the threat of relegation, has sent a young up-and-coming crew into the race: Henry Peters is at the helm of the sporty J 70 keel yachts, Frank Schönfeldt's son Tom Luis Schönfeldt (German 420 champion), Alexander Goltz and MSC coach Mathias Grüning are also in the relegation race. Although the MSC has never finished in last place in a first division regatta - its league record includes 12th, 17th, 16th, 14th and 8th place - it is still in danger of being relegated to second place. However, if the Elbe sailors with some Alster routine manage something like a "miracle of Hamburg", they could still reach the relegation round and fight for first division survival against potential promoted teams on 8 and 9 November in the same waters. However, the Mühlenberg team did not get off to a promising start in the battle to stay in the league, finishing sixth and fifth.
The Lübecker Yacht-Club (LYC) and the sailing club "Das Wappen von Bremen", which are in the relegation places 16 and 17, are also worried at the bottom of the table. After the first of three regatta days in Hamburg, the Schweriner Yacht-Club (13th), the Chiemsee Yacht Club (14th) and the Yacht-Club Berlin Grünau (15th) would have saved themselves a relegation place. Germany's most successful sailor in the history of the sport should and wants to pull the coals out of the fire for the latter: Jochen Schümann started once for his club last season, adding a whopping 18 points to the YCBG's league account with his victory on the Wannsee. But that was not enough to give them peace of mind. The club, Schümann himself and his crew of Ingo Borkowski, Heiko Seelig and Oliver Freiheit are now hoping for another success at the summit in Hamburg as a way out of the relegation battle. However, the Berliners failed thoroughly at the start in the flat Alster winds with a last place and an early start. If the YCBG quartet do not want to get caught up in the relegation maelstrom, they will have to improve their results significantly at the weekend. From Schümann's point of view, nothing stands in the way of this: "It wasn't just the light winds that were to blame for our result today - we also made mistakes and conceded a penalty. But that's how we started in Berlin too. So we still have a lot of hope ..."
Spectators are welcome around the Alster at the weekend. The event will be hosted by the neighbouring Hamburg Sailing Club, where the autumn summit of the YACHT Championship of Champions was held last weekend. In addition, the races will be broadcast live on the Internet.
Click here for the live stream:
Tatjana Pokorny
Sports reporter
