German Sailing League: Historic summit meeting at the VSaW

Berlin will be at the centre of German sailing this coming weekend. This will be ensured by prominent guests of honour such as Willy Kuhweide, Bernd Dehmel and Jochen Schümann, as well as the third regatta of the German Sailing League, to which 18 strong teams from all over the country will be travelling and battling it out for the championship on the Wannsee.

50 years after Willy Kuhweide's legendary Olympic victory in Tokyo in 1964, the Seglerhaus am Wannse club will take a look back with those involved at the eventful times and the merciless duel between the western athlete Kuhweide and his eastern rival Bernd Dehmel, which ultimately led to an Olympic start and triumph for only one of the two outstanding sailors.

On Friday, the Seglerhaus am Wannsee club will be celebrating "50 years of Olympic gold for Willy Kuhweide" on the terrace with Willy Kuhweide and Bernd Dehmel. The next generation will also be celebrated: Robert Stanjek and Frithjof Kleen will be honoured for their outstanding success at the 2014 Starboat World Championship, where they beat multiple Olympic and world champions and stars of the scene to win the title.

Germany's most successful sailor in Olympic history will be fighting to improve his current eighth place in the table for his yacht club Berlin-Grünau on the same weekend and at the same venue: Jochen Schümann will be starting the third league regatta with his silver crew from 2000, Gunnar Bahr and Ingo Borkowski. The YCBG crew has brought Eiko Powilleit on board as the fourth man. Jochen Schümann said: "Of course we are taking a risk. In good wind conditions we are well positioned..." In light winds, however, Schümann knows that his heavy crew can also have disadvantages compared to the younger and lighter sailors from some other clubs.

Hendrik Kadelbach, Olympic fourth-placed Ulrike and VSaW Vice President Schümann, Nils Schröder and Max Popken will be competing for the host VSaW. After two of six Bundesliga regattas, the Berlin team is in third place behind the Norddeutscher Regatta Verein and the Deutscher Touring Yacht-Club. As usual, the races will be commentated live, broadcast on land on screens and for three hours a day on the internet (www.segel-bundesliga.de) with commentator Matthias Bohn. The sporting motto is the same as last time: Everyone is chasing Hamburg! The Hanseatic team won the German club championship last year and are leading the table again. The pursuers want to prevent the NRV's "double".

This includes the Lübecker Yacht-Club, which has the red lantern of the league's bottom of the table. Olympic sixth-placed Simon Grotelüschen, Janika Puls, Arne Hohlweg and Niclas Kath want to lead their LYC team out of the relegation zone in Berlin. Grotelüschen said: "We are going into the third match day well prepared because we have trained sufficiently and are determined to get out of the bottom of the table."