The NRV came, saw and won. That was the case in the inaugural year of the German Sailing League when the Hamburg team won the first club championship in 2013. After the first regatta on Lake Starnberg and before the kick-off in Travemünde on Saturday, the Norddeutscher Regatta Verein leads with 18 points ahead of the Seglerhaus am Wannsee (VSaW) club with 17 points and the Deutscher Touring Yacht-Club (DTYC) with 16 points. So the motto remains the same for the time being: Everyone is chasing Hamburg! Bringing up the rear of the 18 first division teams at the start of the season is the host Lübecker Yacht-Club, which is hoping for a better result on its home turf and to escape the relegation zone.
Johannes Polgar will take over the helm of the J/70 sports boats off Travemünde for the front runners. With Florian Spalteholz, Niklas von Meyerinck and Klaas Höpcke, the 2008 Olympic eighth-placer wants to defend Hamburg's lead. Polgar's partner Kathrin Kadelbach wants to prevent this. The 2012 Olympic eighth-placer in the 470 will take the helm for the Seglerhaus am Wannsee club at the Travemünder Woche national league regatta. Olympic fourth-placed and VSaW Vice President Ulrike Schümann will once again be the tactician. The strong women's duo will be supported by gennaker trimmer Jens Steinborn and Carlo Jurth.
The SAP Sail Cube will once again offer fans on site and on their home computers live sailing sport. All Bundesliga races will be broadcast. As last year, the SAP Sail Cube will be on site again this year and will act as the control centre for the comprehensive live coverage. The futuristic mobile unit, which can be packed into two containers, contains a fully equipped studio and a showroom with the latest analysis technologies. The Cube also has a large screen of around 16m2 for perfect public viewing. Clear graphics and easy-to-understand explanations make the sport of sailing comprehensible even for non-sailors.
The Bundesliga matches will be broadcast live from Saturday to Monday from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. from the SAP Media Race Course directly in front of the Trave estuary and will be commented on and analysed by a team of four: ZDF sports reporter Alexander Ruda comes fresh from the Football World Cup in Brazil, Bundesliga sailor Mathias Bohn is available as an expert and Olympic athletes Tobias Schadewaldt and Marcus Baur support the commentators alternately as analysts.
The German Sailing League will continue after the Travemünde Summit from 22 to 24 August on Berlin's Wannsee and will end after two more regattas in Kiel and Friedrichshafen with the final from 31 October to 2 November on Hamburg's Outer Alster.
And here you can watch the live broadcast from Saturday:
Tatjana Pokorny
Sports reporter
