Jochen Schümann will be 60 years old next year. But the three-time Olympic champion, who celebrated his 59th birthday in his adopted home of Bavaria on Saturday, is still hard to beat for the next generation of German sailors. This was also the case at the historic opening regatta of the German Sailing League this weekend on Lake Starnberg off Tutzing.
18 club teams took part in the premiere on J 70 boats and did their best to stop the icon Jochen Schümann and his team from the Berlin-Grünau yacht club from making it through in a total of 36 races in moderate winds under a Bavarian blue sky. In vain. Once again, the two-time America's Cup winner mostly showed the competition the stern and secured himself and his club the first 18 victory points of the new series, which has been praised in advance.
"The Sailing Bundesliga concept obviously works well. We were very lucky with the weather and the organisers did a great job. It was very even on the water. A lot happened, it was exciting. We came together quickly as a team," said winner Schümann, "and we endeavoured to make as few mistakes as possible." Sounds simple and was effective. Second and third place in the first Bundesliga battle of the 18 Bundesliga sailing teams with a total of 76 sailors went to the host German Touring Yacht Club with skipper Maximilian Weiß and the Württemberg Yacht Club with Olympic participant Stefanie Rothweiler at the helm.
In its inaugural year 2013, the German Sailing League, which was launched by the initiators of Sailing Team Germany with their "concept shipyard", will be held in Travemünde, Hamburg, Friedrichshafen and Berlin. An expansion of the Bundesliga to include a second league is already being considered due to the great demand from other clubs.
Oliver Schwall, who came up with the idea, said: "We couldn't have wished for a better kick-off! The DSV board was there and an incredible number of sailors. Even many who didn't take part. The event really brought the sport together and the atmosphere was sensational. This thing is going to be a hit. The clubs think it's such a cool idea, they're enthusiastic, committed and are already thinking hard about who should take part in the next Bundesliga regattas. We had great hosts and the sailors were delighted with the boats. You can't really have that much luck. On top of that, there was a diagonally onshore wind that made it possible to start almost directly from the jetty. What a Bundesliga weekend!"
In the new Bundesliga table, the Norddeutscher Regatta Verein is in fourth place behind the three clubs on the Tutzing podium, ahead of the Bayerischer Yacht-Club and the Konstanzer Yacht Club. The "red lantern" of the bottom of the table hangs in the stern of Segelklub Bayer Uerdingen for the time being.
Tatjana Pokorny
Sports reporter
