When Hendrik Witzmann, a match race sailor from Berlin, first expressed the idea of sailing out a German Match Race championship with boats of the Asso 99 class, many people secretly tapped their heads with their fingers.
The ten-meter yachts with backstays and a crew of six, including three in the trapeze, are anything but compatible with sailing duels. But in the end the participants agreed that they had experienced one of the best German championships in the America's Cup discipline.
This was particularly due to the crew of the Potsdam Yacht Club headed by sports chairman Ralph Richter and race director Frank Thieme, who fought 166 duels at a high sporting level over the course in front of the Wannsee lido in three days. Thieme was a 2000 Olympic participant in the 470 and is part of Stephan Meister's match race crew.
But the 14 participating teams themselves provided appealing entertainment, because seldom before has the quality of sailing at a national match championship been so high.
An indication of this is the large death of favorites in the second qualifying round. Surprisingly, the eight-time German match race and multiple Asso-99 European champion Markus Wieser and his illustrious crew had to give up prematurely. The same happened to defending champion Carsten Kemmling and last year's second Stefan Meister.
Another indication of the quality are the respectable successes of the newcomers from outside the discipline, such as the top sailors in the 470 AlinGrobe and Martin Metzing as well as the 505 crack Christian Kellner. They took two wins each in the first round and barely missed the next round of the last eight.
The only favorite who made it to the semi-finals was Andreas Willim with his crew Helge Homann, Tom Gosch, Henning Sohn, Chris Hartkopf and, in the assigned owner position, Undine Hopsch. The helmsman from the Düsseldorf Yacht Club is the best German skipper in the world rankings (25th place) and therefore started as the top-seeded favorite, also because he has already won three Grade 3 races this season. He trains regularly with his crew at the Danish Match Race Center in Middelfart.
But in the semifinals, old master Alexander Hagen, freshly back from Athens, made life difficult for him. The star boat Olympian competed with a crew from the J-24 class and showed some excellent races that brought him to the semifinals. There, however, he lost 2-0 to Willim.
The second semi-final was played by Hendrik Witzmann and Jan Eike Andresen from Berlin. The 23-year-old is one of the three members of the German America's Cup 2007 campaign "Fresh seventeen" - another, Henning Sohn (26), sailed with Andreas Willim. The young crew from the NRV Match Race Team won 2-0 against the former German Match Race Champion from the Berlin-Grünau yacht club
The finale was very entertaining, as the organizer's helmsmen were equipped with headset microphones and the communication was transmitted to a very well-attended large spectator boat that was anchored right next to the start line. In addition, the former 470 world champion Rolf Schmidt went on board the duelists and commented at close range.
He saw a clear victory from Andreas Willim. After a sovereign first victory, he had to accept the equalizer to make it 1: 1, but then certainly won the next two starts and thus the final with 3: 1.
Andreas Willim (37) lives in Goltoft near Schleswig, but comes from Leverkusen and starts for the Düsseldorf Yacht Club, which supported him in his two Olympic campaigns in the Flying Dutchman and Laser. He was German champion in both classes, but just as narrowly missed the Olympic ticket as he did qualify for the Admiral's Cup in 2000 as the helmsman of Detlev von der Goltz's Mumm 36 "Prosail". In the Bénéteau 25 he was European champion.
The father of three and managing director of a company that produces high-quality cylinder liners for large engines has been sailing match races for five years. This season he made it into the top 30 of the world rankings and to the top of the German rankings. "It has finally paid off that we have been training together as a team in Denmark for two years," says Willim.
Final result of the match race
Place skipper 1 Andreas Willim2 Jan Eike Andresen3 Hendrik Witzmann4 Alexander Hagen5 Markus Wieser6 Carsten Kemmling7 Stefan Meister8 Phillipp Kadelbach9 Christof Wieland9 Martin Metzing11 AlinGrobe11 Sven-Erik Horsch13 Christian Kellner13 Franzisk Unkelbach