Close by, the field reaches the windward mark
On the first day of the 25th championship yacht championship, the favored teams prevailed among the top 35 teams from all over Germany. In particular, the two record winners Dr. Wolfgang Hunger (Strande) and Karol Jablonski (Poland), who top the eternal best list of the cult event with five wins bug to bug, sovereignly qualified for the match race finals on Sunday.
While the team of 505 European champion Hunger took over the top of the classification with two wins, Jablonski made it through as group runner-up. Defending champion Carsten Kemmling (Hamburg) and the reigning German match race champion Andreas Willim (Goltoft) lived up to their favorite status, kept a clean slate with two wins each and will be sailing for the coveted title tomorrow on the Outer Alster.
But there was one prominent fall of favorites: Markus Wieser's team (Starnberg / Palmde Mallorca), former number three in the match race world rankings, missed the finals of the ten best crews after being disqualified due to unauthorized pumping. Wieser had cleaned up after the controversial situation with a penalty ring, but according to the regulations, the helmsman from Lake Starnberg should have relieved himself with a double circle. "That's annoying," said match race specialist Markus Wieser, "of course we would have liked to have reached the match race finals."
The title "Master Lifeguard" was secured on Saturday by the two-time 470 world champion Rolf Schmidt (Berlin) in the boat of Dr. Wolfgang Hunger. Schmidt went overboard twice in winds between three and five Beaufort. Quotation from a spectator: “He's already champion over 100 meters freestyle.” The fact that Hunger still won both races impressed not only the competition. Shortly before that, Jens Goritz and his team's streamline capsized in a gust at noon. The German champion in the Hobie 16, who usually travels on two hulls, was able to erect the sporty, dynamic boat in a flash.