The field of participating boats was very different: everything from pirates to kites sailed
The sailors sometimes had to fight with strong gusts …
… which not all sailors succeeded in doing
Friday, August 8th: clouds chase across the sky, every now and then the sun peeks out for a short time - midsummer weather looks different. But the 51 crews who have come from all over Germany do not let the mood spoil. They know only too well: it was even worse last year. And so one H-dinghy after the next, racing dinghies, Hansa dinghies, Sharpies and dinghy cruisers at the organizing Hamburg sailing club (HSC) are craned into the cloudy Alster water. Many participants are already old hands at the regatta that takes place every year in August, but there are also new faces mingling in the colorful bunch of wooden boat owners. And everyone will be rewarded with perfect sailing conditions the next morning. 4 Beaufort on average, plus repeated poisonous gusts blow from west to southwest over the Alster, when the organizers around Hilke and Horst Reuter announced the first start at 1 p.m. Traditionally, this is shot using the kangaroo method. The slowest ship crosses the line first, all others follow at intervals calculated according to yardstick. Then it goes - and that is also tradition - all over the Alster, the regatta course with its seven tons sometimes reminds non-residents of a knitting pattern. Only a few ships pull the spinnaker on the windward buoy, most of them are content with a boomed out foresail, if they can make it around the buoy at all. The first dinghies capsized in the first race, and on Sunday afternoon there will be a total of five. Everyone else experiences fantastic sailing, a regatta that is not only enthusiastic about sailing, but also about being overtaken. It is not often that 50, 60 or 70 year old ships can be viewed in full plane and in such large numbers. At the end of the three races, the Hamburg sailmaker Frank Schönfeld was once again in the lead, with three victories in three races, he outran all the others in his sword draft bird. Whether he can achieve this dream result a third time after 2007 and 2008 remains to be seen in the coming year. When the HSC invites you to the 17th Hamburg Summer Classics on the second weekend in August.