IMS 600 world champion "Movistar"
The Rolex Baltic Week celebrated the IMS 600 World Champion 2005 on Thursday. The title went to the Grand Soleil 42 "Movistar" with a Spanish-Italian team under owner Lorenzo Bressani from Trieste and helmsman Pedro Campos (Madrid).
The Norwegian "Al Cap One III" of Einar Sissener (Oslo) was disqualified in the last race due to a right-of-way violation and lost the title. The same fate befell Thetje Ancker from Kappeln: With his Luffe 43 "Transit Express" he first sailed onto the podium, but he too was disqualified. "Bronze" then went to the "Hanseatic Lloyd" of Christian Plump from Bremen just before the next five boats. Hamburg's Harm Müller-Spreer is clearly in the lead with Markus Wieser and Thomas Auracher at the Kite World Championships.
The IMS-600 sailors waited impatiently in front of the regatta office in Neustädter ancorMarin for the official final result. Relief came at 8:55 p.m. - with the bitter pills for the "Al Cap One III" and the "Transit Express". The Spaniards had listed a number of witnesses who had seen the critical incident on the cross route of the penultimate race. Her sailing hero Campos explained the situation: "We were sailing with right of way on starboard tack when the Norwegians approached us on a collision course. We had to swerve, otherwise it would have crashed." The international jury saw it the same way and converted the day's win of the "Al Cap One III" into a "DSQ". The valuable Rolex wristwatch of the Oyster Perpetual Date model went from the Baltic Sea to the Mediterranean.
The decision about third place was razor thin. The surprise team from the "Transit Express" missed a quarter point at the end of the "Hanseatic Lloyd", which was more than happy to take the podium in the last second. "The day before we were disqualified. Now it has hit others," says helmsman Albert Schweitzer, "the decisions are always very tight, even on the water." The final with wind force five to six was absolutely worthy of the world championship. Schweitzer: "We already gambled away the title on the long haul."
The "L + M Hispaniola" from Horst Mann from Kiel did the same. The team impressed in the ten short races. But in the final bill it was just under another quarter point for fourth only to fifth, half a point ahead of the "Ocean Warrior" (Sverre Valeur / Norway) and the Hamburg "Moonshine" by Matthias Müller von Blumencron, who was second after the long haul was. "We could no longer optimize our old ship, the Rodman 42," explained helmsman Nils Heyde from the "L + M Hispaniola", "but a tactical error on the long haul was ultimately decisive."
At the Hanseatic Lloyd Dragon World Championship, the trio Harm Müller-Spreer / Markus Wieser / Thomas Auracher defended the overall lead with two fourth places. After three races, the Hamburg helmsman is the only one who posted three top ten placements. The toughest pursuer is defending champion Vincent Hoesch from Rimsting, who is 17 points behind with Harro Kniffkund Max Scheibmaier. "After finishing 15th at the start, the day was in the green," said Hoesch.
He benefited from a 20 percent penalty from the winner of the day in the third race, Thomas Andersen from Denmark. He had made an early start in a first attempt before the entire field was called back. The two-time Olympic medalist Ulli Libor from Frei-Laubersheim and his crew Gunnar Bahr (Berlin) and Jan Schoepe (Cuxhaven) moved up to fifth place. "Unfortunately, in the end we were passed from second to sixth place", reported Libor of a wet and cold, but gripping day of racing.