Warnemuende under the microscope

Anne Hinton reviews the racing at Kieler Woche and Germany's 'other' major sailing week

Like Kieler Woche, Warnemuender Woche is another major week of sailing in northern Germany. Warnemuender Woche is now in its 67th year, but has only expanded to its present size since the reunification of Germany, as this now top German seaside resort was previously part of East Germany.

Like Kiel, the classes racing are split into two halves with one set race in the first part of the week and the others in the second half. In each part of the week there are a number of course areas, with a maximum of three classes racing on each at any one time.

Warnemuender Woche has not quite as many top participants as Kieler Woche, but there are still a number of Olympic sailors and around 2,500 participants in total. Moreover the atmosphere is altogether better in Warnemuende’s small and friendly coastal town, which derives most of its income from tourism and fishing; the sailing conditions are better off the open coast in Warnemuende than in the Kieler fjord and the sailing areas are not far from shore, plus Warnemuende is much cheaper!



Crash! One Danish H-Boat goes over the top of another in the strong winds at Kiel. The next day, following a similar incident a bit further forward, which sliced through the shrouds, another Danish H-Boat was dismasted.

The weather so far has been dominated by moderate westerly winds and frequent rain showers, associated with gusty conditions. The third day saw lighter and sunny conditions, but ended with a thunderstorm after everyone had come ashore, while on the fourth day the winds got up to 20 knots. There were also significant waves on the first, second and especially on the last day of racing in the first half of the week.

The Lasers were the only Olympic class to sail in the first half of the week. The British Laser sailors, with the exception of Paul Goodison came to Warnemuende in force, with 14 of the 110 standard rig participants coming from the UK and 10 of the 110 total in the Radials. The RYA squad came straight on from Kieler Woche. In the case of those with standard rigs this represented practice for the Laser Europeans which will be held here in Warnemuende in a week’s time.

The Laser Radial sailors are carrying on to Poland for the next leg of the Europa Cup series which starts in a few days’ time.

Three starters for the Olympics in Athens were present in the Lasers - the representatives from South Africa, the Seychelles and the likely contender from Germany. South African Gareth Blanckenberg, tipped as a strong medal prospect at the Games, showed his dominance from the start and won with a day to spare, and no placing lower than 5th. This was just as well as he and Allan Julie from the Seychelles had to miss the last day’s racing due to flying to Greece to take part in the Laser Greek championships. Both are expected back in Warnemuende, together with a large number of the other Laser Olympic national reps, next week for the European
Championships.

Julie, from the Seychelles, put in a strong performance in the chilly and windy conditions, amidst the short, steep, chop. Germany’s likely Olympic nominee in the Laser class, Mathias Rieck, finished strongly in the 20 knot winds on the last day, with two first places, but had earlier slipped up with placings of 20 and 21, both of which he was able to discard at the end of the series, propelling him into third place overall. Rieck reported being happy with his speed, but being let down by his tactical decisions.

Another local, Rostock sailor Alexander Schlonski, finished second overall, with greater consistency and no placing lower than 14th in the series.

From his form in Kiel, where he finished third, Paul Goodison would definitely have been a top place getter here. Charles Baillie Strong, from Exeter University, finished 27th in Kiel, where he was sailing against, amongst others, the top 25 Laser sailors in the world. In Warnemuende he appreciated the conditions, dropping below 7th place in only three races - the two in the light weather on the third day and with a 15th in the final
race. Since there were only two discards, the 15th dropped him down to 7th place overall, one place ahead of fellow Brit Hugh Styles, who was in turn one place ahead of Tim Hulse. Indeed all the Brits finished well up in the top half of the fleet in the standard rigs.

RYA coach, Peter Walker, commented that starting had been an issue for some of the Brits. In smaller fleets in the UK the race officer is often more strict on those over the line, whereas with over 100 starters in Germany a number of early starters were able to get away without penalty. “The Brits have to get used to the fact that the race officer is going to let some people go”, he said.

In the Radials it was Frenchman Jean Baptiste Bernaz, the current Laser Radial Youth World Champion, who dominated, only dropping below third place on one occasion and not needing to sail in the final race. He was pressed hard by Rodie Mecklenbergh from the Netherlands who finished only three points behind. Third place was taken by Brit Jon Emmett. Emmett fell foul of the black flag on one occasion, and this pulled his score down overall.

Otherwise he only had a couple of results below 8th place, the last being in the final race during which he suffered concussion and double vision after hitting his head hard in a crash tack to avoid a fellow British sailor. The resulting plaster on Emmett’s nose gave him a rather clown-like appearance in the photos from the prizegiving!

Emmett is sailing on the Radial circuit prior to commencing a 49er campaign for the Beijing Olympics in 2008. He is currently on the look-out for a top crew to join him on the 49er. “You have to be really good to crew a 49er”, Emmett said. Commitment to sail full time all year round is also required, and that includes January in Britain. “It’s difficult to find someone with the necessary skills and dedication”, he added. “I want to find someone who is so keen that he will bight my arm off in order to go sailing!”

Although Emmett was top Brit, Ben Paton was only two places behind in fifth overall, with James Royston in sixth. Alex Stothert also made the top ten, finishing eighth, and giving the Brits the most top ten placings of any nationality. There were not so many Germans sailing in the Radials as in the standard rigs, and so there was a greater mix of nationalities in the Radials. In general the older sailors placed better than the younger ones, suggesting that more experience in the waves and strong winds, generally around 15 knots, but reaching up to 20 knots on the last day, helped.

However, fourth place overall, and top girl, went to 17 year old Paige Reilly from the USA, with the Argentinian, Cecilia Carranza Saroli, second best female in 14th place. Reilly is planning on going to the Beijing Olympics and hoping that the Laser Radial will be chosen in preference to the Europe for women to sail, since she already has plenty of experience in Laser Radials. Alison Young, for Britain, was fourth best
girl.

Youth prizes were also awarded in the Radials. The Brits scored well here, with James Royston winning the under seventeens and Stuart Adams third in this category. James Royston was also third in the under nineteens category.

Warnemuender Woche was the last opportunity for the German Dragon sailors to tune up before the Gold Cup begins in Falmouth, UK, this weekend. Several of the top boats were present, but there was some mixing and matching of crews.



Above: Vinci Hoesch, Harm Mueller-Spreer and Gunnar Bahr(l to r)- top German Dragon sailors at Kieler Woche this year, but second in class to the Danes, Jurgen Schoenherr, Anders Kaempe and Axel Waldersdorph.

Brennecke and Mueller-Spreer have been the top German Dragons at the big events that they have attended in Europe in recent months, with Brennecke taking top spot in the Princess Sofia regatta in Mallorca in May. In Kieler Woche the top German Dragon team was Harm Mueller-Spreer, Gunnar Bahr (ex-Soling crew for Jochen Schuemann from the 2000 Olympics) and former world champion Vincent Hoesch. However, the three were not sailing together in Warnemuende. Mueller-Spreer is sick and may miss the Gold Cup in the UK. Hoesch was sailing in Warnemuende as crew for Marcus Brennecke, with Markus Koy on the bow. Koy trialled for the Athens Olympics in the Star class with Michael Koch, but has also sailed Dragons before. He will sail with Brennecke in the Gold Cup in Falmouth.

Koch and Koy sailed the Star together in Kieler Woche and finished a clear three places ahead of the German team that will go to Athens. The team of Alexander Hagen and Jochen Wolfram gained Olympic selection for Germany on the basis of only one good result in three years - a fourth place at the Europeans this year (which were won by the Portuguese Star boat team, which has not qualified for Athens). The selection of Hagen and Wolfram for the Athens Games has been the subject of criticism in the German media. This has been heightened since it became known that Hagen (49), who has represented Germany at the Olympics before, intends to take a two week family vacation immediately prior to sailing in the Games in Athens!

From results on the international circuit the team of Marc Pickel and Ingo Borkowski (German Olympic Team Leader Jochen Schuemann's other crew from the 2000 Games in the Soling) appeared to be the top German team in the Star class. Indeed it was Pickel and Borkowski who qualified Germany for the Olympics in Athens in the Star class at this year's World Championships. However, both they and Koy/Koch missed out on the Olympic nomination by not attaining top 10 or 12 placings in the European and World Championships this year. Koch and Koy plan another attempt at Olympic
selection in the Star class for the 2008 Games.

In Germany only the 49er, Yngling and female Mistral sailors are considered to represent possible medal prospects in Athens this year. Whilst the former GDR had an excellent sailing system the combined German sailing teams have never attained significant strength. There are some initiatives to address this issue within the country. The announcement, during Kieler Woche, of guaranteed sponsorship until the 2008 Games, for German sailors in the 49er, Tornado and Yngling classes, from T-Systems, is the first concrete step towards improvement in German Olympic sailing.

Racing for all the other Olympic classes, except the Yngling (since all the Yngling sailors are already in Greece), plus a few others (e.g. Soling, OK and International H-Boat) starts on Thursday or Friday and continues over the weekend.