Bundock by a hair

A report from the Tornado Sport and 49er's Volvo Champions Race in Starnberg this weekend

One thing was crystal clear when the first 2004 Volvo Champions Race ended this Sunday in Starnberg, Bavaria: 35000 spectators have seen the biggest sailing festival ever happening at Lake Starnberg. Three days of action-packed racing with rounding marks not more than 40m away from the audience at the shores created a unique stadion athmosphere. Three times Olympic Champion Jochen Schümann who lives around 40km away from the venue in Penzberg and who visited the event as the new head of Germany´s Olympic sailing squad commented: "it's been a great event and perfect advertising for our sport. I really enjoyed being there.“

On the final day of the regatta the fight for podium places continued all the way through until the last race in the Tornado class. It were then four time World Champion Darren Bundock and his British crew Will Howden, winners of the first Volvo Champions Race Series last year to kick off into the new Tour with another win. However they did benefit from the retirement of Mitch Booth and Herbie Dercksen from the race after a jury decision did not meet their expectations. Austrian Olympic Champions Roman Hagara and Hans Peter Steinacher came second ahead of Sydney bronze medallist Roland Gäbler and his crew Gunnar Struckmann.

The tricky conditions on Lake Starnberg offered more stable and stronger winds up to five Beaufort on the last day. Among the 49ers nobody could stop the young German brothers Pit and Hannes Peckolt winning the event with a clear lead over their fellow countrymen and reigning European Champions Marcus Baur and Max Groy. Last year´s Volvo Champions Race Tour winners Peter and Sören Hansen from Denmark had a great finish day with a third and a first thus securing third place overall.

Thomas Hanel, Director of Public Affairs & Events for Volvo Car Germany, in his final round-up commented; "already day one has much more than fullfilled our expectations. Saturday and Sunday have been sensational. The audience is enthusiastic about our new race format. I guess we can really claim that there is no more spectator friendly sailing series in Germany at present than the Volvo Champions Race“.

That the people really liked the close race action, the 30 world class teams from ten nations and the attractice shore programme with entertaining shows of TV star cook Alfons Schuhbeck, long party nights with life bands and Saturday night's amazing music firework is also underlined by a few impressive numbers from the party tent: Schuhbeck´s team served more than 6000 hot meals, 3000 sausages and more than 2500 litres of beer.

The Volvo Champions Race in Starnberg, Bavaria is the first of three Stops of this year's Volvo Champions Race Tour. Following this are the Volvo Champions Races in Rostock (2-4 July) and Travemünde (24-26 September) right after the Olympics.





Results:

Tornado Sport (11 Races/2 Discards)

1. Darren Bundock/Will Howden (AUS/GBR) 26 pts. (2,4,5,2,1,(OCS),1,2,8,1,(RAF))
2. Roman Hagara/Hans Peter Steinacher (AUT) 30 pts. ((8),5,1,4,4,2,(7),5,3,5,1)
3. Roland Gäbler/Gunnar Struckmann (Tinglev/Kiel) 35 pts. (3,3,(11),5,(13),1,2,9,2,3,7)
4. Johannes Polgar/Carsten Happel (Kiel) 46 pts. (10,(DNF),6,6,5,(11),5,1,4,6,3)
5. Diogo Cayolla/Nuno Barreto (POR) 46 pts. (11,2,4,3,6,6,(DNF),4,6,4,(DSQ))
6. Peder Ronholt/Sören Jörgensen (DEN) 49 pts. (4,8,4R,1,7,5,8,3,(10),(12),9)
7. Martin Rusterholz/Michiel Fehr (SUI) 51 pts. (6,(DNF),2,8,8,(OCS),3,7,7,8,2)
8. Helge Sach/Chrisian Sach (Zarnekau) 67 pts. (9,9,6R,(11),(10),4,6,10,5,10,8)
9. Tino Mittelmeier/Niko Mittelmeier (Überlingen) 74 pts. (7,6,7,10,(12),8,10,(12),11,9,6)
10. Mischa Heemskerk/Pieter van Ruitenburg (NED) 80 pts. ((DNC),(DNC),9,12,2,9,11,11,9,7,10)
11. Andreas Hagara/Xavier Revil (AUT/FRA) 91 pts. ((DNC),(DNC),2R,13,9,7,9,8,DNF,11,DNC)
12. Tom Zajac/Tom Czajka (AUT) 92 pts. (5,10,10,9,11,3,12,(DNF),(DNC),DNC,DNC)
13. Fridtjof Unger/Hendrik Unger (Osnabr.) 111 pts. ((DNF),7,12,(DNC),DNC,10,DNC,DNF,DNC,13,5)
14. Günter Mörtl/Gisela Mörtl (Breitbrunn) 137 pts. ((DNF),(DNF),DNF,DNF,14,OCS,DNF,DNC,DNF,DNF,11)
15. Mitch Booth/Herbert Dercksen (NED) 144 pts. (11 x RAF)


49er
(10 Races/Race 7 was cancelled by the Jury/2 Discards)

1. Jan-Peter Peckolt/Hannes Peckolt (Hamburg/Kiel) 19 pts. (1,1,(7),(6),4,4,1,3,2,3)
2. Marcus Baur/Max Groy (Kiel/Fleckeby) 28 pts. (4,(7),(10),3,5,1,4,1,6,4)
3. Peter Hansen/Sören Hansen (DEN) 33 pts. (8,4,4,(10),2,5,(9),6,3,1)
4. Allan Norregard/Klaus Naur (DEN) 34 pts. (3,(12),2,(9),1,3,8,7,8,2)
5. Pawel Kacprowski/Pawel Kuzmicki (POL) 34 pts. (5,3,1,2,7,6,5,(10),5,(8))
6. Nico Delle-Karth/Moritz Deml (AUT/Bonn) 36 pts. (6,2,5,5,(8),(11),6,2,4)
7. Michael Hestbek/Dennis Dengsoe (DEN) 37 pts. ((7),5,6,(8),6,7,3,5,1,5)
8. Jonas Warrer/Peter Krüger Andersen (DEN) 45 pts. (2,6,8,1,(11),10,2,9,(11),7)
9. Marcin Czajkowski/Krzystof Kierkowski (POL) 59 pts. (11,8,(12),7,9,2,11,4,7,(DNC))
10. Tom Ruegge/Jörg Steiner (SUI) 60 pts. ((13),9,9,4,3,9,(DNC),8,9,9)
11. Felix Oehme/Julien Kleiner (Hamburg) 82 pts. (12,14,3,11,13,(DNF),7,12,(DNF),10)
12. Lennart Briesenick-Pudenz/M. Massmann (Flensburg) 88 pts. (9,11,13,(DNF),12,12,10,(DNF),10,11)
13. Michael Pedersen/Dion Valente (DEN) 102 pts. (10,10,15,(DNC),DNC,8,(DNC),11,DNF,DNF)
14. Pablo Soldano/Pierl. Salvi (ITA) 108 pts. (14,13,11,(DNF),10,(DNF),12,DNF,DNF,DNF)
15. Heinrich Prinz v. Bayern/B. Blanasch (Geltendorf) 125 pts. ((DNF),15,14,DNF,DNC,DNC,DNC,DNC,DNC,DNC