It was a thoroughly enjoyable event for everyone during the second Deutsche Segel-Bundesliga event sailed in J/70s over the weekend of June 5-7 in Kiel, Germany. There was lots of drama and anxiety going into the last race, but in the end, it was the Chiemsee Yacht Club (CYC) team that won, thereby securing valuable points en route to the overall Deutsche Segel-Bundesliga championship. Not far behind them on points was the powerful VSaW (Verein Seglerhaus Am Wansee) team, and in a surprise third place finish was Kieler Yacht Club (KYC). It was a stressful, but fun-filled three days of sailing for the teams with lots of action and some fabulous days of sailing with the backdrop of the Kiel waterfront. It was a neck-and-neck race at its best. On all three days, the 18 clubs exchanged places overall, moving up and down like a roller-coaster; after 45 total races it was proving to be fairly tiring for some teams! “Our recipe was the consistency. We drove defensively and tried to make as few mistakes as possible. That worked for us. We are very happy and satisfied with the team performance,” said a very pleased Chiemsee YC helmsman Leopold Fricke. In third place were the local heroes of Kiel YC. “We have not started so well, so we had to work our way from behind all the time. The team did a sensational job and so we have been fighting hard to get the last place on the podium. We are happy about our small home win,” said Oliver Schwall, helmsman of Kiel YC. For the first day of racing, it was clear the weather gods were smiling on Friday—glorious weather for both the sailors and spectators along the Kiel waterfront. At the end of the day, the Deutscher Touring YC (DTYC) was the initial regatta leaders followed by the VSaW team and Chiemsee YC. After 1410 hrs, the “Color Line” ferry had cleared the way for the first six J/70 teams to sail the first race starting at 1430 hours. With a solid 10 kts breeze, the PRO managed to knock out 11 good races. In those conditions, it was the DTYC crew from Tutzing who sailed like madmen, only settling for three first places for the day! The DTYC team was led by helmsman Maximilian Weiss and his crew of Patrick Follmann, Luis Tarabochia and Jonas Vogt. For the second day, it was an all-around perfect day for those who came to sail on Kiel’s Inner Fjord. Whether as a league sailor or as a spectator, Kiel gave all it could possibly offer. At the end of the day, the VSaW team was now at the top of the charts; closely followed by their well-known competition Flensburger Segel-Club (FSC). Sitting in third was DTYC. “Nice and gusty winds and big waves.” That could be heard more than once along the waterfront, a result of puffs in excess of 25 kts at times during the course of the day’s racing. In such perfect conditions, the 18 first division clubs sailed another 19 races on Saturday. Boat-handling mistakes and boatspeed errors saw teams go from first to last in one maneuver. Even top German Olympic and World Champion sailor Jochen Schümann, skippering for YC Berlin-Grunau, was impressed by the overall performance of the top teams. Schuman’s YCBG team could only manage an 11th after sailing the 15 races overall. In the end, CYC took the lead on the last day with a consistent 2-1-2-5 to win with just 41 points. VSaW hung tough to secure second by only 1 point over Kieler YC. Fourth was DTYC, and in fifth was the best performance so far in the Segel-Bundesliga for Segelkameradschaft Wappen von Bremen. As a result of the finishes in Act II of the DSBL, the overall leader based on a tie-breaker on 5 points is Chiemsee YC, edging out DTYC. Sitting in third is Flensburger Segel-club with 8 points. Fourth is VSaW with 11 points, and fifth is Seglervereinigung Itzhoe with 13 points. For more J/70 Deutsche Segel-Bundesliga, visit http://segelbundesliga.de/.