The inaugural J/70 Deutsche Segel-Bundesliga sailing series was held in five locations across Germany this past summer. The exciting conclusion of the series occurred in Berlin’s Wansee, and in the end, the 18 sailing clubs/yacht clubs and hundreds of sailors who participated from across Germany were all the real winners. Each club saw tremendous interest grow in the event all summer long with many wishing to participate the next time around! The finale on the Wansee served as tremendous theater for the finalists to battle for not just the Berliner regatta honors, but the overall series honors as well. The Berlin/Wansee regatta saw tough competition, especially from the host club sailors who demonstrated excellent local knowledge of the tricky wind conditions. Indeed, the first two places went to the locals, with the Schweriner YC team comprised of Ingo Koehn, Torsten Haverland, Lars Haverland and Uwe Thielemann winning an impressive series with seven finishes in the top three. They were followed by their colleagues at Verein Seglerhaus am Wansee with the team of Malte Kamrath, Ulrike Schumann, Frithjof Kleen and Nils Schröder. Taking third was Lindauer Segler-Club, fourth was Norddeutscher Regatta Verein, and fifth was Muhlenberger Segel-Club. As a result of their fourth place finish in the Berlin/Wansee Regatta, the Norddeutscher Regatta Verein (NRV) team from Hamburg were declared the overall winners of the inaugural Deutsche Segel-Bundesliga series! The NRV team that consisted of Johannes Polgar, Florian Spalteholz, Klaas Höpcke and Niklas of Meyerinck sailed a remarkably consistent series over the course of the five regattas, consistently finishing in the top five—(Tutzing- 5th, Travemunde-2nd, Hamburg-1st, Friedrichshafen- 4th, Berlin-5th). Their skipper Johannes Polgar said, “We could hardly believe our luck! It was a crazy season for us! Fantastic that we were able to bring the trophy to our friends and members in Hamburg!” Behind NRV in the overall standings and taking second prize for the series were the Wurttembergischer YC team. While sailing fast and smart in Tutzing (4th), Travemunde (5th) and Friedrichshafen (1st), their team members didn’t quite hit the ground running in championship form in Hamburg (7th) and in the Berliner finale (9th). The biggest battle happened to be for the final position on the podium for the series with at least four teams vying for the coveted bronze medal. By sailing their hearts out in Berlin, the local favorites (Verein Seglerhaus am Wansee with skipper Malte Kamrath), rode their second place onto podium by a whisker. The VSaW team started the series slowly in Tutzing, but closed with a flourish at Friedrichshafen (2nd) and Berlin (2nd) to claim the bronze for the overall series. The balance of the top five were quite close, finishing just two and three points behind VSaW, respectively. After starting the series quite strongly – Tutzing (1st), Travemunde (3rd), Hamburg (3rd) – the last two events for YC Berlin-Grunau’s team were tough pills to swallow, having to count the Friedrichshafen (9th) and Berlin (12th) to finish fourth. Just one point back was the very consistent team from Chiemsee YC, counting a 2nd (Hamburg), a 5th and three 6th places to hang in for fifth overall. After five months, it is quite clear the concept of the first Deutsche Segel-Bundesliga has been a great success. The acceptance of the first nationwide club competition in Germany is very high amongst the sailing community. The five events that were held in the first year were dominated by local patriotism, passion, camaraderie and fairness between the sailors. So far, there are now more than 30 other clubs that are interested in participating for the 2014 sailing season! Many happy memories were recorded for all of the sailors, the organizers, sponsors and the host clubs. Below are the links to the photos and some nice sailing videos for each one of the events.
June 7-9 Tutzing/ Starnberger
http://segelbundesliga.de/fotogalerien/tutzing/
http://segelbundesliga.de/fotogalerien/tutzing-tag-2/
http://segelbundesliga.de/fotogalerien/tutzing-tag-3/
July 19-21 Travemunde
http://segelbundesliga.de/mediathek/fotogalerien/travemuende/
Day 2- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfhhFYNsXTU
Day 3- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30Wikkt8jGk
August 30- September 1 Hamburg
http://segelbundesliga.de/mediathek/fotogalerien/hamburg/
Day 1- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u974BNOD0H8
Day 2- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OyZKlCmAuqg
Day 3- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u974BNOD0H8
September 27-29 Friedrichshafen
http://segelbundesliga.de/mediathek/fotogalerien/friedrichshafen/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QToUl73acWY
November 8-10 Berlin finale
http://segelbundesliga.de/mediathek/fotogalerien/berlin/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZDIhI9WUr4