Tuesday, July 8, 2014

J/70s Germany & Europe Growing!

J/70 sailing off Kiel, Germany in Kieler Woche (Kiel, Germany)- We received a nice report from Jurgen Waldheim in Berlin, Germany- “In Germany we had a wonderful Kieler Woche until yesterday. 12 entries and a couple of world champions in the J 70 class. Boats from Sweden, the Netherlands and Germany fought under very tricky conditions. Short  waves, wind up to 32 knots and yesterday –the last day- 2 races up to only 6 knots.

The winner is the current 505 World Champion- Class Lehman from Germany, second was Wouter Kollmann from the Netherlands and third Michael Ilgenstein from Germany.  The World Champion of the X99 Class, Christian  Soyka, finished fourth.

In 2015, we will try to have a common  Calendar and  Ranking List together with the Netherlands.

J/70 Kieler Woche winners podium at Kiel, GermanyWe all talked a lot to many sailors of other classes. My impression is that there are really many sailors who have a look to our class and they are waiting to see how we develop. We have to show up whenever we have time. It is not easy to establish a new class, especially in Europe. But, we are much farther along than the J/80 was 12-15 years ago. Sweden already has 20 boats! Denmark has created a “Sailing League” with the J/70 and the Danish Sailmaker and famous sailor Bojsen-Möller is already testing his J/70 sails and will introduce them to the market in autumn.  We look forward to also having the Great Britain J/70s join us for the big J/70 regattas in Europe— hopefully, J/70 Europeans on Lake Garda!”