Saturday, June 17, 2017

Kieler Woche Preview

J/70 sailing Kiel Week (Kiel, Germany)- The 135th edition of Kieler Woche (Kiel Week) will be taking place from June 17th to the 25th and playing host to 1,500+ sailboats and over 5,000 sailors for the week long event.  Considered one of the world’s largest sailing events, Kiel Week is hosted by several clubs, with Kieler YC as the principal host.

As they did last year, there will be a massive fireworks display celebrating the sport of sailing.  “Sailing in Kiel will be broadcast live at the AUDI-SAP Sailing Arena at the Olympic marina Schilksee, including a stage for interviews and prize giving ceremonies,” says Johannes Polgar, project leader for sailing on the sports marketing team at AUDI AG. Being a partner of the Kieler Woche in the sixth year, AUDI furthermore supports the TV channel "Kieler Woche.TV", which is bringing the sailing action to the fans with modern camera technology and GPS tracking.

J/80 sailing Kiel WeekThree J/fleets are participating as one-design sailboat classes, including J/70s, J/80s and J/24s.  There is a huge turnout for the J/70 class, with 42 boats registered, ready to do battle on the Baltic Sea.  The two visiting teams, Peter Wanders’ Dutch crew on KIND OF MAGIC and Bo Johansson’s Swedish crew on TYRA will be facing a formidable array of talent from the German J/70 class.  Some of those leading teams included Helmut Clauben’s PROJEKT 4, Pit Finis and Karol Jablonski (World Match Race Champion from Poland) sailing DRALION.DE, Jens Ahlgrimm’s GRUN SOFTWARE, Julian Ramm’s VOICE OF ITZEHOE, Jurgen Waldheim’s ROSAROTER PENGUIN, and Bjorn Beilken’s PROCEDES DIVA.

The twenty-one boat J/80 one-design class should also see some amazing racing, with many of Germany’s top crews in attendance.  Those that should be near the top of the leaderboard include Torsten Voss’ FRIDA, Pat Schmidt’s SLEIPNIR, Martin Menzner’s PIKE (past German J/80 Champion), and Hauke Kruss’ TAK FOR TUREN.

J/70 sailing videoWith twenty-six boats on the starting line from five countries (USA, Germany, Great Britain, Netherlands, Sweden), the J/24 one-design class will be seeing very good competition throughout the course of the week.  The leading German teams include Rolf Stupperich’s BIKINI INSPECTOR III, Stefan Karsunke’s SULLBERG, Anke Lukosch’s HENK, Emily Kern’s ROTOGIRL, and Manfred Konig’s VITESSE.  The British J/24 contingent all hail from Parkstone YC J/24 party club; including Duncan McCarthy’s MADELEINE, Roger Morris’ JOLLY ROGER and the American Travis Odenbach sailing GBR 5219 IL RICCIO.  The Dutch entry is Dirk Olyslagers’ JOOL.  The Swedes have three teams participating, including Per-Hakan Persson’s FRONT RUNNER.  Finally, the other American skipper is Mike Ingham’s NAUTALYTICS.   Kiel Week highlights sailing video   For more Kieler Woche (Kiel Week) sailing information Add to Flipboard Magazine.