NRV Wins Deutsche Segel Bundesliga #5

Three Regatta Wins Gives NRV Commanding Series Lead
(Friedrichshafen, Germany)- “As you were” may have been the stand-down phrase after “colors” were struck at sunset for the past five stages in this year’s Deutsche Segel-Bundesliga.  After all, it’s not often that the first event in a summer-long series of events becomes the prognosticator of the ultimate outcome after sailing hundreds of races.  However, that was indeed the case once the top three teams on the podium completed their first regatta in Starnberg; with NRV (Norddeutscher Regatta Verein) in 1st, VSW (Verein Seglerhaus am Wansee) in 2nd and DTYC (Deutscher Touring YC) in 3rd!  Consistency paid off for these teams with steady crews and, for the most part, avoiding massive pitfalls along the way.  NRV’s series-long scoreline is impressive, Starnberg 1st, Travemunde 1st, Berlin 2nd, Kiel 2nd and Friedrichshafen 1st.  Their collective total of 88 high points for the series gives them a very comfortable 18 pt lead over the next closest team.

Behind them, it was not so clear what the outcome was going to be headed into the Friedrichshafen regatta, sailed on Lake Constance and hosted by Württembergischer YC.  The next four teams all had their “snakes & ladders” experiences over the previous four meetings.  DTYC was 2nd going into Kiel, but had a bad outing and dropped to 3rd overall.  VSW sailed well to hop in the second spot in the series after Kiel.  The WYC (Württembergischer YC) and SVI (Segler Vereinigung Itzehoe) were fighting for their lives to remain in contention for the top three.  On the last weekend, WYC redeemed themselves well and collected a 2nd at Friedrichshafen.  But, SVI and DTYC faltered a bit,  Here’s how it all happened for the three-day event sailed on beautiful Lake Constance (a.k.a. Bodensee).

The first day started out slowly for the 38 teams assembled on the Bodensee.  After a gray, foggy start to the day, the breeze slowly filled in by 1400 hrs and the sun popped out, too! Friedrichshafen showed up with fantastic weather at its best!  The catch was that the wind was slow in coming.  Consequently, despite the PRO’s best efforts, only two races were sailed on the first day of the 45 scheduled!

The second day of sailing started off on-time and the fleet sailed a full schedule of races all the way until sunset!  It was a very, very long day; with a good wind forecast the first set of races were completed by 8:30am! Steady winds helped the sailors to a successful day of racing— 25 races in total for the Premiere division!

At this time, NRV was already leading the last event.  But, the “local heroes” were clearly WYC, winning four of their first eight races and matching NRV with number of 1sts!  That was quite a turnaround performance compared to their last outing in Kiel where they had some bad races and ended up mid-fleet!

The final day was unusual in that it was the first time that teams that had been sailing in the Premiere League and the Standard League would end up meeting one another.  There were a total of 144 sailors from 36 sailing clubs that, ultimately, sailed a total of 66 of 90 schedule races on Lake Constance!  

"It was a bit lucky for us to win today as well. It is a nice feeling and we now stand firm as the winner of the 2014 Segel-Bundesliga. The victory was only possible because we had such a great team," said helmsman Carsten Kemmling of NRV.

As a result of the Standard League also completing their events, it was now clear who were going to be the top qualifiers to start racing in Hamburg for the start of the 2014/2015 season on November 7-9!  For this group, it was a weekend of extreme tension, because of light winds and lots of launch delays, so every point counted. At the end, the top qualifiers were Wassersport-Verein Hemelingen (WVH), Segelklub Bayer-Uerdingen (SKBU), Münchner Yacht-Club (MYC), Hamburger Segel-Club (HSC), Potsdamer Yacht Club (PYC) and Segel-und-Motorboot Club Überlingen  (SMCU)

"After a bad race this morning, we had almost written off the qualification into the Premiere League in Hamburg. That we had performed so well during the afternoon was very surprising. We need a lot more training opportunities to be able to participate at the top level in the Premiere League," said Wilhelm von Weyne from WVH.

The grand finale, the sixth and last event, of the 2014 Deutsche Segel Bundesliga takes place in J/70s at Hamburg, Germany on Alster Lake, concurrent with the Hamburg Boat Show that also takes place from October 30th to November 2nd.  Coincidentally, this may put even more pressure on the host NRV team (the “home-boys”) to sail well on their home waters!   For more J/70 Deutsche Segel-Bundesliga sailing information