(Lindauer, Germany)- The first major regatta for J/70s sailing on Lake
Constance took place this past week. Teams from all three countries
that surround the lake were participating (Switzerland in the south,
Germany in the north and Austria in the east). The event was called
“The Battle @ Lindauer” and twenty boats hit the starting line eager to
test their skills against each other. It was a perfect weekend for the
sailors and the hosts- Lindauer Segel-Club (http://bit.ly/1EnK3cb)-
were able to get in 14 races total, 8 on Saturday and 6 on Sunday.
Race Director/ PRO Josef Bitsche said, “you seldom have spectacular
weather like this with a cool, brisk north wind- force 4 Saturday and
force 3 on Sunday!”
At
the end of 14 races, the top boat was Malte Kamrath skippering RIO from
VSaW in Berlin, their five 1sts enabled them to win with 25 pts net.
Battling them from the first race was Julian Stuckl’s team on GER 470
from DTYC in Hamburg. Had it not been for a BFD in race 10, Stuckl and
crew sailed a very consistent series posting most all their races in the
top three, but could only manage 27 pts net to take second place. The
top local boat was Veith Hemmeter’s crew from Lindauer Segel-club,
taking a third with fairly consistent scores in the top five. Fourth
was Florian Troeger on JACKPOT and fifth was Tino Mittelmeier on ESPRIT
D’EQUIPE.What was evident from the regatta was that German teams that had been sailing for two years in the Deustche Segel-Bundesliga had an advantage in terms of boat speed and boat-handling. Taking four of the top five spots were German teams. Nevertheless, the steep learning curve for the Swiss and Austrian boats showed they were on the fast-track and were starting to get better finishes in the latter part of the regatta. For example, Klaus Diem on PFANDER from Bregenzer Segel-Club started slow on the first day with mid-fleet finishes, but managed to sail much faster the second day and post a few finishes in the top six!
Fourteen teams are going for training in Italy at “Lago di Garda” next week- it’s part of the Alcatel OneTouch Italian J/70 Championship circuit. The next “Battle on Lake Constance” is May 14-16 on the German side of the lake in Langenargen. For more J/70 class sailing information
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