(Kiel, Germany)- Considered one of the world’s largest sailing events,
Kiel Week will be taking place from June 20th to the 28th and playing
host to 1,500+ sailboats and over 5,000 sailors for the week long
event. The city of Kiel is also promoting Germany’s application for the
Olympics 2024 as Hamburg’s partner for hosting the sailing
competitions.In its 133rd edition, Kieler Woche will once again deliver 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.
Another partner of the Kieler Woche, SAP, is making another step in presenting the sailing sport to the spectators ashore. "With the Race Committee App, fans can view the official race results from all race courses almost in real-time in the SAP LiveCenter. Maybe one of the most interesting innovations will be the display of the perfect course, SAP Sailing Analytic,” stated Milan Cerny (SAP Sailing). The design was optimized and navigation for the user is now easier. At the daily debriefing session, sailing experts and TV presenters will provide a summary of what happened on the water- the SAP Sail Cube, which is normally following the Extreme 40 series around the world, will be located in Kiel.
Three J classes will be featured at Kieler Woche- the J/24, J/70 and J/80. For the J/80s, the event is considered by most of the participants as their J/80 “Pre-Worlds”, as they will be sailing the J/80 Worlds at the same venue two weeks later. Twenty-four J/80s from Germany and Denmark are registered, including most of the top German teams; such as Andreas Rose’s TRUE GRIT, Bjorn Beilken’s PROCEDES DIVA, Inken Braunschmidt’s JOY TOY, Martin Menzner’s PIKE, Sven Vagt’s BOOTSWERFT WINKLER and Torsten Voss’ FRIDA.
The J/70 fleet has a fantastic turnout of thirty-one boats with teams participating from Russia, Germany, Spain, Sweden and the Netherlands. The Russian teams include Alexander Markarov’s MOJO and Dmitrii Zaritckii’s JUNO. The Spanish team is the Olympic Medallist Hugo Rocha on NEW TERRITORIES. The top Swedish team is Oscar Lundqvist sailing THE PURE CIRCLE and the Netherlands crew is led by Wouter Kollman sailing NED 293. The balance of the teams are comprised of German crews from around the country, many of whom have been sailing in the Deutsche Segel-Bundesliga over the past two years. Some of those skippers include Carsten Kemmling, Class Lehmann on TRE MAKRELLER, Fabian Gielen on FRITZ, Frank Schonfeldt on DER GERAT, Frank Uwe Fuchs on DUFTe DJUDJU, Gerd Knospe on TOKIO, Jens Ahlgrimm on GRUN SOFTWARE, Max Nickel on JUKEBOX and Uwe Barthel on ROSAROTER PENGUIN.
The biggest J fleet happens to be the thirty-four J/24s vying for class honors, with teams participating from Germany, Monaco, Sweden, The Netherlands, Hungary and Great Britain. Leading German teams include Andreas Dillmann’s ALICE, Frank Schonfeldt’s HENK, Frithjof Schade’s JJONE, Jan Kahler’s UNITED 5, Johann Huhn’s HUNGRIGER WOLF, Manfred Konig’s VITESSE, Peer Kock’s GISCHT & GLUT, Stefan Karsunke’s SULLBERG and the women’s team led by Stephanie Kopcke’s VEGA RAGAZZA. The top visiting crews are Ian Southworth’s IL RICCIO from Great Britain, Liselotte Sjoberg’s FOR FUN from Hungary, Mathias Sonnemans’ J-STRIPE from The Netherlands, Per-Hakan Persson’s FRONT RUNNER from Sweden and Peter Langhans’ OSTE STROLCH from Monaco. For more Kiel Week sailing information
|