(Struer, Denmark)- There was a clear trend through both Saturday and
Sunday racing for the first event of the 2017 Danish Sailing League; the
Frederikshavn Seahawks were hungry after defending their 2016 title as
winner of the Sailing League. When racing was about to end on Saturday,
the North Jutland team of Søren Steen, Rasmus Damsgaard, Rasmus Melsen
and Captain Kris Houmann were quite happy with their performance,
leading the fleet!
But,
there was excitement until the last race when the defending Danish
champions had to defend their lead at a single point down from the KDY
Sharks. The crew of Kaløvig Badelaug Cobras took advantage of
opportunities on the race track, winning their last race while the crews
of Frederikshavn Seahawks and KDY Sharks concentrated on beating each
other. Up at the top mark, KDY Sharks looked best. But, then something
happened unexpectedly, when KDY tried to sneak around the top mark, they
got a red flag for hitting the mark! A disappointed skipper of KDY said
afterwards, "We were penalized for touching the top mark. Bummer. The
crew from Frederikshavn Seahawks took advantage of the opportunity and
pulled off the overall win. Congratulations to them.” Indeed, the last
mark rounding determined the ultimate outcome, with the top three teams
all separated by just 3 pts in the end, who beat who determined the
winner.Although Frederikshavn Seahawks had a strong performance, with six 1sts in eleven races, they were closely followed by Kerteminde Sejklub, who had the same number of 1sts; this was their best performance in the Sailing League league so far. As a result of their weather mark penalty, the KDY Sharks dropped to third place. Rounding out the top five were Skovshoved Sejklub in 4th place and Kaløvig Badelaug in 5th place.
"It is a great honor for us to be allowed to hold such an event with the best sailors in this country. And so we hope to put Struer on the map,” says chairman Tommy Venø Jensen from Struer Sailing Club.
The Mayor of Struer Municipality, Mads Jakobsen, chose to set the road past the mill on Saturday and went out in one of the boats to experience the sailing sport league. He was very excited about the club's great commitment and zeal to attract some of the country's best sailors. Follow the Danish J/70 sailing league on Facebook here. For more Danish J/70 Sailing League information Add to Flipboard Magazine.
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