Wednesday, May 15, 2019

Stormy German J/70 Sailing League- Act I

J/70 German Sailing League- Starnberg, Germany
(Starnberg, Germany)- The 2019 Deutsche Segel-Bundesliga started off its season in Starnberg, Germany, on a beautiful Alpine mountain lake in the southern part of the country- the Starnberger See. Thirty-six sailing clubs from across the country participated in somewhat hellish sailing conditions from May 3rd to May 5th. The fleet showed their fighting spirit, having to stave off cold, wet weather (2.0 deg C/ 35 F!) and extreme hailstorms.

Winning the 1st Bundesliga Division was the Verein Seglerhaus am Wannsee (VSaW) from Berlin and winning the 2nd League was the Blankeneser Segel-Club (BSC) from Hamburg.

"It was hard! The cold, the hail, and the storm- these were three really exhausting days, because staying power was needed! We are all the more proud, of course, to be able to win the first match of the season! That's what we hope to do again at the next event in Konstanz,” says Jasper Wagner, helmsman of VSaW. Sailing with him as his crew were Felix Bergmann, Elias Rothe and Max Salzwedel.

After a very close fight to the last race of the event, the Chiemsee Yacht Club and the Bavarian Yacht Club took 2nd and 3rd on the podium, respectively.
J/70 Deutsche Segel-bundesliga winners- Starnberg
"It was an exciting battle! We trained relatively little, but we improved a lot over the four days and gave it everything we could!,” said the helmsman from Lake Chiemsee, Leopold Fricke.  His team included Moritz Fricke, Lorenz Huber and Simon Tripp.

In the 2nd Bundesliga Division, the team from Blankeneser Segel-Club prevailed against tough competition. Their winning crew consisted of Claas Lehmann, Florian Dzsiesiaty, Justus Kellner and Valentin Zeller. Second place went to the Hamburg Segel-Club with the only all-women’s crew in event, and then taking third place was the Potsdam Yacht Club.

In two weeks (May 17 to 19, 2018), the next event of the 1st and 2nd sailing Bundesliga will take place on Lake Constance, hosted by the Konstanzer Yacht Club.  Watch exciting sailing highlights of the Starnberg J/70 event here  For more Deutsche Segel-Bundesliga sailing information Add to Flipboard Magazine.