German FX trio and Italy’s ILCA-7 double at the top
Subtropical sailing conditions with a light but sufficient breeze delighted the athletes on Sunday (June 22) on the second regatta day of Kieler Woche. The Olympic skiffs sorted themselves into gold and silver fleets after four daily races with three German FX teams at the top of the women’s fleet. The other overall leaders at the third Sailing Grand Slam event are Uruguay (49er), France and Poland (iQFOiL women and men) as well as Australia and Italy (ILCA 6 and 7).
The hesitant start to Kiel Week with a long wait on Saturday was followed by a dream Sunday. And “the supposedly best day of the week”, as meteorologist Meeno Schrader dubbed it in the morning briefing, delivered plenty of sunshine and a light southerly breeze, which was given a further boost by the thermals as the day progressed. Principal Race Officer Fabian Bach therefore had between two and four races in the books for the six Olympic and three international classes as well as the offshore sailors. “Great sailing, although not easy on all courses due to the shifting wind,” summarized Bach.
The TV cameras focused on the skiff classes, which hoisted their gennakers close to the Olympic Center – with strong results for the German crews. Last year’s U21 world champions, Simon Heindl/Conrad Jacobs from Kiel, worked their way up to third place as the best Germans with consistently good results – including a bullet on sunday. The Uruguayans Hernan Umpierre/Fernando Diz are in the lead ahead of the Australian team Otto Henry/Shaun Connor.
“The wind suited us very well. Thanks to the trim and our weight, we were fast on the track,” reported Simon Heindl. The helmsman is looking forward to strong winds of the coming days: “West wind speed challenge! We’re really up for it and have been training a lot for it over the past few weeks.” The Kieler Woche goal is to reach the Medal Race after narrowly missing out in 2024.
Heindl/Jacobs are tied on points with their German compatriots Jakob Meggendorfer/Andreas Spranger (Munich). After a difficult first day, the 2024 Olympic competitors also got off to a good day. “The first day was difficult. In the shifting winds, every mistake is punished severely,” said Jakob Meggendorfer. The top German team from the last Olympic cycle is delighted with the tough competition in the German fleet. “We have one of the strongest training groups, which helps us all to progress.” Participation in the 2028 Olympics is the clear goal of the two Bavarians: “After the 2024 Games, we’re really excited about the whole thing and the medal ceremony. In 2028, we want to sail for the podium.”
Anna Barth/Emma Kohlhoff, two times U21 junior world champions in a row, also want to get involved in this competition in the women’s skiff. At the moment, however, the women from Kiel still have to cope with multiple challenges. While 17-year-old crew Emma Kohlhoff has two years of high school ahead of her, Anna Barth is also involved in the SailGP professional circuit in addition to the 49erFX. “It’s going really well at the moment. I’m supported by the school management and get time off when I need to. After graduating in 2027, we want to concentrate fully on qualifying for the Olympics,” says Emma Kohlhoff, who is influenced by her brother Paul, the Olympic bronze medallist in Tokyo. “I would like to follow in his footsteps.”
Anna Barth sees her involvement in the SailGP as a strong complement to the Olympic campaign: “I learn a lot at the SailGP that I can apply in FX. And the time commitment there is manageable, so there is hardly any overlap.” The duo sails Kiel Week with a new 49erFX. “The boat is great and converts the power of the wind into speed more quickly,” says Anna Barth.
The highlights on the course on the first days, however, were set by the German competitors with a trio in black and red and gold at the front. Olympic fifth-placed and newly crowned European champions Marla Bergmann/Hanna Wille (Hamburg) found themselves in first place ahead of their compatriots Katharina Schwachhofer/Elena Stoltze from Lake Constance and the Bavarians Sophie Steinlein/Catherine Bartelheimer after their late arrival on shore.
The audience watched five thrilling sprint slaloms at the iQFOiL Games of the “flying” windsurfers on the eastern shore of the Kiel Fjord off Stein. After a day off at the start due to a lack of breeze, the athletes worked up a good sweat in light winds and an air temperature of around 30 degrees. “We had to pump full steam right from the start to stay on the foils the whole time,” reported Fabian Wolf from Kiel, who finished in second place four points behind Tomasz Romanowski with two wins on the day. “If the wind is strong from Monday onwards, I’ll catch the Pole,” promised the 2028 Olympic aspirant. Junior Max Körner is the best U23 sailor in fourth place behind Korean Gunhak Choi. The women’s field is dominated by the French, whose phalanx could only be broken by young hopeful Sophia Meyer. The Berlin native is third behind front runner Lucie Belbeoch and Marion Couturier.
The action at the top of the men’s ILCA 7 is changeable, with hardly a single starter in the tight field managing without a strike result. The 148 starters finished the qualification phase with only four races. The final round will start with an Italian double lead. Dimitri Peroni leads ahead of Lorenzo Brando Chiavarini and the US American Robby Meek.
A colourful mix of nations dominates the ILCA 6 women’s event. After four races, Zoe Thomson (Australia) leads ahead of Maria Erdi (Hungary) and Anna Munch (Denmark).
In the non-Olympic disciplines of the first half of Kieler Woche, however, the highest honours are at stake. The young men in ILCA 6 will be fighting for the World Championship title. And the ranking at the top shows how strongly the class is represented worldwide and how tough the battle for the global crown is. Nine nations from three continents are represented in the top ten. Ukraine’s Semen Khashchyna is in the lead. He is closely followed by the Hungarian Benedek Héder. There is a small gap in points between him and third-placed Greek Stefanos Tsakos. But the big chasing pack still has three days and six races to change the picture.
For the young skiff sailors in the 29er, it’s all about the prestige of winning the Eurocup off Kiel. And there is no way around the Norwegians Nicklas Holt/Philip Forslund. They were already the measure of all things at the YES regatta and are now stringing together victory after victory. After five out of six possible daily victories, they lead the ranking ahead of two girls’ crews. They are followed by Lila Edwards/Amelie Hiscocks (Great Britain) and Boroka and Szonja Feher from Hungary.
A small field is fighting for the European Championship title in Kiel in the L30. In the small keelboat, the fleet led by Hungarian Csaba Medgyesi is dominating the action ahead of the Ukrainian crews of Oleksandr Mukhin and Dmytro Sushchevskyi.
The International German Sailing Championship as part of Kieler Woche is an important step in the preparation for the ORC World Championship in Tallinn, Estonia in August. Jens Kuphal, skipper of the German “Exciter”, was all the more beaming after the coastal race on Saturday in Class A+B. At the start in Kiel’s inner fjord, he still had to line up behind the “Formula X” of Danish professional Jesper Radich, but at the end, he and his crew sailed to a lead of two and a half minutes after four and a half hours sailing time. “Robert did very well. The lead changed several times on the course, but we were able to pull away at the end,” said Kuphal, praising his tactician, Robert Stanjek.
After the end of the race, Jesper Radich went on an intensive search for the lost seconds on the course. And he apparently found what he was looking for. The Danes set the pace in the up-and-down races, taking two wins to put themselves at the top of the rankings ahead of Jens Kuphal and the “Dixie”. The second Danish XR41 crew around skipper Erik Stannow took over the boat fresh from the Kieler Woche and performed outstandingly in third place in the regatta “maiden voyage”.
Jürgen Klinghardt from Lübeck, owner of the “patent 4”, can only follow Kieler Woche from afar. An almost 30-year-old foot injury caught up with him during the Nordseewoche Regatta two weeks ago and he is currently undergoing orthopaedic treatment. He has handed over the skipper duties for the IDM in Group C+D to Oliver Voss. And he replaced the boss very well. At the coastal race, the “patent 4” was only narrowly beaten by Torsten Bastiansen’s “Sydbank” from Flensburg. But “patent 4” slipped slightly to fourth place in the up-and-downs. In Group C+D, the Swedes on Patrik Forsgren’s “Garmin” are in the lead after three races. They are followed by the “Sydbank” (Torsten Bastiansen, Flensburg) and the “Firefly” (Johan Lindell, Sweden).
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