Amazing sailing conditions at Starnbergsee crowns GER 308 at the German Open

written by Matias Collins  on  July 30  of  2023 and read by 656

Issues at the gusts
Heike Northoff

The event who had good international participation started under a menacing wheater, forecast of rain and not much wind as it can happen in this famous Bayern lake.
Teams from Ukraine, Canada, USA, Austria, Italy and Germany started to show up on Thursday morning. A few managed to set up the boat on each rain interval and about 6 boats ended being splashed to avoid the crowd morning on Friday.

Friday at 1100 am Race Officer Fischer Brandis gave his introduction and event mentor Burschi Haist called all teams to receive their T-shirts sponsored by the German Soling Association and nicely prepared by Irene Haist.

By 1145 after a quick breakfast with Weiss Wurst offered by the BYC boats were already on ist way to the race course with 10 to 15 knots of a South Westerly wind.
The first race of the day had an intense battle in between AUT 102 (Ludwig Beurle, Markus Gnan and Christian Fischer) and GER 308 (Karl Haist, Martin Zeileis and Irene Haist) and USA 853 (Matias Collins, Andreas Baumueller and Monika Kimmeswenger (replacing Xaver Seydl for the working day), the Windsniffer GER 308 was the one to cross first followed by AUT 102 and then USA 853, the shifts and lows and highs were quite difficult to forecast and on each wind change anything could happen.

The second race started under a storm warning, blinking lights which required the use of Life Jacket, gusts of 20 knots not always from the same direction stated to caught people unprepared, the first accident happens 40 sec before the start when GER 323 (Matias Dulce, Andreas Finck and Sean O Meara) on port collides with GER 312 (Gernot Heller, Gerhard Auerswald and Leo Rischard) on starboard, GER 312 suffered real damage but what is worst, the hull of 323 impacted on Gernot's shoulder, braking the collarbone .
The race itself saw the first slide of USA 853 (from many), who rounded first managed to keep the pole the first downwind, but at the second downwind UKR 2 (Dmyry Yarovyy, Roman Marchenko and Yevgen Klochko) passed them which would again happen with GER 308... dragging them into the third place.

After a two abandoned starts and an increase on the warning level for the storm, the day was called off.

But Friday wouldn't end that way.. it came the traditional Soling party with the Originale Nuremberger Brad Wurst grill sponsored and grilled by Thomas Scherer and Andi Baumueller, watered by beer, with later some Italian cheese brought from Nago region (ITA), and when rain started and all guests crowded the hall of the centennial Bucentaur building ( a boat house made in wood of aprox 400 sq meters with the water pool to keep the wooden boats rigged and protected from the wind and snow...), it was time for the dessert sponsored by Ludwig Beurle the famous Kaiserschram.. but despite some teams leaving the night was still short, when Gerhard Auerswald brought 6 bottles home made of different schnaps flavors that helped the beer sync people's mood, by 2am with most guests at home, two teams would still compete and manage to finish all schnaps bottles AUT 102 and USA 853, special mention to Markus Gnan who could not beat the unstoppable class secretary, no matter the flavour chosen. All bottles were emptied, the beer kept flowing and finally when all left two members of USA 853 had to stay and sleep over the premises.

The next morning (Saturday) would start early 0900, where USA 853 were a witness in a protest, not an useful one we would guess...
By 1100 all boats were sailing out and facing again more or less the same wind but no rain, only clouds, moments of sun, cold temperatures, the first race GER 308 again nailed the bullet followed by GER 2 (Chistian Mack, Thomas Fabry and Korbinian Loebmann), in third came a new Liebner's boat GER 1 (Roman Koch, Felix Kling and Alex Hasenclever).
The wind started to increase again and moved to the west a bit, and it was time for USA 853 after a great start to the left manage with speed cross the fleet despite the right side being favored, they then would lose the position to GER 2, and GER 267 (Thomas Scherer, Michi Witt and Daniel Diesing), but recoverd GER 2 and then on the last beat to regain over GER 267 and nail their bullet followed by GER 267 and GER 2.

The third race of the day had even more wind, with gusts approaching 25knots but some scary holes with less than 15 knots... once more USA 853 was sharp, rounded the mark first, but the pole was quickly lost on the next upwind to UKR 2, GER 308 would follow passing them and then GER 311 (Bjorn Geisler, Sven Domges and Daniel Stocklein ) at the last beat...

The day was over in the water but the Bayerische Yacht Club offered then a nice dinner at the restaurant oft he club, after dinner it was time of Xaver Seydl and Matias Collins beat Luca Negri and his son at the pool table at the gran finale while outside the afternoon rain stopped and more wind kept blowing.
Sunday all started early, the time to be in the water was 1000am, the first race again USA 853 rounding first, and after a great race keeping the lead on the last upwind about 150 mts tot he weather mark the wind dropped below 8 knots and UKR 2 was the first on the left to get a gust of 20 knots and and cross the bow of USA 853, they would finish like this and followed by GER 2.

The second race of the day saw GER 311 lead the pack followed by USA 853 who later would in question o 1 min loose enough positions first to UKR2, then GER 308 then GER 2... The battle fort he bronze was alive (GER 311, GER 2 and USA 853), and the championship as well in between GER 308 and UKR 2.

The third and last race of the event with more wind now, had a fantastic start from GER 308 and USA 853 who to keep position forced UKR 2 to stop and avoid being over early, this would turn off their dreams to win the event since after the start they had to make a great effort to escalate positions again.
GER 308 won another bullet after passing GER 11 (Michael Dietzel, Emil Kuchta and Susanne Kueffer) who were leading the race at the first windward mark both with local knowledge..., and Burschi Haist, Martin Zeileis and Irene Haist became again German Champions, USA 853 nailed a third enough to keep their feet in the podium, and UKR 2 finished second overall despite their 6th place in the last race.

At this race more accidents happened, the relevant one having ITA 252 run over GER 1 causing damage on the hull and forcing both to head to the crane early, a pity.
The event had great wind and sun at the afternoon prize giving ceremony, where after the awards sailors started their home journey. Many of them to meet again at Reschensee in two weeks and then later at the Zipfer Trophy at Attersee (with now 32 entries) all three events creating the new Alpen cup.

Complete Results


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After the start
Heike Northoff

Upwind
Heike Northoff

Rounding the mark
Heike Northoff