3 races at the Leipzig Open

written by Matias Collins  on  September 5  of  2026 and read by 168

The fleet dowind

Fantastic sailing at the Cospudener lake, an amazing weather system, sun, enough warm at the air and water, blowing hard at the little water mirror, a sustained 14-15 knots of wind with great gusts reaching the 20s, with nice 20 degrees shifts on wind direction. The Easterly wind probably not the best option for the regatta making the course a bit short, therefore the fleet ended up sailing the L4 course (4 laps), it really squeezed all the strength of the sailors, some decided to come to the harbor early. A 4th race could have been held if the issues with the race committee boat didn't occur, nowadays all electrical... their engine shortly after the first race ran out of power, it took a long time to be able to set the course again, a rib with the traditional fissile power had to come and rescue the RC and place them in position.

Besides the gusts, the wind shifts, some windsurfers had the tentation to be at the starting line. sometimes falling in front of the Solings which made it a chaos for some teams, right after the starts.

The First race the local team GER 282 helmed by Frank Reinboth sailing with Stephan Schonfelder and Alexander Hahn showed the fleet how is done, with two tacks they led the pack, not even a super in motion GER 339 helmed by Donald Lippert sailing with Eric Pfaff and Sven Rikwald could catch up, they finally finished second their worst result so far. In third it came the ZUPER team GER 2 helmed by Christian Mack sailing with Christoph Zeidler and Traunsee boy Leopold Berner.

The Second race GER 339 and USA 853 helmed by Matias Collins sailing with Andreas Baumueller and Peter Siegel went to the left and did a pretty job to round the marks this way. USA 853 managed to screwup things not being able to hoist the spinnaker and with a late jibe to fall behind many other boats. This gave room to GER 282 the locals jump ahead and also the Zuper boys GER 2 finish third.

The Third race, held after some more waiting USA 853, avoided running over two different windsurfers right after the start giving up their position and again GER 339 on the left just crushed the fleet to round first, they also managed to pull away from the fleet, the fight was on and GER 2 could not beat GER 282 again the locals finishing ahead.
Tomorrow with a lighter wind forecast, more races to come. And now the sailors will be gathered at the Bayerische Banhof Gasthaus & Gosebrauerei Leipzig.

Complete Results


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GER 77 in trouble with its spinnaker