Zwischenahner Segel Klub, 3 – 6 October 2013

Report by Greg Wilcox

Wind conditions: Race 1 & 2 : 20 kn
Race 3, 4 & 5: raising from 8kn to 18kn
Race 6, 7, & 8: raising from 3kn to 6kn

The return of the Mik Mak

This year the Nationals were in Bad Zwischenhahn. The lake is not so big however the fleet of 54 OK’s had no problems all fitting in there. October is not the warmest month however there is usually wind. Unfortunately the direction was not perfect as it was more across the lake than along it. This meant the top mark was quite close to the shore creating some interesting wind shifts. As it was a holiday on the Thursday most of the sailors arrived Wednesday night and the bar was full until quite late with people catching up and telling stories.

Thursday we had 2 races in shifty and puffy conditions. As the top mark was close to shore and in less wind some big gaps opened up as the leaders got into the wind on the first reach and just disappeared. If you were not in the first bunch then the possibility to catch up was pretty much gone from there. Oliver Gronholz won the first race by about 20cm from André Budzein and Jørgen Svendsen another 30cm behind. André then won the second from Jørgen with Gunter Arndt a bit further back in 3rd. Most people had quite mixed results. The beer available on the ramp after sailing was a welcome sight for all and there were plenty of stories of gains and losses as it was a bit like playing snakes and ladders. As it was around 20kts in the gusts it was very interesting and demanding sailing. The German association had their annual meeting after a Bbq from the club. With the amount of free beer available it was surprising there were not many hangovers the next day. Then again it is good beer!

Friday dawned with a bit of fog and not so much wind. 3 races were planned and we managed, due to the efforts of the race committee to get them all in and in reasonable time. The 3rd race was quite light and the first 3 at the top mark were Bo Rekkers from Denmark (a former Dragon World Champion), Greg and Jule. Jule passed Greg downwind and these places stayed the same until the finish with André hanging on for 4th. The next 2 races were dominated by Jørgen Svendsen who simply sailed away from the fleet showing very good speed. Martin Von Zimmermann returned to form for a couple of well earned 2nds. The rest of the fleet were up and down and sometimes all over the place. The fleet was treated to another very nice dinner in the extremely hospitable club.

The plan was to have the last 3 races on Saturday so we could all party hard and then drive home on Sunday. It wasn’t looking too good though as the morning appeared with no wind and fog covering the lake. However we are all pretty good at waiting around. Luckily it cleared and some wind arrived. The 6th race was started in not so much wind and Jørgen and André battled around the course. Jørgen had a good lead but when the wind died completely on the run it was André who took a big risk that paid off when the wind came in on his side. Jule snuck in for 2nd and Oliver 3rd with Jørgen 4th.

The start of the last race saw a group of the leaders start at the pin end (which was actually normal here) but Jule was basically just the fastest and she rolled the fleet to lead at the top mark. From there she just sailed away making no mistakes to win easily. Bo Rekkers snuck through on the run to get to 2nd and the rest where close with around 15 seconds between the next 8 boats at the bottom mark. It was a fairly short beat to the finish so some guys took some risks to get past and the places got a bit mixed up. In the end the day belonged to Jule though and she improved from 20th on the first day to 8th overall in the end.

Jørgen Svendsen was a deserving champion who sailed a very clean and clever regatta. It helped that he was also the fastest on the lake in any wind. André sailed well as usual for 2nd and Martin had his best result for some time to take 3rd. Greg was a clear 4th from Bo Rekkers Anderson.

One of the highlights of the regatta was that Mik Mak was back. He borrowed a boat and made the effort to come and eat a lot of ice cream and drink a lot of coffee and talk really a lot. This obviously took a lot out of him as only managed to finish 3 races. I guess he needs to work on his fitness for his finn campaign! Still it was great to see him and the other sailors from Denmark, France and Belgium who made the effort to get there.

Overall it was a nice and very well organized regatta. The club did a great job with food and drinks and the race organization was also good. The wind conditions made it interesting and I think everyone had their good and bad moments. In the end the best sailor won and a good time was had by all. Many thanks to Marina and Jan-Dietmar for the fantastic prizes for all of the 54 competitors!

2013 German National Championship – Results
Pos Sailno. Name Club R1 R2 R3 R4 R5 R6 R7 R8 Tot-1
1 DEN 1427 Jørgen Svendsen 3 2 7 1 1 4 2 8 20
2 GER 782 André Budzien SYC 2 1 4 6 7 1 8 3 24
3 GER 693 Martin von Zimmermann SVAOE 6 10 5 2 2 6 3 6 30
4 NZL 544 Greg Wilcox PSV 4 7 3 5 4 9 5 9 37
5 DEN 14 Bo Reker Andersen 12 15 1 4 9 7 11 2 46
6 GER 772 Oliver Gronholz SSC 1 9 9 10 12 3 16 4 48
7 DEN 1280 Jorgen Lindhardtsen 5 5 14 14 3 11 29 5 57
8 GER 767 Juliane Hofmann PSV 17 25 2 15 15 2 7 1 59
9 GER 773 Rüdiger Prinz SCST 14 11 OCS 8 6 5 9 7 60
10 GER 740 Gunter Arndt FYC 7 3 16 9 8 15 10 20 68
11 GER 778 Sönke Behrens SCOE 9 6 10 3 11 21 21 12 72
12 DEN 10 Jens Lauge 30 8 11 7 5 27 4 10 72
13 GER 695 Erik Bork SSCRa 23 18 12 17 19 10 6 11 93
14 GER 787 Ralf Tietje SVG 8 4 15 18 10 30 25 25 105
15 GER 777 Andreas Pich LYC 28 20 13 11 17 18 13 13 105
16 GER 757 Falk Hagemann SWS 38 30 19 16 16 12 1 15 109
17 GER 731 Thomas Glas SSC 26 16 8 12 18 20 31 18 118
18 GER 225 Jan Dissel SGS 13 14 6 35 21 29 30 14 127
19 GER 762 André Hennings CKA 16 17 24 13 13 49 20 32 135
20 GER 771 Ralf Mackmann SCH 31 22 17 29 28 8 12 26 142
21 GER 775 Jörg Rademacher SCST 41 13 20 20 14 14 24 DNC 146
22 GER 765 Rainer Pospiech YCBG 24 23 22 19 20 31 15 33 154
23 POL 7 Marek Bernat 19 33 21 37 31 22 17 19 162
24 GER 737 Thorsten Schmidt SCV 10 26 39 22 23 39 23 28 171
25 GER 726 Jörg Sylvester SSC 20 24 27 30 27 36 39 16 180
26 GER 690 Carsten Saß LYC 39 27 23 24 32 33 27 21 187
27 GER 750 Dirk Dame SVM 15 DNC 26 32 34 34 28 22 191
28 GER 697 Jörg Posny SCST 32 32 34 34 25 23 19 29 194
29 GER 632 Fabian Gronholz SSC 21 29 43 43 22 19 35 34 203
30 GER 727 Frank Strelow LYC 22 21 28 33 38 43 38 30 210
31 GER 735 Dirk Gericke SGE 25 31 36 46 33 28 41 24 218
32 GER 662 Gerd Breitbart SCOE 36 36 33 28 29 25 34 35 220
33 GER 643 Jürgen Illers SCO 34 34 DNS 23 35 24 32 41 223
34 GER 1 Andreas Deubel HSC 18 19 DNS DNS DNS 26 18 27 224
35 GER 715 Sven Beye SSC 42 39 32 36 24 16 36 DNC 225
36 GER 607 Christian Heinze SCV DNC DNC 31 31 26 40 26 17 229
37 GER 642 Claus Stockhardt SSCP 35 28 48 27 36 38 37 31 232
38 BEL 214 Paul Verrijdt DNC DNC 29 39 42 13 14 38 233
39 GER 688 Ronald Foest DRS 50 42 18 41 49 42 33 23 248
40 GER 651 Heinz Ridder SVPB 37 37 37 44 41 17 44 43 256
41 GER 781 Stefan Haage WYC 40 38 40 26 45 37 40 36 257
42 GER 567 Jan Beckmann SVPB 45 DNC 46 38 46 35 22 39 271
43 GER 680 Jan-Dietmar Dellas OYC 11 12 50 47 50 DNC DNC DNC 286
44 GER 774 Michael Wolf SSCP 43 DNC 38 42 40 44 43 37 287
45 GER 783 Karsten Kath SVN 27 DNC 41 45 44 41 48 44 290
46 GER 640 Sven Marchot SGS 44 40 49 48 47 32 42 40 293
47 FRA 1823 Guillaume De Kervénoael 29 35 25 40 DNF DNC DNC DNC 303
48 GER 1715 Volker Paatz SVB 46 41 47 49 43 45 47 46 315
49 DEN 1414 Jens Makitolm 33 DNC 30 21 DNS DNC DNC DNC 316
50 GER 748 Wilhelm Kath SVN DNC DNC 42 50 30 48 45 45 318
51 DEN 1407 Malte Pedersen 48 DNC 35 25 37 DNC DNC DNC 319
52 FRA 1820 Raymond Dodard DNC DNC 45 51 48 46 46 42 336
53 GER 724 Marina Dellas OYC 47 DNC 44 53 39 47 50 DNF 338
54 GER 630 Norbert Petrausch TSVS 49 DNC 51 52 51 50 49 47 349