400,000 visitors at half-time

The organizers of Travemuende Week are more than happy with the first half of the event. Up to Tuesday evening around 400,000 visitors have visited the world’s second biggest sailing event and the festival mile with more than 150 stalls and twelve stages.

In seven of the 37 boat classes overall, the winners have already been named. Whereas the 29er Eurocup was seized by the overwhelming British team Tristan Jaques and Alain Sign, the 505 Eurocup remained in the the Land Schleswig-Holstein: Stefan Koechlin and Axel Priegann from Molfsee now hold the title.

In the Europe Germany Cup, only the last race decided the regatta in favour of Berit BERG from Kiel, Germany. She finally won over local Svenja PULS (Luebeck Yacht Club) with one point ahead. “Berit is better than I am, but it would have been just so great to win at home,” said fair loser Svenja.

In another race too, the ever-lasting rivalry between the two North German cities Luebeck and Kiel resulted in the capital of the Land Schleswig-Holstein winning. The first Rotspon Cup was sailed in front of the Trave promenade and brought back memories of the origin of Travemuende Week. The event once sprang from a race for a bottle of Rotspon, a wine specialty made from French grapes that is bottled in Luebeck. Host and initiator Bernd Saxe, Mayor of the Hanse City of Luebeck, came second place. He lost to Roland KLEIN-KNOTT, Mayor of Kiel, who beat him in the match race final after both of them had not lost any of their respective races on 5.5mR boats. Klaus-Dieter SCHULZ, Mayor of nearby town Eutin, for many years organizer of Travemuende Week, came third and was followed by Ralf STEGNER, Minister of Finance of Schleswig-Holstein.

40,000 litres of beer and 20,000 grilled sausages were only two of the facts that Luebeck’s director of tourism, Johann W. Wagner presented after five days of Travemuende Week. “The Saturday was near record-breaking, so we are well on target despite a very rainy Sunday,” explains Wagner. But the weather forecasts paints a sunny picture for the North of Germany: It looks like summer will set in at long last in the middle of the week.

Races will continue on Wednesday (28 July) in 14 classes. Full results are available on the event website at the address below.