Press release 71 WARNEMUENDER WOCHE 10 July 2008
Star boat offbeat – Everything OK for Karl
All sailors of the 71 WARNEMUENDER WOCHE had to suffer from a postponement due to light and very shifty winds on Thursday. But in the early afternoon a fine breeze set in from the south. For the start of the German Championships of the Olympic star boat class, Alexander Hagen and Frithjof Kleen from Hamburg showed their ambitions for the title. The ranking of the OK worlds is dominated by Karl Purdie from New Zealand.
Warnemuende, 10 July 2008 – The race officer of the star boat class showed flexibility on Thursday and switched to course Delta to find better wind conditions for the start of the German championship. Alexander Hagen and Frithjof Kleen who scored a third in Kiel week could take the lead in Warnemuende after three races. Hagen has a history in the OK class as well and was interested in the results of course Bravo today.
Looking at the list, the dominance of New Zealander Karl Purdie was even more obvious today.
In the lighter conditions he sailed his discard in the days first race, scoring a third and added a second place in the following race. His Kiwi fellows Matthew Steven and Alistair Deaves took the bullets of the day.
“Anything can happen; there are still some races left. Never count the chicken before they hitch”, said Purdie about any speculations seeing him as the next world champion. But defending title holder Nick Craig from Great Britain was not happy with his day’s results and impressed by Purdie’s performance. “It wasn’t my day, I didn’t get a lot of the shifts right and Karl is consistently very good. It will be very difficult to catch up with him”, said Craig who is ranked third overall after day three. And German former World champion Karsten Hitz, who ranks fourth after six races, sees the strong Kiwi fleet coming up as well.
Thrilling races started in the team world championship of the International 14 class on Thursday. Preparing for their upcoming worlds six teams of four boats each sailed in the match race modus on course Foxtrott. The teams from Japan, Great Britain and Germany hit the water in the early afternoon, when a constant southerly wind started and with up to four Beaufort even caused some capsizes. After the first day of competition Team Great Britain leads, leaving Team Northern Germany on second position.
Concerning the fleet of Beneteau 25, the crew of Bernd Meyer from Berlin took the lead after finishing first and third in the races of the day. The second race was won by the crew of Cornelius Heeschen from Hamburg.
The price for the fastest Yacht on corrected time in the long distance race around the Danish island of Bornholm went to the Reichl/Pugh 56 design “Scho-Ka-Kola”, sailed by Uwe Lebens and his crew.
Preview for Friday, 10 July
Int. 14 finish sailing
OK-class World Championship continues until Saturday
Beneteau 25, star boat continue until Sunday
Classes RS:X, X-79, BIC Techno, Europe, Finn, Korsar, Pirat and Dragon start racing
as well as the BMW Sailing Cup.
Schedule, results and further Information: www.warnemuender-woche.com
Media contact
phone: +49-381/63726 63, Mobile: +40-172-380 21 47, email: presse@warnemuender-woche.com
or nadja@arp-rostock.de
Please contact us if you have any questions or need pictures.
Deutscher Wetterdienst 
