Soling EM back in Warnemünde after 37 years: “Small but nice”
The Soling European Championships begin on Wednesday, July 5th as part of the 85th edition. Warnemünder Woche. For four days, until Saturday, July 8th, crews from nine nations will fight for the European Championship title.
“I’m looking forward to a small but nice European Championship in the Soling class,” says sports director Peter Ramcke. “The field is very international and promises exciting competitions.” 15 teams from nine nations are at the start. The Dutch have the largest delegation with four boats, ahead of three Norwegian teams who are sending one of the favorites into the race, skipper Kristian Nergaard. He was already vice world champion in the Melges24 but also eleven times world champion in the 5.5. Like the Soling, this keelboat can be sailed by three people. The maneuvers and trim are similar, which is why Nergaard has already had some success in the Soling.
But a Ukrainian team could also play a good role. Dmytro Yarovyy has been sailing Soling for several years. He runs his own sailing school in Kiev and made his way to Germany despite the chaos of war. At the last European Championships in Austria he finished seventh, tied on points behind Michael Dietzel, the only German skipper competing in Warnemünde.
The Omega, the identifying mark of the Soling class, is well known in Warnemünde. The former squad training base on the Baltic Sea served Jochen Schümann and his crews as the best possible preparation location for his three Olympic medal wins (1988/97 gold, 2000 silver). He was the specialist in the class that held its European Championships at the district 37 years ago. Schümann and Bernd Jäkel and Thomas Flach won the title in the field of 47 keelboats with a lead of 21 points - at that time still for the GDR. With Helmar Nauck (4th) and Jörg Herrmann (5th), two more GDR sailors from the Warnemünde training group sailed into the top five. Thomas Jungbluth from Hamburg took bronze for the Federal Republic of Germany.
The Soling class sailed for Olympic honors eight times. Most recently, the format included a mix of fleet and match racing. So in 2000 there was a dramatic match race finale between the Schümann crew and Jesper Bank in front of the Sydney Opera House, which the Dane narrowly won.
The Soling European Championships were supposed to take place in Warnemünde in 2020, but the corona pandemic, like so many events, made that happen Warnemünder Woche throw a spanner in the works.
