Kieler Woche Day 1: German frontrunners in the 49er and 49er FX classes
by Kieler Woche 22 Jun 19:17 NZST
20-29 June 2025
After a dynamic rounding of the buoys to take the overall lead after the first day of the 49erFX at Kieler Woche: Katharina Schwachhofer and Elena Stoltze © Felix Diemer/Kieler Woche
Fantastic summer weather with light but quite variable winds meant a reduced sailing program for more than 2000 participants at the start of Kieler Woche on Saturday (21 June). With the exception of the iQFOiL class and the wingfoilers on the eastern shore of the Kiel Fjord, however, all disciplines produced exciting races. The first local overall leaders in the third part of the Sailing Grand Slam all come from Lake Constance. Katharina Schwachhofer and Elena Stoltze are in the lead in the Olympic 49erFX class, as are Moritz Dorau and Riko Rockenbauch by surprise in the 49ers ahead of crews from eleven other nations.
In ILCA 7, 19-year-old Max Stiff (Germany) surprised everyone by finishing third behind unbeaten Australian Lawson McAullay. Behind the top three, Ole Schweckendiek from Kiel is lurking in fifth place after finishing seventh. Due to an UFD, three-time Olympian Philipp Buhl, who is looking to get back to the top of the world after a long break from sailing, only finished 94th. 'It still felt pretty good again, even if the result doesn't reflect that at first glance,' said the former world champion, 'the races were demanding with tactical challenges, but fair conditions.'
A look at the podium shows just how close the strong field in the 49erFX is. Helen Pais and Helen Ausman from Estonia also scored four/one and share the top position with Schwachhofer/Stoltze. With five points, Sophie Steinlein and Catherine Barthelheimer (Hamburg) in third place only missed a bullet. In contrast, the newly crowned European champions Marla Bergmann and Hanna Wille left room for improvement in 13th place.
The interim results of the ILCA 6 Men's World Championship are not very meaningful, as one of the two starting groups only completed one race on the Echo course. This was won by the German Fiete Kruck, but late in the evening he had to overcome a protest from a Norwegian who claimed that he had been rammed from behind by Kruck before the start. In the other group, Ukraine's Semen Khashchyna dominated with a third and second individual place and a large lead over Ossian Suneson (Sweden) and Thailand's Weka Bhanubandh, who only managed a 20th place after the first bullet of the day. Despite the heat, more stable winds are forecast for Sunday, so the World Championship program should be filled out.
The Norwegians Nicklas Holt and Philip Forslund finished the start of the 29er Eurocup with a clean slate in the blue starting group. The best pursuers are the siblings Boróka and Szonja Fehér from Hungary, who also followed up a fifth place with a win on the day and are tied on points in second place ahead of Poland's Mauryzy Kosmowski/Jan Marjanski. The best Germans were local heroes Tjelle Bonatz and Fiona Weimann from Kieler Yacht-Club in tenth place with 13 points.
In the morning, a record-breaking field of well over 200 sea-going yachts set off from the inner fjord for the Aalregatta to Eckernförde. First to cross the finish line was Gerhard Clausen's 'Calypso'. She took almost four hours to cover the 27.5 nautical miles and was timed at 13:01 and 19 seconds. However, the fastest according to calculated time was Jens Kuphal from Berlin with his new XR-41 'Exciter', who took almost two and a half minutes off the Danish professional Jesper Radich on the identical built 'Formula X'. This meant that the 'Exiter' also took the lead in the International German Championship among the large yachts, while Torsten Bastiansen's 'Sydbank' sailed to the top of the second group.
At the opening of the Kieler Woche regatta at midday, Schleswig-Holstein's Minister of the Interior and Sport Sabine Sütterlin-Waack and Kiel's Lord Mayor Ulf Kämpfer once again emphasized the solidarity of the city and state in the Olympic bid for the 2036, 40 or 44 sailing competitions. "Kieler Woche is the annual proof that we can do this," said the political duo in unison, "and we take the competition seriously." With Burkhard Weller, CEO of Weller Holding, the new premium partner of Kieler Woche with the car brand Lexus, a 15-time participant is now economically "fully committed" to the major event, which he opened with head of the regatta organization Dirk Ramhorst and Anna Markfort. The 470 vice world champion refrained from starting herself "with a very heavy heart" due to a sponsorship commitment by her helmsman Simon Diesch, but would have loved to have been able to compete with the Spanish title holders on the Bay of Kiel. Instead, she will co-commentate on her class during the live broadcasts on KielerWoche.TV.
Opening the Kieler Woche Regatta 2025 (from left): Minister of the Interior Sabine Sütterlin-Waack, Mayor Ulf Kämpfer, entrepreneur Burkhard Weller from the premium partner of the same name, 470er vice world champion Anna Markfort, head of organisation regatta Dirk Ramhorst and presenter Andreas Kling. Photo: Sascha Klahn/Kieler Woche
Full results available here.