According to Thomas Hemp, skipper of the JOLLY JUMPER, “The Travemünde Week was again a great success. The great social program, 3 days of sun, wind and wave and the exciting races on the water made for a perfect sailing weekend; and also making for an excellent celebration of the 125th anniversary of Travemunde Week. Next? The J/22 Worlds 2015 are coming to town!” Hemp continues to say that, “17 teams, including three from the Netherlands and one from France, arrived to the shipyard on Wednesday. The cranes proceeded as usual, quickly and smoothly on launching all the boats. For the first day of racing, we sailed along with the 505 class to Course Bravo, which was very far out. There was a constant wind with 10-14 knots from the Northeast, splendid summer weather and 1-1.5 m waves. Three races were sailed with virtually no wind shifts, but the right side was generally better. We had no problems with the waves, our height and the necessary boat speed. But, whoever got the jump at the starting line and led the fleet right often won. It was difficult to pass on a tactical basis since every leg was almost always the same strategy, no surprises there. After an exhausting first day of sailing Martin Menzner and his crew led by a single point ahead of local hero Svend Hartog. Sailing on the second day was actually like the day before, except that we enjoyed instead of the predicted rain lots of bright sunshine and a perhaps slightly higher waves. After three more races, Svend Hartog and his crew had three faultless races (2-1-1) and were now leading the J/22 fleet. On Saturday, the wind-god ‘Rasmus’ ran out of steam. In the morning, the Bay of Lübeck lay flat and unmoved. But the weakening gradient wind was unexpected, so the thermals could develop. Ultimately, the sun broke through the clouds and we got reasonable sailing conditions. The weak wind filled in nicely, and we got two more races off for the final day. Our second race was exciting, only Menzner was faster and ahead. We were in second place, but with just meters to go to the finish, lost our place to the Dutch team led by Jean-Michel Lautier. After the two races, the clear winner of the J/22 German Masters was the Kieler crew of Martin Menzner. Second was local hero from Lubeck, Svend Hartog. Third was the Netherlands team led by Jean-Michel Lautier.” For more J/22 Germany sailing information, visit http://www.j22kv.de/.

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