Final show down

As Daikin-Airco and Imagine win their classes at the fifth Baltic Sprint Cup

A superb 'Final Show Down' prizegiving party supported by SE Spezial Electronic AG at Travemünde concluded in style on Saturday the 5th Baltic Sprint Cup, the now classic international offshore series which began on July 18th at Warnemünde, Germany. VIPs were fleet patron and Lübeck Mayor Bernd Saxe, with Lübecker Yacht Club President Rolf Erwert.

This year’s course took in Rønne (Denmark/Bornholm), Västervik (Sweden), Liepâja (Latvia), Úwinoujúcie (Poland) and finally after 930 miles Travemünde where the celebrations were timed to coincide with the grand finale of the 120th Travemünde Week.

The Baltic Sprint Cup was overshadowed by the tragedy in leg 2 (Rønne-Västervik) when the skipper of the all-female crew of DHH Cross Match, Sabine Jüttner-Storp, during a difficult manoeuvre aloft fell overboard apparently unconscious and despite valiant efforts by her crew to bring her back on board, sank and was lost. Many yachts gave up their race to search, alas in vain. A service in Västervik’s St Petri Church was conducted by Provost Clas Göran Thorell where the congregation heard a moving address from ISAF President Göran Petersson who was paying a private visit to the event, and also Event Director Henning Rocholl.

Leg 2 was abandoned by the Race Committee, but at the wish of Sabine’s family and friends the flags went up again after the service at Västervik and the event continued with Leg 3. A tribute preceded the party in Travemünde where Sabine’s widower and all Baltic Sprint Cup crew members and organisers joined in an act of homage as one family.

Champions in the final, 155-mile leg from Œwinoujœcie were Daikin Airco in the IRC Division with Frans van der Heijden at the helm and Imagine in the ORC-Club Division with Holger Streckenbach. Both secured with their consistent top results, overall wins in the 4-leg series.

The sailing was varied, never unexciting, and was mostly characterised by moderate to fresh westerlies, providing fast runs and reaches plus some challenging beats, especially in the last two legs. The final race from Œwinoujœcie to Travemünde delivered almost everything: hard beating in up to 32 knots, lightning and rapid shifts in a powerful thundery low, and a near-calm which made the spread at the finish line very long: It was Saturday morning at 02:14 when the last boat Oline (delayed after fixing a rig problem at anchor en route) crossed the finish line almost 13 hours behind Dr Uwe Lebens in Scho-Ka-Kola who took line honours and won the silver cup for the fastest yacht in the series, given in 2007 by Catharina Baronin von Toll.

The Youth Award, donated by the Stiftung Hochseesegeln Hamburg was won and shared by the SVAOe-Youth Crew of Luv with Daniel Rüter at the helm (ORC Club Division) and the youth crew of the Warnemünder Segel Club with their hot racer Utsider under Jan Brügge. Last year’s second winner overall under IRC, David Aisher (RORC) and Felix Scheder-Bieschin (NRV and RORC) re-donated the team prize they’d won 1998 as the Faxe Skagen Cup to the Baltic Sprint Cup as an IRC-Team Award won this year by the C’n’C team Scho-Ka-Kola and Daikin Airco. The ORC Club Team Award, presented by Heinz von Häfen was won by the Team East/West, König & Xie and Imagine. Finally Scho-Ka-Kola won the Baltic Sprint Cup Award for the best yacht in the last two Cups (2008 and 2009), donated by the inaugural committee of 2006, Alan Green, Sven Herlyn, Henning Rocholl and Michael Steen Jensen.

Line honours winner Dr Uwe Lebens commented: “For seamanship this was the best series and the closest finish ever. This event over the last five years has become an offshore classic. The BSC race developed to high professional standard in respect of sailing and organisation. The combination of long distance and up and downs races with weather tactics and intense navigation makes the BSC most challenging. I personally count it as the top event of its kind in the Baltic and hope the organizers will soon find a new main event partner to provide the financial backing it deserves. There is a lot of potential in the event which a good partner can help enhance, in particular through strong media output both in Germany, in the stopover countries and internationally – plus building on the ‘warm welcome’ in the middle of the night, and - now I am only guessing - a more powerful team of helpers in all ports. I have great respect for the professional way the team of Alan and Henning managed to be the last one at each start and the first one at each finish. It seems they listened very carefully at school to the children’s story of ‘The Hare and the Hedgehog!’"

At the end of the prize giving ceremony Henning Rocholl thanked all members of his team which were Alan Green, Pat Healy, Peter Cockayne, Deike Schütt and Andreas Laub and handed over to each of them a helper medal.

He ended his speech with thanks to all of his partners which were SE Spezial Electronic, LIROS, Ernst Kabel Druck, HanseNautic, Henri Lloyd, Exinit, Färber Gas, MaxSea, Pantaenius, Container Ships, Riga Universal Terminals, Witt & Sohn and WetterWelt.