5.5 Metre fleet stumped again on second day of German Open in Berlin

The 2024 5.5 Metre German Open at the YC Berlin-Grünau has been stumped for the second day running, with no sailable wind on the Mügglesee, to the south-east of Berlin. While there was a light breeze past the clubhouse, there was not enough wind on the race course to hold racing and the fleet stayed in the marina all day, enjoying the high temperatures, while some took the opportunity to cool down with a swim in the Spree.

After a week of good wind prior to the regatta, it seems to be in short supply now with two out of the three days lost. Up to five races are now planned for Saturday to get a series together, with the forecast promising at least some wind throughout the day.

The event has attracted 15 5.5 Metres of all ages and pedigrees from five nations.

Among the three Classics is the recent winner of the Enoshima Trophy, held in Venice, for boats in the same from as used during the Olympic era. Manuela V (ITA 36, Guido TOMMASI, Matteo BARISON, Filippo AMONTI), is a Raymond Hunt design from 1960, commissioned by Beppe Croce after a similar Hunt design took gold at the 1960 Olympics. Tommasi bought her in 1998 and has restored and transformed her into the beautiful boat she is today.

The oldest boat in Berlin is Rush VI (GER 111, Odin GRUPE, Jörg STRUBE, Manfred REGAL). She was designed by Einar and Carl-Eric Ohlson for the Swedish 1956 Olympic winner, Lars Thörn for the Rome Olympics in Naples in 1960, but he did not qualify as the Swedish representative. After many modifications and updates she is once again in very good condition. Rush VI also won the only ‘race’ held so far – the race back to the bar from the middle of the Mügglesee after Thursday’s racing was abandoned.

There are seven Evolutions present, the first major event since the categorisation was changed by three years from 1994 to 1997 to encompass boats that were constructed late in the period and before the trend turned to the Moderns. The main outcome of this was that the all-girl crewed Löwi (GER 120, Susanne STRUTH, Nina ZIBUSCHKA, Maren HÜLSER) is now officially an Evolution. The main era of Moderns started with the Sebastien Schmidt designed and Christoph Wilke built No Stress (GER 122, Donald LIPPERT, Jörg SONNTAG, Ralf GOEPFERT), helmed this week by local sailor Lippert.

It’s also great to see an Austrian entry, Arcano (AUT 24, Dirk HARMS, Eugen KOSSINA, Patrick LAUBICHLER), a beautiful Britton Chance jr design from 1981.

Of the five moderns present, which include last year’s German champions Ali Baba (GER 125, Wolf-Eberhard RICHTER, Beata KALLKOWSKI, Max Müller), and Open champions, MELX IV (GRE 6, Stavros PAPAGIANNOPOULOS, Yannis MITAKIS, Pavlos KAGIALIS), another addition to the fleet is Red&White (GER 116, Morten RAECKE, Tom STRYI, Karin KEßLER), sailing her first regatta. Designed and built by Johan Joensen, for flat waters and moderate winds in Denmark, she has a longer hull than most, with a lot of bulk forward and with a smaller sail area. Interest in her performance is acute, though this is yet to be properly experienced.

Racing continues, or rather starts, at 10.00 Saturday and all fingers are crossed that this time the Mügglesee will produce enough wind for racing.