No Stress (GER 122, Donald LIPPERT, Jörg SONNTAG, Ralf GOEPFERT) has won the 2024 5.5 Metre German Open at the YC Berlin-Grünau after five races were sailed on Saturday. Last year’s Open champions MELX IV (GRE 6, Stavros PAPAGIANNOPOULOS, Yannis MITAKIS, Pavlos KAGIALIS) had their chances, but twice lost the lead in races to end second while last year’s German champions Ali Baba (GER 125, Wolf-Eberhard RICHTER, Beata KALLKOWSKI, Max Müller) finished third. 15 5.5 Metres from five nations were taking part.
After two days of no wind, the fleet finally had a lot of racing on Saturday. Five short sharp races turned the championship into more of a mini-series but nevertheless, it was a valid series, with the race team putting on a slick display to keep the course fair in the shifty winds.
The wind started light with a big shift out of first start. No Stress led out of the pin and rounded first to extend for a huge win with Ali Baba second all the way. The classic, Manuela V (ITA 36, Guido TOMMASI, Matteo BARISON, Filippo AMONTI) crossed third.
MELX IV levelled the score in the next race, with No Stress in second and Manuela V third, the light winds producing little speed difference between boats built 50 years apart.
The wind had stabilised for the third race, but MELX IV was a little too early at the pin and rerounded. No Stress was first to tack away and led at top. MELX IV proved faster downwind but chose the opposite gate, which let No Stress away and she regained the lead. The final downwind was close, with both boats overlapped at the finish. Ali Baba was third.
It was turning into a two-boat race and in the longer race 4, while No Stress won the pin, MELX IV was first to tack into pressure to lead round first lap with a nice lead. However, on the second best the wind died, and No Stress was the first into new pressure from the right and rounded with good lead to win from MELX IV and Ali Baba.
The fifth and final race again suffered a huge shift on the first upwind. Both MELX IV and No Stress were too early at the pin and rounded to start again. Both found a nice gap and with the big left shift pushed out on port and sailed away from the fleet. This time, MELX IV made no mistakes for a big win, while No Stress crossed second and Ali Baba again third.
In the classic class, Manuela V sailed away with the lead, finishing fourth overall and beating several moderns in the process. The first Evolution was Striezi (GER 107, Johannes SCHMEDERER, Florian LAUTENSCHLÄGER, Christian SCHÖNBACH), sailing well to end up seventh overall.
Lippert, skipper on No Stress, is a local hero who knows the lake well and while he admitted to not having the speed of some other boats, he knew where to go for the best chances of success and today that worked well. For both Lippert and Sonntag, this is their second German title, Lippert winning in 2019 and Sonntag as crew in 2012.
Lippert said, “We had five nice races today, and the lake showed some of its best sides, but we were lucky after two days of no wind.
“It was not easy to sail on the Mügglesee today. The Greeks were very good sailors, and I see that they are helming the boat much better than us, but I made some better decisions. On the open sea you have to sail with speed but here you have to take the right shift. And then you are lucky and get 50 metres back.
“But everything was fine today, and it was very close between first and second, and I had to remember all the shifts of the last years here to win. It was a great event.”
Final results
1 No Stress (GER 122, Donald LIPPERT, Jörg SONNTAG, Ralf GOEPFERT) 5
2 MELX IV (GRE 6, Stavros PAPAGIANNOPOULOS, Yannis MITAKIS, Pavlos KAGIALIS) 6
3 Ali Baba (GER 125, Wolf-Eberhard RICHTER, Beata KALLKOWSKI, Max Müller) 11
4 Manuela V (ITA 36, Guido TOMMASI, Matteo BARISON, Filippo AMONTI) 16
5 Red&White (GER 116, Morten RAECKE, Tom STRYI, Karin KEßLER) 18
Full results here: https://www.manage2sail.com/en-US/event/GO55MR#!/
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