Challenging conditions for the long distance race – The record could not be broken

His ambition was the “blue ribbon”. Martin Kringel from Rostock succeeded in being first ship home in the long distance race round Bornholm, but the record of the 270 sea miles-race and therefore the desirable ribbon could not be won by the blonde skipper of the Volvo 60-Yacht “Rostocker”.
The current record was set up by former employer’s union president Klaus Murmann with his “UCA” in 2001, when he finished the passage around the Danish island in 28 hours, 37 minutes and 23 seconds. Due to the strong westerly winds, the yachts arrived at Bornholm fast, but then had to take a long tack back home. The 18 meter long “Rostocker” crossed the finish line on Thursday night at 11.34:56 p.m. thus it took five hours too long to establish a new record.
“I was actually satisfied about having more wind than the forecast said, but it was clear that the record was hard to achieve”, said Kringel after arriving the in Warnemuende.
Close on their heels, the 56-footer “Scho-ka-kola” of Uwe Lebens from Norderstedt followed. Kringel and his crew frequently changed leadership with them. The racer in light-grey arrived half an hour later in Warnemuende. “We really tried everything and it was partially very close. We changed some things and by now, we are able to use the full potential of the boat, and have had so much fun”, said Lebens who sails the Reichl/Pugh 56 in his third season.
The next boats arriving was ”Glashäger”, followed by “Utsider” and “Tutima”. Concerning the crews who started within the first group on Monday morning, the “Uijuijui”, a Rainbow 42 of Friedrich Hausmann, finished first at 5.50 a.m. after 44 hours, 4 minutes and 53 seconds.
On the last miles the crew of “Quickie” experienced bad luck: The double-handed -crew of the Mini 650 fought its way against the west wind to Darßer Ort, when one of the rudders broke and they had to give up. Unfortunately, the nearby harbour ofv Darßer Ort is so shallow, that the damaged 6.50 meter yacht with 1.60 meter draught was not able to enter the port and had to go back some miles to find shelter.
The crew of “Männerpension” was hit by misfortune as well: The eleven meter long yacht of Heiko Grambow had to give up because of a broken mast. So far, 14 of the 66 yachts had to abandon the race.