A-Class German Nats 2014: Thilo Keller Champ
All Images Catarina Jentzsch – Thilo Keller won the 2014 German Nats with 13pts gap racing his Arrow MKII. 4 bullets and all top ten results minus a bfd. Second place for Pontus Johnsson on a Marstrom and 3rd for Mischa Heemskerk on the latest DNA tech.
A good combo outcome for the Class: Thilo winning on his own Arrow design, a legendary Marstrom finishing second with Pontus , the Polish promises ending 4 & 6th and Mischa flying bullets with more wind.
Mischa had 3 bullets but a pair of +10th and a bfd put him in 3rd.
Grand Master Mathias Dietz was sailing an Exploder, surely getting in rhythm as he told me at Bordeaux he was training to learn flying. But it seems the Nikita was the boat for this event with some light wind races.
A good mix should be the Nikita with updated foils as Thomas Paasch used few weeks ago to win the Nordics.
As I saw live at Bordeaux the foilers have an advantage with some breeze mainly on giving a major gap, considering leveled sailor skills against not flying boats, but still not granting you any crown if you are not up to par with the best sailors.
Thilo and his Arrow MKII are a good proof of that.
Top ten below. Full Results Here
| R | Land | Sail | Yachtname | Segler | Club | 1.W | 2.W | 3.W | 4.W | 5.W | 6.W | 7.W | 8.W | 9.W | 10.W | 11.W | 12.W | Tot |
| 1 | GER | 7 | Arrow MKII | Keller, Thilo | BYC | 3 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 1 | 6 | (BFD) | 3 | 3 | -8 | 27 |
| 2 | SWE | 22 | Marstrom | Johnsson, Pontus | Ystad ss | 2 | 6 | 8 | -11 | 6 | 2 | 3 | 3 | (BFD) | 2 | 5 | 3 | 40 |
| 3 | NED | 28 | DNA – Holland C | Heemskerk, Mischa | W.S.V. D | 1 | 4 | 6 | 6 | 10 | -14 | 2 | 9 | (BFD) | 1 | 1 | 2 | 42 |
| 4 | POL | 15 | DNA | Bendyk, Tymek | UKS Navi | 7 | 8 | 1 | 8 | 2 | -10 | 4 | -18 | 4 | 5 | 2 | 7 | 48 |
| 5 | GER | 85 | Schulte, Guido | MSVWism | 4 | -13 | 11 | (BFD) | 3 | 8 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 6 | 7 | 6 | 53 | |
| 6 | POL | 11 | Scheurer | Badzio, Marcin | UKS Navi | 5 | 9 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 7 | 8 | -10 | (BFD) | 9 | 4 | 1 | 55 |
| 7 | NED | 117 | Tante Truus | Groot, Jan | ZVR | 8 | -24 | 12 | -32 | 11 | 4 | 16 | 2 | 3 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 80 |
| 8 | DEN | 18 | ScanNet | Hansen, Jorgen | Ks | -14 | 14 | 9 | 10 | 8 | 12 | -15 | 5 | 10 | 4 | 6 | 5 | 83 |
| 9 | DEN | 13 | EPO | Schrøder, Lars | frederic | 9 | 5 | 2 | 14 | -20 | 1 | 6 | 12 | 17 | -21 | 16 | 4 | 86,5 |
| 10 | GER | 3 | Baustelle 2 | Dietz, Matthias | PSG | -15 | 10 | 7 | 14 | 9 | 6 | 12 | 8 | 1 | 10 | 11 | (DNC) | 88,5 |
For shure the Wannsee is not a good place for flying, because the wind is very unstable.
It is a lake surrounded by many big trees and quite some buildings. Not the place to make real speed contest ….. but to show who is a good tactical sailor.
Mischa Heemskerk would have been way closer to Thilo Keller, if he hasnt broken one board on saturday, sailing with a c- and z-board is strange, he said.
It was WARP-speed when he was up on foils, 20-30% faster. the new DNA-boards seems easier to handle than the j-boards, so no breakdancing while sailing
Very challenging racingarea, best sailors won
best Lars
even if Heemskerk boards where fine, he would´ve been only a few points closer, but not taking the lead at all. It´s not all about flying in an tactical area.