36 teams, 15 nations (Germany, Switzerland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Italy, Poland, France, Turkey, Lithuania, Latvia, Australia, Great Britain, and Vanuatu), and 72 races sailed on a matched fleet of six J/70 one-design sailboats.
The final of the 2022 Sailing Champions League as part of the Travemünde Week could hardly have ended more exciting.
After the sovereign performance and the clear victory in the preliminary round, the NRV Hamburg made it into the final of the top four with one point. Another point would have been enough to win the Final Four. But, the Hamburgers’ helmsman David Chapman made it exciting.
Due to a false start in the first race, the team missed the chance of a quick overall victory. Instead, all three competitors also sailed a point in the other races. The decision was only made in the last of the four possible final races, but still in favor of the NRV team.
If the team from Lithuania hadn’t withdrawn, the NRV wouldn’t have started at the final of the Sailing Champions League (SCL) because the team hadn’t qualified in advance. Equipped with a wild card, the Hamburg team took the chance and took the lead in the field on day two.
After that, everything seemed to point to a clear victory for Hamburg. But the Champions League has its own laws, the Final Four has its own special drama, and suddenly everything was set to zero.
“We thought it would be a relaxed number in the final since we were so good in the preliminary round,” said Florian Thoelen from the NRV team. However, after the team started too early in the first final race and the Finns won, the cards were reshuffled. There was no decision in the second race either. The point went to Denmark.
Thus, in the third race of the final, three teams had the chance to win: the NRV, Finland, and Denmark. But the tension wasn’t high enough. The Swiss also continued their victory and made the Final Four a showdown for all teams in the fourth race.
For the native Australian, it’s the second final victory in the Champions League, but the first with the NRV team.
“This win is even more special than the first with Sydney. That was very exciting. We started with a mixed team, but after two days we had to replace Olympic sailor Anastasiya Winkel with Leon Passlack because Anastasiya was recalled to duty as a sports soldier,” he said and was looking forward to winning in the evening with his team to celebrate.
His NRV team was happy to have had Chapman at the tiller in the Champions League final.
“We used to be very close to winning in St. Moritz, but then we finished second because David Chapman sailed for Australia and took the whole thing away from us. This time we were lucky that he was on our team. And we did it.
We didn’t actually qualify for the Champions League, but slipped in two days earlier and started with a wild card.
That’s how we threw our team together. But, since everyone in the NRV sails at a good level, that didn’t matter,” said Florian Thoelen, a two-time champion in the J/70.
