Jean-Michel Lautie Crowned J/22 World Champion

(Warnemuende, Germany)- Thirty-one boats sailed the 2019 J/22 World Championship in Warnemuender, Germany this past week.  Hosted by the Warnemuender Segel-Club with help of Berliner YC and YC Berlin-Grunau, the fleet enjoyed good sailing conditions from the 6th to 13th July. The J/22 teams came from Austria, Canada, Cayman Islands, France, Germany, and The Netherlands. In the end, Jean-Michel Lautie, the “Flying Dutchman” from The Netherlands won the J/22 World Championship. Here is how it all went down over the four-day event.

Tuesday- Practice Race
In fantastic conditions, the J/22s sailed a great practice race. Of the 31 registered crews, 25 were on the race course.

"Today we had the famous Warnemünde wave. It was just a great race,” commented Holger Schmitt, Chairman of the German J/22 Class.

Race Officer Lorenz Buchler, a J/22 sailor himself, commented, “we were really jealous today. 15 to 20 knots of wind, blue sky. In short, it was awesome sailing weather!”

Favorites for the World Cup title were the Duisburg-based Reiner Brockerhoff (FRA 1444), who sailed under the French flag, and Jean-Michel Lautier (NED 1273). Lautier is a twice Vice World Champion in 2015 and 2017. In addition, Martin Menzner from Kiel, who generally sails J/80s in Germany, certainly had the experience to be at the top of the leaderboard; he finished fourth at the J/22 World Championship 2015 in Travemünde.

Wednesday- Strong Start to the Worlds
Four races were sailed on the first day and, much to everyone’s surprise, Jean-Michel Lautier won all four of them! Nevertheless, the 2019 J/22 European Champion was on form and sent a sent a clear message to his competitors. Four wins in four races make it clear that it will be hard to beat them.

The gap to runner-up Reiner Brockerhoff was already ten points. Brockerhoff, who is also one of the favorites, has made a solid start to the World Cup with fourth, second, third and fifth places. In third place, four points behind Reiner Brockerhoff, was Johan Koppernaes from Canada (with American Mike Marshall as crew- himself a J/22 World Champion).

Fourth-placed Dirk Jan Verdoorn from the Netherlands was one point behind. For the Dutchman, it was already his fourth J/22 World Championship, after two World Cups in Scheveningen and one in Travemünde. The area off Warnemünde is new to Dirk Jan Verdoorn: "It is the first time sailing in Warnemünde. I especially like the beautiful Baltic wave, as we have here," said Verdoorn.

The Kiel-based yacht designer Martin Menzner is currently in sixth place, making him the top German team. "I think the J/22 is great. I used to sail it a lot, but that was a long time ago. I have not yet grooved fully to the J/22 yet. Yesterday, I almost fell off the boat a couple of times, because of the big waves. That can only get better," said Menzner laughing.

Race officer Lorenz Buchler was very satisfied with the first day of the World Cup on the evening after the races, “today we had a great wind between 14 and 20 knots again. Over the whole day, the wind only changed about 15 degrees. In the second race today four boats were too early over the starting line. One of them was Holger Schmitt. Despite the early start, it was fun today. We got four tight races through. Nevertheless, I do not think we can repeat that tomorrow."

Thursday- The Flying Dutchman extends lead
The second day did not bring too many big surprises. Jean-Michel Lautier continued to lead the overall standings, ahead of Reiner Brockerhoff and Johan Koppernaes.

Day two started with bright sunshine and a light breeze that rarely exceeded the six-knot level required for a World Championship. Therefore, Lorenz Buchler and his team decided to postpone the race start. The weather forecast had left open the chance in the morning that a light sea breeze could build up around noon if the land would warm up enough due to the sun.

The postponement was a good decision, as the wind built by 1300 hrs to 8-10 kts. As a result, three more races were sailed. The first race was completed quickly. After that, there were slight delays. The start of the second race dragged on for almost an hour due to changing wind directions. The start line had to continuously be reset.

"That was a bit exhausting, but otherwise it was a good sailing day again today.” summarized PRO Lorenz Buchler. In the first three places, there was no change today. Jean-Michel Lautier was able to maintain his lead by taking a 6-1-1 for the day to lead with six bullets in seven races!

Friday- No Wind, Flying Dutchman Wins!
With all racing canceled for the day, the Dutchman Jean-Michel Lautier was declared the 2019 J/22 World Champion.

The winning boat was 22 years old. In many classes, that would be considered outdated. But, the J/22 is different. “We call our boat ‘the old lady’. Nevertheless, she is still quite competitive”, said Lautier. "That's what makes the class so exciting. The boats are very robust and simple. Here it doesn't matter who has the latest boats.” Overall, Jean-Michel Lautier and his fellow sailors were very satisfied with the event, “it was wonderful here in Warnemünde. We had great weather, not always the best wind, but we still managed seven races.”

Rounding out the podium was the French team of Reiner Brockerhoff in second and the Canadian John Koppernaes in third. The balance of the top five included German Martin Menzner in 4th and Dutchman Dirk Jan Verdoorn in 5th position.  For more J/22 World Championship sailing informationAdd to Flipboard Magazine.


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