At long last the first X-35 World Champion got selected! The 35 competing teams from 8 nations had to be patient and wait for adequate breeze before they could sail 3 more races on Saturday in the X-35 Worlds within the 125th Kieler Woche.

The Dutchmen on “BRS X” with skipper Cees Wieringa impressed the competition with their excellent performance and top results after 9 races; they definitely justified winning the first world championship title of this X-35 one design keelboat class! Mark Richmond, GBR with his team on “Cool Running” was 2nd, and Mati Sepp, EST and crew on “Hermes-X” 3rd in the overall results.

“We sailed clean starts, reacted positively on any wind shift and improved our trimming and tactics during the permanently changing wind speed and direction. We mainly sailed in the centre of the course and concentrated on boat speed, that’s our recipe for success!” commented the very content and happy tactician John den Engelsmann on “BRS X”. And the Dutchman continues saying: “We expected to finish within the top five, however, as first ever X-35 World Champions the team is extremely happy and even a little proud of this success. It was a well organised and fantastic regatta series within the 125th Kieler Woche.”

Vice World Champion Mark Richman on “Cool Running” expressed as brave “looser”: “We are a little disappointed, as their victory was very close. But congratulations to Cees Wieringa and “BRS X” Dutch team for their outstanding performance on the water.”

Mati Sepp, Estonia and his crew on “Hermes-X” exceeded their own expectations: “We return home with the “Bronze” title, and what more can we expect?”

Dutchman Nic Bol, last year’s unofficial champion of the X-35 Class in Medemblik, finished as 4th overall.

As best German skipper Christian Soyka (Flensburg) on “Immac X” ranked 7th and commented: “Our tactician is from Kiel and knows the race course quite well; we did not face any speed problems and are content with this result.” Soyka raced an X-99 “Baltic Bay Laboe” earlier successfully at the Worlds 2004 and in other top championships in Europe, but changed to the X-35 Class just recently and accepted this new challenge without any problems.

“The last race day wasn’t our best, yet, we are happy to be best German team. Mind you, 7th overall in this tough competition isn’t too bad!”

Second best German team on rank 9 is Torsten Bastiansen, also from Flensburg and his crew on “Xen”. The Bastiansen crew is IMS Vice World Champion on “nolimits” (IMS III) at present. “With the represented elite of X-35 teams at a world championship it is not too easy to win the title. You have to finish each race within the first 5 top teams, and – unfortunately – we were over the line in the last race.”

Achim Griese (Silver Medal Star Los Angeles 1984) on “Celox” expressed his frustration with regard to the last race: “Whatever I planned and decided on Friday, it proved to be wrong one day later!” He and his crew made tactical mistakes despite the right boatspeed, admitted Griese (Chairman of the DSV Olympic Committee) and excused his team’s poor performance. Another similar complaint comes from Tom Ross who skippered his yacht “four sea” in 27th position, but wears the hat as Chairman of the race organisation of the X-35 World Championship by saying: “Nevertheless, the X-35 Worlds were a highlight of Kieler Woche 2007, and the racing was extremely successful and of high standard!”