Fourth consecutive victory for Beluga Sailing Team
Once more, Beluga Sailing Team around Bremen based helmsman Christian Plump has proven its top shape at the international German Championship in offshore sailing. An extensive advantage after seven races secured the IDM (international German Championship) victory for Beluga Sailing Team. Only four events were raced this year. All of the first places were won by Beluga Sailing Team. „We could never have wished for a better and more succesfull preparation for this years IMS World Championship“ as an excited Christian Plump puts it. This is the first German IMS Champion title for Christian Plump in his extensive career in offshore sailing.
All competitors had to face extremely hard conditions at the German Championship hosted in Warnemünde from July 7th till July 11th. Winds ranging from calm to gale conditions followed the fleet along the 85 nautical mile offshore race involving every crew member in this battle across the Baltic Sea. „Our true boatspeed topped 17 knots at times surfing along under spinnaker. Despite the fun in it, this has been hard work for everyone on board as well as extremely strenuous for the boat itself“ as Belugas mainsail trimmer Leif-Tom Loose sums up the past hours at sea.
Compared with the competitions hefty damages leading to abandoned races, Beluga Sailing even managed to get their boat safely back into the harbour with an impressive 6 minutes lead. This motivation was further channeled into hard fighting at the race course and made Beluga Sailing dominate their competition for the next five up and down races cumulating a clear lead on the score board. This extensive lead made it happen to stay berthed for the last race as a safety precaution due to downhaul problems. „We did not want to risk a broken boom close to the IMS World Championships in mid August“ explains Christian Plump the decision to stay ashore.
After winning all four major events in Germany, Beluga Sailing is now the undisputed leader of the German IMS ranking list. This leaves the crew with some rest and some filled up motivation tanks to be able to fight for the crown as IMS World Champion 2007 in Hankö Norway between the 11th and 17th of August. „We have proven our broad band with of performance so far. The boat is in perfect trim and the crew is in good shape“ smiles a content Christian Plump. The goal of achieving a medal position at the worlds has become a bit closer as Americas Cup sailor Matti Paschen and Germanies best tactician Markus Wieser have entered the afterguard in 2007.
