TeamGaebler, winners of the German Tornado Grand Prix on Bodensee/Lake Constance. Image copyright TeamGaebler.
by Roland Gaebler
In front of the wonderful Island of Lindau at Lake Constance we had excellent weather conditions during the German Tornado Grand Prix. Friday with wind up to 18 knots from east. Saturday and Sunday light winds from the west.
Last year we finished 5th. This year we had a much better run over the 6 races. With the places 1-1-3-1-1-6 we won with 7 points just ahead of Veit Hemmeter/Dominik Halbig (GER, 9 points) who won last year. They both are the locals here and normally unbeatable. But this time we had also a bit luck some wind shifts.
In some parts the races were very tricky and it was not easy to find the right way to all the wind shifts. It was a chess game with the wind and somehow we made the right moves on the water against the best teams from Germany, Austria and Suisse.
TeamGaebler, winners of the German Tornado Grand Prix on Bodensee/Lake Constance. Image copyright TeamGaebler.
The Racecourse of the German Tornado Grand Prix was just in front of the wonderful island of Lindau. The Alps in the background. A perfect scenery for the Tornado Class. On top of this the great hospitality of the Lindau Sailing Club, who tried the best to get the races running.
We had 15 Teams from 3 Nations. Six were mixed teams. This is 40% of the fleet and shows that mixed sailing has a great standing in the international Tornado Class with the perspective to the Olympic Games 2016.
Next race is the Tornado Speedsailing www.speedsailing.org at Kieler Woche with the new Audi Sailing Arena in the centre of Kiel from the 18th to 26th June.
Team Gaebler
