{"id":3429,"date":"2026-09-18T20:43:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-18T18:43:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wir-sind-wir.org\/?p=3429"},"modified":"2026-09-30T07:29:32","modified_gmt":"2026-09-30T05:29:32","slug":"a-small-club-a-big-weekend-day-one-of-the-heinz-kettler-cup-final-in-belgium","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wir-sind-wir.org\/en\/a-small-club-a-big-weekend-day-one-of-the-heinz-kettler-cup-final-in-belgium\/","title":{"rendered":"A small club, a big weekend: Day one of the Heinz Kettler Cup final in Belgium"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Set-up, check-in and an opening night that already says a lot about this final<\/p>\n\n\n\n

B\u00fctgenbach, 18 September 2026.<\/strong> On Friday, the final of the 2026 Heinz Kettler Germany Cup got underway at the B\u00fctgenbach Dam. For the first time in the series\u2019 history, a race day is being held outside Germany \u2013 around twelve kilometres beyond the German-Belgian border, at the Royal Yacht Club Warche in East Belgium.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Friday was devoted to setting up and check-in. And to the first impression that stuck with everyone who arrived that day: the club is small. What its team has managed to put together here over the past few days, however, is anything but. A wonderful venue for the final of the Heinz Kettler Cup has been created on the club\u2019s lakeside grounds, set up by a large team of volunteers alongside the club\u2019s day-to-day operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vorbereitungen, Check-in und ein Er\u00f6ffnungsabend, der bereits viel \u00fcber dieses Finale aussagt<\/p>\n\n\n\n

B\u00fctgenbach, 18. September 2026.<\/strong> Am Freitag fiel der Startschuss f\u00fcr das Finale des Heinz-Kettler-Deutschland-Cups 2026 am B\u00fctgenbacher Stausee. Zum ersten Mal in der Geschichte der Serie findet ein Renntag au\u00dferhalb Deutschlands statt \u2013 rund zw\u00f6lf Kilometer jenseits der deutsch-belgischen Grenze, beim Royal Yacht Club Warche in Ostbelgien.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Der Freitag war dem Aufbau und dem Check-in gewidmet. Und dem ersten Eindruck, der bei allen, die an diesem Tag ankamen, haften blieb: Der Club ist klein. Was sein Team hier jedoch in den letzten Tagen auf die Beine gestellt hat, ist alles andere als klein. Auf dem Gel\u00e4nde des Clubs am Seeufer ist ein wunderbarer Austragungsort f\u00fcr das Finale des Heinz-Kettler-Cups entstanden, der von einem gro\u00dfen Team von Freiwilligen neben dem t\u00e4glichen Clubbetrieb eingerichtet wurde.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Alexandre Grosjean received special recognition that evening. As the main organiser, he and his team put the final in B\u00fctgenbach together and did a brilliant job. On Saturday, he\u2019ll be out on the water himself, as skipper of the BLAG Sailing Team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Afterwards, it was time for dinner \u2013 Belgian style: meatballs with apple sauce and chips, the sort of home-cooked fare typically served in this corner of Europe \u2013 all homemade, all from the club kitchen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saturday will be all about sport. The regatta day begins at around 9 am with the skippers\u2019 briefing, with races scheduled to start at 10.30 am. After two of the three days of competition, the SALTO SAILING Team Norway leads the overall standings; the battle for second and third place is tight, and the host BLAG Sailing Team has a chance of securing a podium finish on home turf. As is always the case in this series, people with and without disabilities will sail together in the same crew, in the same boats, under the same rules, without a separate classification. The 2026 title will be decided on Sunday at 4.30 pm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our thanks for this opening event go to the Royal Yacht Club Warche<\/strong> and its team, the Heinz Kettler Foundation<\/strong> as the series\u2019 namesake and main sponsor, and the municipality of B\u00fctgenbach<\/strong>. The final is being held as part of the \u2018People to People\u2019 Small Project Fund under the Interreg Meuse-Rhine (NL-BE-DE) programme and is funded by the European Union.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Set-up, check-in and an opening night that already says a lot about this final B\u00fctgenbach, 18 September 2026. On Friday, the final of the 2026 Heinz Kettler Germany Cup got underway at the B\u00fctgenbach Dam. For the first time in the series\u2019 history, a race day is being held outside Germany \u2013 around twelve kilometres […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":3428,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wir-sind-wir.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wir-sind-wir.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wir-sind-wir.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wir-sind-wir.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wir-sind-wir.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3429"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.wir-sind-wir.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3429\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3464,"href":"https:\/\/www.wir-sind-wir.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3429\/revisions\/3464"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wir-sind-wir.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wir-sind-wir.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wir-sind-wir.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wir-sind-wir.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}