Kieler Woche 2014 - Day 2
by Hermann Hell 22 Jun 2014 21:42 BST
21-29 June 2014
Gusts: Reefing as part of the race program
If the low above Scandinavia and the high above the British islands move together, it will not get tight for Kiel between these pressure systems, but windy. This is exactly, what the sailors did see the second race day of Kiel Week. Sudden gusts with much more than 30 knots did hit the fjord in Kiel, so organisational head Peter Ramcke hat to cancel one race after the other on the courses of the Olympic and Paralympic classes. In the end only the Lasers could sail close to the shore.
Chief of the offshore courses H.-Eckhard von der Mosel could tell about spectacular images from the offshore course, since the yachts were doing their 40 mile race from Eckernfoerde to Kiel with exhilarating speed.
Wind and waves were building up on Sunday even more than on Saturday, which already had been pretty rough. Race director Ramcke already decided in the morning to set the white-red burgee to signal the postponement of the race. That the signal went down a bit later the afternoon, did suit title-holder Philipp Buhl (Kiel/Germany) well. He had been hoping for some races during the day to have a chance for a victory in his home sailing area after having been penalised for pumping on the first race day. "For the Laser, these conditions are doable. What more can happen as to capsize and continue sailing afterwards?", asks Buhl when speaking to Ramcke. He became his chance and finished on places 5, 3 and 7 and thus made the cut for the gold fleet.
On position six he did get in contact with Karl-Martin Rammo (Estland) in the top ranking. Tobias Schadewaldt is higher in the ranking on third position. The sailor from Oldenburg did return into the Laser after starting with the 49er in the Olympics 2012. In this class a competitive sports career is possible next to a regular job, says Schadewaldt: "Currently Philipp is much better. But why should this prevent me from trying it? First of all it is about having fun and try to make it to Rio."
The yacht sailors did pick up speed on Sunday and were surpassing each other in telling stories in the evening about hot spinnaker runs. But none of the monohulls hat the slightest chance against the 70ft trimaran "Musandam Oman". The international crew with skipper Damian Foxall (Ireland) and the two crew members Anna-Maria Renken and Tim Kroeger from northern Germany made the 20.4 mile trip to Kiel lighthouse in only 52 minutes and 33 seconds. For the combined ranking as the fastest boat in the races Kiel-Eckernfoerde and Eckernfoerde-Kiel, they did get the largest trophy of the day at the prize giving in the evening in Kiel, the Krupp trophy.
The fleet of the international German Championship did also go on a 40 mile zig-zag course, in the bay of Eckernfoerde, up to Schleimuende and then to Kiel. And this is where the fun started. "To Schleimuende we made15 knots with the storm spinnaker", tells "Tutima" helms woman Kirsten Harmstorf obviously excited. Kai Mares from the "One4All" had even more stories to tell: "We did cross the 20 knots mark. I am very satisfied, that my young crew could handle these conditions."
Given this thrill of speed he could cope with some minor damages just like the crew of "Tutima" and also "Silva Neo" skipper Dennis Gehrlein: "We have to bring the Genoa IV to the sailmaker now, but it was fun. We sometimes had 21 knots on the speedo." But no other yacht could keep up with the "Platoon" with tactician Markus Wieser. The 47ft racer did sweep away from the others, but also had to be quite in front to gain victory on corrected time. The results were still being calculated until the late evening.
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