Kiel Week-Day One

The first day of Kiel has finished up for the day. It was a relatively unusual start to the grade one with a 1pm start and only 2 races. The breeze was a moderate 10 knots and only took an hour to reach out to the course this morning. Pretty good for kiel standards, and in comparison to previous years. The first time I did this event, we didnt have a day under 18 knots(small tornados had touched down nearby to the regatta site), and took at least 1.5 hours to make it out to the course.

I had a pretty average day, but ended up with two good scores(4,5) to sit in about 9th overall. In the first race, I had a pretty good start just up from the pin. Unfortunately, I was pinned in, and had to sail through the first shift, waiting until it came back left again. At the top of the beat, I was looking at a low teens rounding, but after having to avoid a foul by a port tacker, and underlaying once, I rounded in the mid twenties. I picked off a couple boats on the top reach, then maybe 10-12 on the first run to round just in the top ten. Passed one or two up the next work, and then a couple more on the next run, reach, and last beat.

The second race for red fleet had a tricky first beat. There was a couple different breezes, and at the start, the boats at the pin were in a left breeze, and the guys at the boat were in a righty. I had a good start at the boat, but the lefty held a bit longer, and the pin end group came out a bit ahead. I tacked to leeward of the group and headed right for quite a ways. The breeze came back right a bit, and I reconnected with the group on the left. I rounded in 7th, and had good first run to close the lead on the pack in front. Around the bottom mark, the breeze was in the left. I tacked onto port, which was the long led, but unfortunately, the guys on the left had a bit more pressure, and legged out a bit. I closed the gap down on the next run and on the bottom reach, but couldnt sneak by the two boats just in front.

Racing continues tomorrow with a bit more breeze forecasted. There are 3 races scheduled with an 11AM start(930AM off the beach) so it should be an exhausting day.