Kiel Week-Day two

The second day of Kiel is finished. It was a typical Kiel day-one hours sail out and another hour sail in, three hour long races, and 18 knots of wind.

I ran into a bit of difficulty today in the first race. The lasers have split fleet for qualifying, and I was in blue, which normally starts second. However, yellow fleet had a general recall, and the RC decided to shift blue into the starting slot. I didnt notice the change until about 30 seconds before the start. I tossed my jacket into the water(hoping someone would pick it up so I could claim it later), and made a dash for the start. I eventually crossed the line on port 15 second after the start. Unfortunately, the first(and major) shift was a lefty, while I was stuck out on the right. I managed to catch up to tenth in the race.

After the frustration of race 3, I was determined to have a good result. I started just up from the pin, and punched out shortly after the start, rounding the first weather mark in 3rd. I made a small split on the first run, and Andy Geritzer snuck around. Up the next beat, I made small gains back on the boats ahead to round the top mark right behind Andy, with a bit of a gap behind. Andy and I both had good runs to close on Tom Slingsby, with Andy rounding first, Tom second, and me in third right with them. The bottom reach was really broad, with Tom and I going high, and Andy slightly lower. Tom slipped by Andy, and towards the mark, I was making my move, but unfortunately needed one more foot to catch Andy at the mark. I had an average mark rounding, and got pinned by Diego Romero, who had a stellar bottom reach, and snuck by me on the last dash upwind.

In race 5, I started mid-line, and quickly punched out. The fleet held out to the left, and I tacked slightly earlier to lead them back right. I had Denis Karpak to weather, and the two of us charged back to the right to round 1-2. Denis sailed the next three legs slightly ahead. On the last run, I closed the distance, and to round just behind him for the bottom reach. Again, it was very broad, and I seemed to have a touch more pace. At the last mark, I was slightly ahead, but owed room to Denis. I had almost a boat length on him so I elected to round wide, and to leeward for the last beat to the finish. I pinched him off, and then protected my lead for the last little beat to win the race.

Overall, it is a bit of a weird day. I moved up 5 spots to 6th overall, which is really good, but on the otherhand, missing the start in the first race, and not attacking hard enough on the bottom reaach in race 4 cost me dearly in the points tally. I know that I will need to tidy up my sailing in the coming weeks, as I cant afford to be giving up bankable points. These points decide who wins and loses the event.