X-35 Worlds and X-41 Europeans at Kieler Woche - Day 3
by Hermann Hell 26 Jun 2009 23:25 BST
20-28 June 2009
White horses on Kiel Fjord, no dinghy racing
With white wave crests cascading over the breakwater of Kiel Schiksee whipped up by winds of well over 30 knots it was generally precieved as a good idea to cancel most classes' races already ashore. So there was no small boat racing in Kiel today. Among the few classes that eventually did race though were the X-Yachts sailing in their respective championships. As expected great sailing, high speeds, shredded sails and a serious crash were the results of the day.
Many sailors racing in both the X-35 and X-41 championships met at the sailmaker's tent after coming ashore. After a day like today North Sail's repair team around Stefan Matschuk work aruond the clock to mend batten pockets, holes and luff tapes to get teams on track again for tomorrow's races. Also first war stories were swapped. So "König & Cie" hit the speed of 19. 5 knots. While Sönke Meier-Sawatzkis X-35 "NiRaMo x-xtreme" (Kiel) hit something else – another boat. It was Albert Kooijman's "Just4Fun" from the netherlands that was holed in a prestart collision. Meier-Sawatzki's team had to abandon all racing immediatley. The boat headed for the nearest crane and was hauled out on the spot as "NiRaMo x-xtreme" was severly damaged just above the waterline at the bow. Consequently "Just4Funs" standings plummeted after still holding second place overall this morning handing the top spot over the Italian boat yesterday. "NiRaMo x-treme's" owner admitted mistake and "Just4Fun" does not continue racing.
Alessandro Solerios X-35 "Lelagain" from Italy still leads the rankings as does the german "König & Cie" helmed by Sven Erik Horsch in the X-41-class. But they are only two points ahead of "Lexington" from Norway.
Nine yachts of the X-35-class could not take the start of the second race today. Having completed seven races under the guidance of race officer Eckard Reinke both titles in will be decided tomorrow for the second time in Kiel. There is less wind is forecast for tomorrow.
There is a diffuse attraction to staying ashore on a windy day in the middle of a series. The reason maybe being that it is the only time during a regatta racing sailors really can relax-suddenly crews are donated free time in their campaigns. So for somereason it'sa great n relief when races are cancellled. So lazying in the sun and doing minor maintenance work to boats was most crew's racing in the SAP European Championship in the 505 task for today.
Some teams in the class though might have come to KielerWoche for a battle and wanted to race. With four races scheduled for tomorrow the series is still far from over and some teams whished that a decision over the title was made sooner rather than later. But most crews agreed that it was wise not to sail. Cancellation of all of today's 505 races today was great luck for the cousins Jörgen and Jacob Bojsen-Möller holding second place overall. The danes attended Jörgen's son's school's graduation event in Danmark and left the alltogether today. Due to the wind their absence did not change the results and they are still in hunt of the title.
Crew Johannes Tellkamp clinging to place five overall having won two races yesterday with helm Jens Findel (Kiel) was overheard to say that the team liked sailing in windy conditions as everything ran "smoother and clearer" then. But by a general decision taken by the race committee at midday they also had to stay ashore.
Full results at www.kieler-woche.de