Michal Strumnik takes lead in OK Dinghy fleet in Kieler Woche
by Robert Deaves 19 Jun 2023 20:07 BST
17-20 June 2023
The light conditions continued at Kieler Woche with only one more race sailed on Monday for the OK Dinghy fleet. The race win went to Michal Strumnik, from Poland, who also now takes the overall lead.
After some delays and abandoned attempts to start because of the shifting wind it finally settled, relatively, and Race 3 got away first time.
Mads Hansen, of Denmark, was the early leader, after the left side paid on the first upwind and he rounded the top mark with a sizable lead. New Zealand's Greg Wilcox reeled him in on the second upwind as the wind started to shift around. Hansen stayed left and lost his lead. In the other corner, Strumnik came into the second top mark on a right shift in third place.
The last downwind was tortuous with the breeze initially coming from the left to favour Wilcox and then from the right which pushed Strumnik into the lead. He crossed just ahead of Hansen, with Wilcox crossing third.
Further racing was abandoned as the breeze failed to return, though did come in much later when the fleet was ashore.
The OK Dinghy event ends Tuesday with more light winds forecast.
Results after 3 races: (top ten)
1 POL 777 Michal STRUMNIK 4pts
2 DEN 76 Thomas GABS 6pts
3 SWE 2908 Laban SOREN 8pts
4 DEN 700 Jesper BENDIX 9pts
5 DEN 1554 Mads HANSEN 9pts
6 GER 77 Sönke BEHRENS 13pts
7 GER 72 Oliver GRONHOLZ 14pts
8 NZL 15 Greg WILCOX 16pts
9 SWE 2884 Lars BERGFELDT 16pts
10 SWE 99 Hans ELKJAER 17pts