2-1 On Day 1, Kieler Woche

June 19th, 2010
Kiel Germany

Today we began racing at the 2010 Kieler Woche Regatta, the 6th leg of the ISAF Sailing World Cup. There was a cold wind blowing, and the rain came through the course intermittently, but overall, it was a great day of sailing.

Trimming The Sails Upwind

Photo: (c) Fried Elliott, June 2010

We had our first briefing at 9am and then went to rig our boats for an 11am start. We ended up not leaving the dock until 11am, as boats were getting last minute fixes for the day. When we did finally go out on the race course, we got to racing quite quickly. The wind was blowing off the harbor which made for very big puffs and shifts. We did three races in group A. The first race we had a great start, but didn't tack soon enough in the first shift and the other boat, Bekatorou (GRE), got ahead of us at the top mark. Down the run, we caught back up to her and rounded the second mark just behind her. Up the second beat, we missed a shift and again got behind. On the run to the finish, we gybed before her into the next shift and puff, and caught up so we were bow to bow as we were crossing the line, but she got us by a couple of feet. We were very disappointed because we lost the race on a couple of silly mistakes of which she took full advantage to beat us. But the next two races, we were not going to let the same silly mistakes happen. We raced Wu Wang from China and Silvia Roca from Spain, and came out on top in both of those races.

The race course was very difficult to get right with the favoured end of the line changing with every puff, and big 20 degree shifts upwind. And to add to the difficulty of the course, a big navy ship decided that it would be a great idea to come and anchor above our windward mark after our second race, creating a huge wind shadow. It made the top of the course very challenging as we were never quite sure which side the puff was going to roll down to give us the last shift. The exits (coming out of the windward mark) were also quite interesting, because we had to choose from where we thought the next puff would come. Funnily enough, after our third race of the day, the ship realized that they were in a bad spot for the racing and moved away. We also saw a hydro-foiling trimaran flying around the bay. It was very impressive. (And we were looking in between races, not during.)

Tomorrow, we will finish the round robin in all the groups. The other two groups are scheduled to do four races each today meaning they will have three races each tomorrow. We are scheduled to sail second tomorrow after group B sails. We are hoping for good wind again, and maybe a bit of sunshine to go along with it.

You can check out the regatta results at the regatta website.

We would like to thank Carmeuse and Trinity Yachts for their continued support of our campaign for the 2012 Olympics in London. We would also like to thank US Sailing Team AlphaGraphics and their sponsors for their support.

Sail Hard,

Anna
Team Tunnicliffe