Scrambled eggs at Kieler Woche

Kiel, Germany (June 21, 2018) – The second day of Kieler Woche for the Olympic fleets brought a bit of everything all at once. The weather was all over the place, making life extremely challenging not just for the sailors but for the race officers and their crews.

“If it was less than a 45-degree wind shift, it wasn’t worth tacking,” joked Will Ryan, crewing for Mat Belcher in the Men’s 470. Scores of 13,2 dropped the Australians down to second overall while somehow Sweden’s Anton Dahlberg and Fredrik Bergström managed to make sense of the climatic chaos to score two bullets and move into the lead.

After winning the European Championship and the Sailing World Cup event in Hyères, there is no fluke about the Swedes’ performance. But to win in such wildly unpredictable conditions shows just what a serious threat this team poses to Belcher and Ryan, the established favourites in the 470 fleet. Lying in third place are Kazuto Doi and Naoya Kimura, one of a number of increasingly world-class performances by Japanese sailors intent on glory two years from now when they compete on home waters at Tokyo 2020.

In the Women’s 470, it’s the local teams who are making the running, with Frederike Loewe and Anna Markfort leapfrogging fellow Germans and previous regatta leaders Nadine Böhm and Ann- Christin Goliaß. A 5,1 score for Silvia Mas and Patricia Cantero lifted the Spanish crew up to 5th after they were able to drop yesterday’s disqualification for starting too soon.

In the Men’s 49er, Spanish holds two of the top four slots with Diego Botin le Chever and Lago Lopez Marra combining a 3-3 today with redress points yesterday to lead the fleet. There a few Olympic medallists further down the field like 2008 49er Olympic Champion Jonas Warrer (DEN) in 5th, Rio 2016 470 gold medallist Sime Fantela (CRO) in 18th, and the bronze medallists from Rio Erik Heil and Thomas Ploessel (GER) back in 15th.

In the Women’s 49erFX, Odile van Aanholt and Marieke Jongens from the Netherlands lead by a point ahead of Tina Lutz and Susann Beucke of Germany, with the Kiwi Olympic silver medallists Alex Maloney and Molly Meech plugging away consistently for third place after five races.

It’s no surprise to find that the Netherlands leads in the Women’s Radial, although it’s not the reigning Olympic Champion because she’s not competing at Kiel in this week. In the absence of Marit Bouwmeester, another Dutch talent Maxime Jonker of NED leads with two bullets in her heats. Olympic bronze medallist from Rio 2016 Anne-Marie Rindom (DEN) lies in second with 2,1 scores and Japan’s Manami Doi is also doing well in third place.

After four heats, Britain’s Elliot Hanson leads the Lasers ahead of Karl-Martin Rammo (EST) with Filip Jurišić of Croatia in third overall.

Now 40 years old, British sailor Ed Wright just seems to get better and better in a class that’s considered one of the most physical challenges in sailing – Finn racing. Wright leads the fleet by 2 points from Hungary’s Zsombor Berecz and Andrew Maloney of New Zealand in third overall.

The Rio 2016 Olympic silver medallists in the Nacra 17 Jason Waterhouse and Lisa Darmanin continue to hold the lead but it looks like fellow Australians Nathan and Haylee Outteridge are fast learners. After suffering a big crash with a Japanese boat on their first day in the Nacra yesterday, their second day of Nacra racing resulted in scores of 3,2. Behind Waterhouse in the overall standings are Britain’s John Gimson and Anna Burnet followed by Thomas Zajac and Barbara Matz from Austria.

Canada, Mexico, USA update:
It was a down day for USA with nearly everyone in the top ten yesterday slipping but Canada is now represented among the eight fleets:

470 M: 8. Stu McNay/ Dave Hughes (USA)
49er: 9. Chris Rast/ Trevor Burd (USA)
49erFX: 8. Stephanie Roble/ Margaret Shea (USA)
Finn: 10. Caleb Paine (USA)
Laser: 9. Robert Davis (CAN)
Laser Radial: 7. Paige Railey (USA)
Nacra 17: 10. Riley Gibbs/ Louisa Chafee (USA)

Event details – Results – Facebook

Eight of the ten Olympic fleets (no boards) are racing from June 20 to 24. Here are the teams entered from Canada, Mexico, and USA:

470 M (1): Stu McNay/ Dave Hughes (USA)
470 W (1): Kathleen Tocke/ Charlie Bess (USA)
49er (7): William Jones/ Evan DePaul (CAN), Ryan Wood/ Andrew Wood (CAN), Nevin Snow/ Max Agnese (USA), Judge Ryan/ Hans Henken (USA), Andrew Mollerus/ ? (USA), Ian Barrows/ Mitchell Kiss (USA), Chris Rast/ Trevor Burd (USA)
49erFX (3): Alexandra Ten Hove/ Nariah Millen (CAN), Stephanie Roble/ Margaret Shea (USA), Lucy Wilmot/ Nathan Houseberg (USA)
Finn (4): Tom Ramshaw (CAN), Kyle Martin (CAN), Caleb Paine (USA), Luke Muller (USA)
Laser (14): Norman Struthers (CAN), Luke Ruitenberg (CAN), Robert Juhasz (CAN), Hugh Macrae (CAN), Liam Bruce (CAN), Noah Collinson (CAN), Matti Muru (CAN), Forrest Wachholz (CAN), Robert Davis (CAN), Justin Norton (CAN), Fillah Karim (CAN), Yanic Gentry (MEX), Charlie Buckingham (USA), Darius Mienville (USA)
Laser Radial (3): Clara Gravely (CAN), Coralie Vittecoq (CAN), Paige Railey (USA)
Nacra 17 (3): Riley Gibbs/ Louisa Chafee (USA), Ravi Parent/ Christina Persson (USA), Sarah Newberry/ David Liebenberg (USA)

Source: Andy Rice