Hello from Kiel, Germany.
One hundred twenty 470s are registered here. This is the largest regatta in the world, with 5,000 sailors from fifty nations. This is the 117th year of the Kieler Woche.
We race in the second half of the regatta. The first week is for non- Olympic class boats. Bob and I have been here for three days getting over jet lag.
Our first race today was to have started at 10:00 a.m., but the starting line is so far out that they postponed for an hour. The hard part about getting to our race area is dodging the tankers and cruise ships. We have to cross a busy ship channel.
Wind today was very shifty out of the north (a cold front blew through two days ago).
Race 1
We are in the third start, doing an outer loop. The women?s fleet started
first, followed by two men?s fleets.
The pin was way favored for our first start, and the race committee postponed about ten seconds before the gun. For the real start, we started in the middle and tacked pretty soon thereafter (before the guys at the pin crossed us).
We were lifted, so we hung right waiting for a shift. We got one and took it back across, but it did not last very long. We rounded the weather mark about 11th.
We waited till we got clear air to set, then Bob went in to set the pole. As he pushed the pole out, it broke in half (that was kind of unusual).
Rat Farts!
Well, we kept going. We actually flew the spin on the reach, and it was doing okay. We lost only a few boats. Same on the run.
The next beat, we passed some boats going up the middle.
On the run we lost some boats again, and also on the bottom reach, but we passed two boats on the short beat to the finish for a 22nd (good practice for when your pole breaks).
Race 2
We borrowed a pole from the British coach boat. We started in the middle
again. The pin was favored, and this time we ducked boats to go left. This
worked out okay, and we rounded the weather mark in 15th.
We lost one boat on the first reach but also passed a couple.
We gained initially on the run, but found a hole and lost it all back. There was a big pileup at the leeward mark, but we came out relatively clean and tacked left.
The breeze got really light, and we had gained, so we took our gain back right. We passed some boats, but lost a few we had passed when the wind filled in again, and went left. We caught the Polish team on the run, but they passed us on the bottom reach, and we passed an Israeli boat.
The last short beat was even, and we finished 12th.
Race 3
We again started in the middle and tacked out right. We got pinched off
and were going slow. We did some clearing tacks but could not go
anywhere and eventually got pinched off by a Hungarian boat.
Time to check for weeds. Yep, we had ?em. Oh, that feels better. Here we go.
We rounded the weather mark in about 28th and passed some boats on the first reach by staying high. We kept in a puff on the run and passed two more.
On the second beat, we gained boats by hitting shifts up the middle.
On the last run, we passed a few more to now be in 20th.
We caught up to two boats on the bottom reach and passed them on the last short beat to finish 18th.
Well, not such a stellar day, but it's nice to be sailing again.
Hopefully we can improve. Paul and Bob Team 2000
We had moderate and shifty winds out of the North again today.
Race 1
Today, we were more aggressive in starting tactics by moving
towards the favored end of the line, but the wind shifts were
sometimes unpredictable making this effort difficult. On our first
start, we were down at the pin when a big, late, right shift occurred
that heavily favored the boat end. We were caught on wrong side of
the line. Luckily for us, the start was a general recall.
On the second attempt, we won the favored pin end and were off to a good start. We tacked to take our gain and cross the fleet, but they all tacked onto the favored port tack. Half way up the beat , the wind shifted back to the right a little, but there was more wind on the left. We rounded the first mark in third behind the French and Polish.
The course was an outer trapezoid, so we went off onto the reach with no position changes. Our fleet had become overlapped with the women?s fleet on the run, and we got stuck in some traffic allowing the Portuguese to catch up to us and the two lead boats.
On the final beat, the wind had died substantially (from about twelve knots to about eight). The four lead boats, including us, were separated from the rest of the fleet by quite a bit. We all headed left on a right shift. The Portuguese were right below us and going fast. They tacked away with the Polish half way up the beat, and we headed further left with the French, expecting more left shift.
The wind did shift back left a little, but the Portuguese and the Polish must have found a good puff, because they crossed us and the French at the mark. The Portuguese had worked their way into first. The French passed the Polish on the run, and those positions remained for the rest of the race. We finished fourth.
Race 2
The wind stayed at about ten knots for the second race, but the wind
had shifted twenty degrees to the left and the mark stayed in the
same place. The line was slightly pin favored, and the beat was
almost all port tack. We started on port toward the boat end
avoiding the crowd at the pin. During the beat, the wind shifted
further left, and we were almost laying the mark. Only a few boats
had broken away from the pin-end crowd, and only one beat us to the
mark. We got caught low on the reach and the Polish, who were right
behind us, passed us at the end of the reach. A British boat was in
the lead.
Positions stayed the same on the run. On the next beat, we were dodging two fleets of boats that were on the run. At the end of the beat, the Polish worked left, and we worked right, the British stayed in the middle. We got into a little more wind and passed the Polish, but the British stayed in front of us. We finished the race in second.
We were scheduled for a third race, but unsteady winds and general racalls delayed us for a few hours before the race committee finally sent us in.
Paul and Bob
Team 2000
No racing today. This morning we were postponed on shore until 1:00 p.m., due to no wind. At 1:00 we were towed out to the course area in a light zephyr. After about two hours of waiting around, races were cancelled for the day and we were towed back in.
Paul and Bob
Team 2000
Today was a typical Kiel day, overcast with light rain and a little warmer than usual, maybe 68 degrees. Wind was out of the north at 8-16 knots. It took us about 45 minutes to sail out to the course-- not too bad.
Today was the start of the final races. This means they put all the good guys in the same fleet. All except one of our scores from the preliminary races carry over to the final points.
We finally got to be in the first start today.
Race 1
At 10:30 a.m., we started near the boat and tacked immediately in a
left shift. A lot of the guys started at the pin, so it was pretty
crowded over there. We thought the breeze would go back right, and
it did with good wind. We won our side and led at the weather mark
by ten boat lengths.
We set right away to the reach, thinking the right shift should be no problem laying the reach mark. No one behind us set. We ended up being a little short of the mark, so we just left the pole up, dropped the spin halyard and kept the spin sheet tight. This works great for short distances, and we just raised the halyard back up at the reach mark.
We had an okay run, then went up the next beat. When I put the vang on, we heard a bang, and our puller broke. Well, we went a little slow after that and lost some of our lead, putting us down to five boat lengths at the weather mark.
We had a good run, though, kept our lead, then went on the bottom reach and did the same.
The last short beat to the finish, we just covered the second place French guy and won!
Race 2
We started at the pin this race and were just able to tack out and
cross the guys above. We were going a little slow and rounded the
weather mark in about fourth.
The first reach was a little tight again, and only the leader set. We got rolled by a Polish guy, almost flipped over when we set the spin, and lost two more. We got going again, though, and opened the back flaps to get all the water out of the boat. We passed one guy on the run and were in about sixth going up the next beat. It got pretty strange, but I think we passed one boat and lost another.
On the next run, we got into a little hole and got passed by a couple of boats in a puff.
On the last reach, we held off the guys behind, and on the last beat we passed one boat that went left.
I think we finished about seventh.
Race 3
The first start was a general recall. The second start was under
black flag.
Most people went down to the pin, but we thought the wind was shifting right, and we had a boat start. We lifted off the Irish boat below us and were looking pretty good with regard to the guys at the pin. One Japanese boat crossed us, and we went a little further left and found a puff and a lefty to get us to the weather mark way in the lead--ten boat lengths.
We set and took off down the reach. Only the Russian boat was able to go straight at the mark with us; the other guys were going high. We stayed well ahead for the whole race, but had to keep alert because it was very puffy and shifty.
We won, and a Spanish guy finished second.
Well, then it was time for our hour-long sail in, straight upwind into the rain. At least there's a lot of stuff to see: lots of old sailing ships out every day and there the large supertankers to watch out for.
Last day is tomorrow.
I have not seen any results, so hopefully we were not over early in any of those races. I also don't know what place we are in.
Paul and Bob
Team 2000
Hey, what do you know? We are in third place! France is winning, and Portugal is in second. Three boats are close behind: Australia, Spain and Germany.
Other scores:
Brazil is winning the Laser fleet, with the best US guy in 10th.
Poland is winning the Finn fleet, with the best US guy in 13th.
Sweden is winning the Star fleet with US guys in third, sixth and 11th.
Denmark is winning the Europe Dinghy fleet, with no US girl in the Gold fleet.
The Ukrainians are winning the Women?s 470 fleet, with US teams in 11th and 14th.
France is winning the Women?s Windsurfing, with a US girl in fourth.
The Ukrainians are winning the Soling fleet, with a US team in 23rd.
Australia is dominating the Tornado fleet, with the top US team in 12th.
The race committee cancelled all races today for lack of wind. Saturday?s standings are final, so Paul and Bob finished third overall in the regatta.
Beanard
Team 2000 Correspondent