This is one of those big sailing boats.
Pretty neat huh.Well, last race day is tomorrow. We can't wait, although 9 hours on the water is plenty and we need some sleep. Talk to you tomorrow. Paul and Kevin
26 June 2003 08:15
Subject: Team 2004 / Racing Starts Tomorrow
Kieler Woche (Kiel Week) has attracted over 60,000 participants for the
next nine days of competition. Due to the volume and number of classes
competing in what is Germany's largest dinghy and keelboat combined
regatta, the event has, for a number of years been split into three - the
Olympic Classes start on Wednesday in what is for many classes the
last
ISAF Grade 1 event prior to the ISAF World Sailing Championships in
Cadiz
in September. In total, 49 nations are represented in Kiel.
www.kieler-woche.de
60,000 Competitors!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
No wonder it seemed so crowded out there today.
We had Navy Warships, Square Riggers, Round the World Racing
Yachts, Container ship, Coal Barges, Oil Tankers, All kinds of Keel Boats
and Center Board boats and this was on a dreary Rainy Very Windy day.
We had a good practice though sailing with the Greeks, Argentineans and Italians. We were not too fast upwind, still struggling a bit.
Only one stall on the rudder today. That's when we plowed into a wave ahead of us. The Australian Coach said we can try one of his rudders (should we trust him?).
Racing starts tomorrow at Noon,
More then,
Paul and Kevin
Team 2004 / Shinning Bright
Friday 6-27-03
10:41 PM
AWESOME DAY TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We had three BULLETS and a 2nd today.
Not bad for a couple old men.
We had a postponement on shore due to lack of wind until Noon.
Then we had and hour long sail/ Tow out to the starting area. We did get to tune some
with the fast Swedes.
We were the last fleet to start, so our first race started about 2 pm.
1st race Wind was 3-8 knots all day with pretty flat water (except motor boat chop), very
little current, and slowly going right all day.
We started on port the first race, ducked the Russian boat that was at the pin and
crossed everyone else.
We led around every mark and had good speed upwind and down for an easy win.
Race 2 We started near the middle of the line and had a good battle with the French (Gildas), to see who would round the weather mark first. We had a little better boatspeed and just got around ahead. We stretched out on the first reach and led around every mark again for another win.
Race 3
A pretty good start near the upper 3rd of the line. But 5 boats on the right were ahead of
us at the first mark with Australia leading.
We battle hard passing 2 boats on the first run.
On the last run we got close to the 2nd place French and found some good wheels and
did some good roll tacks to beat them to the upwind finish.
Race 4
It was getting late now 6pm.
We had an OK start down from the boat but the guys at the pin crossed us.
We kept our air clear and rounded the top mark in 6th.
We passed 4 boats on the first run and now were behind the Italians.
He hit us pretty hard the 2nd beat and the Croatians caught up, but we managed to stay
in 2nd.
The next run we jibed on the Italians and were able to get just ahead.
They tried doing some jibes near the bottom mark to get inside us, but we stayed
ahead.
They seemed to have a better tight reaching spin, and rolled us just at the end of the
reach, but here at Kiel you have a short upwind finish.
We both tacked to starboard at the leeward mark, but our tack was better and we
pinched them off and they tacked out. When we came back together at the finish line
we were bow to bow with them on starboard and just laying the pin. We did a lee bow
and just shot ahead for the WIN!
AWESOME day.
We are now in 3rd over all, up from 18th on the day before.
Ukrainians are winning and Australia in 2nd.
Kevin gets all the credit for today. He persuaded me to try sailing with the jib out more
and it was the key. He also called a lot of good shifts upwind and we had great speed
down wind due to his Spin Flying.
Tomorrow all the good guys race in the GOLD fleet so it will be a lot tougher.
More then.
Paul and Kevin
Team 2004 / Race day 4
Saturday 6-28-03
8:06 PM
Well, today was the first day of Gold fleet racing. That means they put all the good guys
in the same fleet. It makes for very tough racing.
We did not quite have the jets that we had yesterday.
The water was a little choppier and we did not quite find the mode for it.
Also we had to use a different centerboard because the trailing edge got chipped off on
the one we used yesterday and we could not fix it in time.
Any way not to bad a day with finishes of 5, 7, 18, and I'm not quite sure about the last
one, the score for it has not been posted but it was about a 9th.
Not sure what place we are in but probably 4th. The Ukrainian had a good day today
and is winning pretty handily.
We raced pretty well today though.
Just one big mistake when we tried to cross a Japanese team on port and did not make
it and had to do a 720 (Kevin won't let me forget that one). That was our 18th place.
We made a big comeback in the last race due to a great first run where we went from
25th to about 10th and rounded just ahead of a screaming pack.
Other things going on were a big sailing parade we saw o n our way out to the race
course. Thousands of boats. This is quite a sailing Mecca. Lots of old boats too.
This is one of those big sailing boats.
Pretty neat huh.
Well, last race day is tomorrow. We can't wait, although 9 hours on the water is plenty
and we need some sleep.
Talk to you tomorrow.
Paul and Kevin
Team 2004 Kiel week / Final Report
Sunday 6-29-03
4:43 PM
It was a dull finish to the regatta here. We had good wind in the morning but just after
our attempted 2nd start the wind totally died. We waited around for half an hour but it
was hopeless. So ends the 112th Kiel regatta.
We finished 5th out of 75 boats. Not too bad, but easy to see where we can be better.
We now pack up the boats and go straight to Brest France for the European
Championship. There is a warm up regatta a couple days before the Europeans start.
Brest is about a 20 hour drive, but its good to have a little break. Our boat will go on top
of the coach boat and the Team Truck will tow it with us along for the ride.
We will have a few more of the top teams at the Europeans so it will be a harder
Regatta. That's good we need all the practice we can get.
Until then, thanks for helping us out.
Paul and Kevin
