New set of challenges for the racers at Kieler Woche

by Andi Robertson on 20 Jun 2016 Race management runs like a perfectly tuned modern diesel engine, turning round starts and finishes with enviable efficiency. Making optimum use of the great racing breezes that maximises racing time and minimises recovery time.

The Musto Performance Skiff class had their day in the sun, figuratively and literally. With bright sunshine and the mercury finally rising above 20 degrees the Musto Skiffs were stars of the live showcase arena today, with all the action streamed live on the event website.

Germany’s Past European champion Frithjof Schwerdt did not compete at the recent world championships in Carnac, France but he is taking every opportunity to lead the new world champion Andi Lachenschmid around a race track which Schwerdt used to call home waters. The gusty, shifty conditions are very much to the liking of Schwerdt who has built up a cushion of thirteen points over Switzerland’s second placed Roger Oswald and 15 over the world champion who is a close friend as well as rival. After living in Kiel and racing and training here for four years while studying mechanical engineering, regatta leader Schwerdt now races on Munich based Lachenschmid’s home lake Ammersee. He counts a scoreline consisting of a magnificent seven wins from nine starts.

“It was such nice sailing today with plenty of wind, sometimes too much. I like these conditions, shifty and gusty and I seem to be able to do well.” Schwerdt explains?“Andi is the actual world champion and so not having been able to go to the world championships I was really motivated to race him here. It is nice to be beating him. I studied here until a year ago and now race against Andi on his Lake Ammersee. I started with the skiff in 2011 for one year and went to the 49er class for one and a half years but it was too difficult and so I came back to the Musto Skiff.”

On the same course area the ding dong duel between Danes Soren Dulong Andreasen and Jesper Nielsen for supremacy in the Contender class saw Dulong Andreasen take over the regatta lead today thanks to three back to back race wins:
“Out on the Hotel course the winds were very gusty which was bit like my home waters of Hellerup but playing the shifts was better for me, I was fast on the reaches. But I was never that far ahead. I don’t think I ever rounded the top mark first.”

“The Contender class is really flourishing in Germany where there are a lot of young guys sailing the boat. They like the boat because the boat gives you so much back the more you practice. For many of these guys the Laser, for example, is much too simple. The Contender is hard to sail and even in light winds you are powered up and trapezing, so it is good on Lakes too. They have over 200 boats active in Germany and so weekend regattas they are getting 45 boats easily.”

German crews might be looking for a Brexit vote against their British rivals in the hotly contested 505 Class where three GBR crews are in the top five. Andy Smith and Tim Needham, Gill Race Team, seized the lead today with three race wins back to back in races 7,8 and 9. They lead Germany’s Dr Wolfgang Hunger and Julien Kliener by three points while Ian Pinnell and Alex Davies dropped to third after their 6,5 7 today.

“The level is very high here and so it is great racing. We have been together for four years now and I think we know the settings well and what makes us fast. Today you really had to use the wind shifts.” Said helm Davies,

“We have three very good British crews here and I think that we are all pushing each other hard which is great in terms of practice for the World Championships. Ian Pinnell had two wins yesterday and so that meant we had to do better than that today!”

The 29er class sailed their first day of Finals Series racing. Under other circumstances a 13th in the first Finals race might have been a discard for the Dutch pair Pieter van Leijen and Daniel Bramervaer, but the erstwhile regatta leaders have a UFD and a 19th – the result of a mechanical failure – already and so they slipped to second, despite winning three races today.

“It all got a bit tougher today in gold fleet. It was difficult. The margin for error is smaller and the westerly direction out of the channel meant it was bumpy with lots of waves. The first race we did ot find good speed in the conditions but we evaluated and then sailed three bullets. But in the final race we made some little mistakes.” Said helm van Leijen, “But you can’t have regrets about the discards we have. The first is the result of a mechanical failure and the second the UFD, if you don’t get them sometimes you are not pushing hard enough.”