Tornado Speedsailing at Kieler Woche + Video

by Roland Gaebler on 26 Jun 2012 During Keiler Woche 2012 it was great emotional racing in the Audi Sailing Arena. The Tornado Speedsailing was held in the habour channel of Kiel Sailing City. The weather was wild and crazy. Sun, rain, calm, strong gusts and thunderstorm were packed in all the days of racing.

Twelve Tornado teams from six countries were entered. Some of them capsized on the way to the Arena so badly that they were not able to get to the starting line of the regatta.

On day one we almost got an adrenaline kick every second with each gust. The second day was, unfortunately, not sailed because of total calm. Then we had some sprint races between the fronts of the thunderstorms. This brought us back to our speed limit. The final day bought us heavy rain, which almost took our vision.

In this challenging weather we won seven out of eight races, our first victory at Kieler Woche as a mixed team in the Open Tornado event. Last year we were second overall. We are really happy that we did so well throughout the regatta, and feel very honored to win in the biggest sailing festival in the world.

Second placed was a new mixed team of Stephanie Rosse and Michael Gloor from Switzerland. Third place went to John Ready and Martin Sedevic from England. It’s the first time two mixed teams are in the front of Kieler Woche. Both teams are intending to make an Olympic campaign for Rio 2016.