Kieler Woche - Kiel Week Day One

by Hermann Hell on 17 Jun 2007 Rain showers, thunder storm and becalmed seas prevailed on the race areas of today’s Kieler Woche prelude. Because of lack of wind Boardsailors (RS:X W + M) and Tornado teams did not start a single race; however, Laser, Laser Radial W, Finn, Star, 470 W + M and 49er sailed a first race, while the Paralympic 2.4mR Class finished even two races near the Schilksee Olympic Centre.

With the 60 starters of the Laser Radial W fleet the 'Kiwi' girls had a good start in today’s single race; Jo Aleh finished as 1st, followed by Anke Helbig, (GER) as 2nd and Miranda Powrie (NZL) as 3rd.

Michele Regolo, ITA, crossed as 1st the finish line in the Laser Men fleet, consisting of 100 entries sailing in 3 groups.

The Australian teams of the 470 M fleet (60 entries) - M. Belcher/N. Behrens placed 1st and 3rd N.Wilmot/M Page respectively - and tomorrow will 'fight' against the German team L. Zellmer/H. Seelig who finished today as 2nd.

In the 49er class the Austrian team Sieber/Kruse won today’s race, followed by the brothers E. Toft Nielsen, (DEN) as 2nd and L. Fricke/L.Huber, (GER) as 3rd.

The first Finn sailor crossing the finishing line was Hubert Raudaschl’s son Florian, (AUT) who seems to have inherited his sailing skill and talent from his famous father!

The lead in the Star Class after the first race includes several nations: E. Melleby/P. Mörland (NOR) 1st, A. Hagen/F. Kleen, (GER) 2nd, M. Pickel/I. Borkowski (GER) 3rd and P. Bromby/B. McNiven (BER) 4th.

After two races Heiko Kröger (GER) leads the 2.4mR class, closely followed by Bjornar Erikstad (NOR) as second and Helena Lucas (GBR) in third position.

The German Tornado team Helge and Christian Sach commented at the press conference that they are rather 'oldies' in this Olympic multihull class, and prefer sailing occasionally a Formula 18, as 'sailing a F18 makes you earning some money which you easily can spend on an Olympic campaign in the Tornado Class'. - the brothers were the 2007 F18 World Champions.

The Race Officer of the Offshore course, Tom Ross, reported about a good and satisfactory performance of the 108 offshore entries which sailed in 3 groups and finished their racing close to the Schilksee Olympic harbour. (hmb)

Premium Partners of Kiel Week 2007 like BMW (presenter), HSH Nordbank, freenet and boot Duesseldorf as well as numerous co-sponsors like b+m Informatik,B + S Card Service, Canon, Fürst Bismarck Quelle, Helly Hansen, Hugo Hamann, International Farbenwerke, Jever, Kapsch CarrierCom, Kielnet, Lankhorst/Hohorst, Nexus, Segler-Zeitung, Tutima contribute successfully to this year’s 125th edition of Kiel Week.

Australian Results:

Laser Radial - Sarah Blanck 7th, Krystal Weir 11th
Finn - Brendan Casey 3rd, Anthony Nossiter 10th, Nathan Quirk 33rd
Star - Andrew Landenberger and Simon Reffold 17th
470W - Elise Rechichi and Tessa Parkinson 6th
Laser - Michael Blackburn 7th, Tim Castles 25th
470M - Matthew Belcher and Nick Behrens 1st, Nathan Wilmot and M Page 3rd
RS:X - Did not sail

Full results at www.kieler-woche.de