Tough finish for Brits at Kiel Week
by Media on 25 Jun 2008
Kiel Week 2008 SW
After Monday’s strong breeze the weather conditions in Kiel improved and mostly two final races on the eight courses were sailed in each class Tuesday, to complete the International classes section of Kiel Week.
Britain's Adam May and Gary Ireson shared the lead in the International Moth event after seven races, with May winning the 8th race and consequently the series by overall eight points. Third place went to Martin Gravare of Sweden.
In the OK class, Sweden's Thomas Hansson-Mild took the series, one point ahead of Pawlaczyk Pawel of Poland with Britain's Nick Craig finishing third, Alex Scoles was 11th and Daniel Ager 19th.
Three GBR teams made it into the top six finishing positions of teh 95 boat 29er fleet, but it was Kevin Fischer and Glenn Gouron of France who took the event win. Second was Justin Liu and Sherman Cheng of Singapore on the same points. Third were James Peters and Ed Fitgerald.
In the Gold Fleet of the 420 Class the Italian team Maccari Federico and Vitali Rocco sailed a convincing Kieler Woche series with victory in three out of six races. Second placed were Ferdinand Gerz and Tobias Bolduan of Germany, they shared even overall points with the Italians Edoardo Scotti and Lorenzo de Felice in third place. Ben Saxton and David de Boltz were best placed of the three British crews in the top ten, finishing sixth overall.
In the Formula 18 fleet Germany’s Joerg Gosche and Hannes Pegel won out after 8 thrilling races, closely followed by Kieler Woche winners 2006 and 2007 the brothers Helge and Christian Sach, and in third P. Forsgren/N. Nordblom of Sweden.
Amongst the Dragon Class the German Match Race expert Markus Wieser with his crew Thomas Auracher and S. Pugatchev, UKR secured overall victory with their brand new boat, followed by Lars Hendriksen/I. Matvienko/M. Leifeldt, UKR as overall second and Thomas Mueller/V. Hoesch/M. Schellmair, GER, in third place; the third placed missed out defending their Kieler Woche victory of 2006!
Veterans of Kieler Woche 2008 were represented in the FD and the 505 Class: Joergen Bojsen-Moeller, DEN sailed his Flying Dutchman to his 14th victory in Kiel (the first win was in 1988!), and Wolfgang Hunger, GER topped his Kieler Woche participation by winning the title for the 16th time in the 505 fleet during his brilliant sailing career.
The Olympic and Paralympic classes race between 25 and 29 June.
Event website - http://www.kielerwoche.de
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