Kieler Woche gets under way with Elliott 6m on Olympic event debut

by Sailing.org on 21 Jun 2009
With highly competitive racing in the Olympic Classes at the sixth event of the 2008-09 ISAF Sailing World Cup the 127th Kieler Woche started on Saturday morning, 20 June.

'First we scheduled three races for today, but in not very easy conditions we are happy to have two races in most of the classes on the score', said Jobst RICHTER, Chairman of Kieler Woche Race Committee.

This is not the first time Kieler Woche has held a women’s match racing event but it is the first time that it has been part of the ISAF Sailing World Cup and Kiel is proud to host the first appearance of the brand new Elliott 6m, the boat selected for the Women’s Match Racing event at the 2012 Olympic Games in Weymouth, UK.

The first flights of the women’s match race started today. The 21 teams are split into three groups for a Round Robin series and only the first two groups could sail today.

In group A, the #1 team on the ISAF World Cup Standings, Lucy MACGREGOR, Nicole DOUGLASS and Nina CURTIS (GBR) found the best way into the new boats and collected five wins from six races. Only against Anne-claire LE BERRE from France did the British team lose a point.

At the top of Group A, MacGregor qualifies for the quarter-final with Nicole SOUTER and her Australian team who also posted five wins and one loss. Asked how she found the new Elliott boats, MacGregor said 'Overall our first impression is good. There are a few things that are not what we are used to but overall our first impression is good.' 'The boats are sporty, fun and comfortable to sail' added German sailor Svenja PULS.

Elliot 6m Designer Greg Elliott himself came to Kiel to see the boats on their debut. 'We are very close to the final trim of the boats. We are at the stage that we discuss things like the best place for the jib cleat or the best system for the hiking straps', Elliot stated in the daily press conference. 'It has been a long road to get these first boats ready and we are now keen to get feedback from the sailors so that we can make them better. We are working closely with ISAF to finalize the class rules and ensure we have the best product possible.'

In the Laser Radial fleet, 2008 Olympic gold medallist Anna TUNNICLIFFE (USA) had a bad start to her regatta in the first race of the day with an OCS but with a second in race two the leader of the Laser Radial World Cup Standings is back on track. 'I was on the wrong side at the first start and with many boats around I was over the line', Tunnicliffe explained later. Tunnicliffe has begun her campaign for the 2012 Olympic Games and has completed all five of the previous World Cup events in the Laser Radial but a change into the women’s match race could be a possibility for the American.

German Stars Shine
In the Star class it was the day of the German teams. With only one race on the scoreboard Robert STANJEK and Markus Koy (GER) came in first in front of former Olympic Tornado sailor Johannes POLGAR and Tim KROGER (GER). MARK MENDELBLATT and Mark STRUBE (USA) finished third.

In the Men’s 470 the British team James RUSDEN and Rob PARTRIDGE took the first win of the day in the yellow fleet but came fifth in the second race to end the day in fifth overall. The German team, Lucas ZELLMER and Heiko SEELIG had the best day, posting bullets in both their races to place at the top of the leaderboard.

For full results from all classes, visit the Kieler Woche website The 2.4mR and 49er fleets both completed three races today, with two races sailed by the men's and women's 470, the Laser, the Laser Radial, men's RS:X and the women's RS:X. The Star and Finn fleets both sailed just one race today.

For Sunday light winds below five knots are expected in Kiel.

Apology:Sail-World apologises to our readers for the use of capitalisation of surnames by ISAF. We are not 'shouting' at or readers as capitalisation normally means on the 'net. ISAF seem to be unable to understand that it is perfectly acceptable to use title case when writing sailor names and that you put the first name before the surname.

For some reason ISAF find it necessary to adopt a standard unique in the sailing and general media. They have been asked repeatedly to come into line with general practice, but they continue to follow this very irritating IOC practice.

Once again, our apologies.