Kieler Woche 2011 Day 2 for the Finns

by Robert Deaves on 20 Jun 2011 Three more races were sailed on Day 2 of Kieler Woche 2011 for the Finn class, with Jonathan Lobert (FRA) maintaining his overall lead from Zach Railey (USA) and Ed Wright (GBR), moving up one spot into third place.

It was another windy and tough day on the Kieler Forde, producing a different winner for each of the three races. Up and coming junior sailor Oliver Tweddle (AUS) won the opening race, from Wright and Caleb Paine (USA). Then Deniss Karpak (EST) took the second race of the day from Eduard Skornyakov (RUS) and Tweddle. The final race of the day went to regatta leader Lobert from Wright and Karpak.

Lobert got the nod from the French selectors to go to the test event next month in Weymouth ahead of his team mate and training partner Thomas Le Breton. Le Breton picked up a 12, 10, 5 today to sit in fifth place overall.

With a 6, 3, 1 Karpak had made the best of a tough day. He said, 'It's another windy regatta, and three races per day makes it really hardcore. Today we had 10-15 knots, sometimes up to 19 in some gusts. At the front, the top six boats are usually very close together, so there is always a battle for the top three places, making it a lot of fun as well as being hard sailing.'

With the season gearing up to a finale at the test event, he said 'After Kiel my plan is to go home to rest a bit and do some fitness training before the Europeans in Helsinki and then the test event in Weymouth.'

Second overall, and world number one, Railey commented, 'It's been pretty windy so far but the wind has been very shifty so it's not only been physically very hard but mentally you have to stay up on what the wind is doing. The top boats are very close and the races are coming down to the last moments each time.'

Railey is also preparing for the test event next month. 'My main focus after Kiel will be working on my fitness and gaining some much needed weight. Then we will head over to Weymouth for training before the test event.'

Racing for the Finns continues until Wednesday, when the medal race will be held for the top 10.

Results after six races

1 FRA 112 Jonathan Lobert 14
2 USA 4 Zach Railey 16
3 GBR 11 Edward Wright 18
4 EST 2 Deniss Karpak 20
5 FRA 29 Thomas Le Breton 28
6 GER 151 Matthias Miller 33
7 AUS 261 Oliver Tweddell 36
8 SWE 6 Björn Allansson 39
9 AUT 3 Florian Raudaschl 39
10 GER 771 Jan Kurfeld 41
11 USA 1140 Caleb Paine 43

Kieler Woche website