PINK/PEACOCK WIN KIEL
And the winners are…..The sun returned and racing finished for the ISAF Sailing World Cup classes today in the first part of Kieler Woche, the penultimate stage of the ISAF Sailing World Cup. Competitors have had to endure some long days on the water at this years Kieler Woche, which began with blustery wind and waves producing some exciting sailing and then became a crawl to struggle through the schedule with very light and shifty conditions across all course areas. The race committee had to work extremely hard to swap the courses and re-arrange the schedule, often finishing racing late in the evening. After five days of racing the medal races were a fitting finale for the 680 crews competing in the classes of the Olympic competition.
“When we saw the forecast this morning we were a bit afraid because it said that the wind will drop again during the day. But suddenly we had the breeze we were looking for and could organise fair races in all classes,” chairman of the Kieler Woche Jobst Richter explained.
49er
The breeze had just lifted a shade in the early afternoon creating an exciting finale to the 49er regatta. The medal race went down to the wire, literally! Whilst the Austrians Nico Delle Karth and Nikolous Resch won the medal race from German crew Lennart Briesenick-Pudenz and Morten Massmann, the race for third and the gold medal could not be decided by a photo finish for third, which meant the gold medal had to be decided on count back with the British pair of John Pink and Rick Peacock claiming it on a better number of third places, (both teams having the same number of first and second places). “It is our first ISAF Sailing World Cup win” confirmed John, “It was a tough week, not many races and close on points. It was very light, shifty and variable conditions. It went down the last race.” “It’s good to replicate medal races and a confidence boost going into the Europeans in a few days time.”
This meant the Danish crew of Allan Norregaard and Peter Lang had to settle for silver with Delle Karth and Resch taking the bronze. As a result the Austrians extend their lead at the top of the 49er World Cup standings. Most of the crews racing here in Kiel will now make their way to Sopot in Poland for their European championships starting in just over a week’s time.
“When we saw the forecast this morning we were a bit afraid because it said that the wind will drop again during the day. But suddenly we had the breeze we were looking for and could organise fair races in all classes,” chairman of the Kieler Woche Jobst Richter explained.
49er
The breeze had just lifted a shade in the early afternoon creating an exciting finale to the 49er regatta. The medal race went down to the wire, literally! Whilst the Austrians Nico Delle Karth and Nikolous Resch won the medal race from German crew Lennart Briesenick-Pudenz and Morten Massmann, the race for third and the gold medal could not be decided by a photo finish for third, which meant the gold medal had to be decided on count back with the British pair of John Pink and Rick Peacock claiming it on a better number of third places, (both teams having the same number of first and second places). “It is our first ISAF Sailing World Cup win” confirmed John, “It was a tough week, not many races and close on points. It was very light, shifty and variable conditions. It went down the last race.” “It’s good to replicate medal races and a confidence boost going into the Europeans in a few days time.”
This meant the Danish crew of Allan Norregaard and Peter Lang had to settle for silver with Delle Karth and Resch taking the bronze. As a result the Austrians extend their lead at the top of the 49er World Cup standings. Most of the crews racing here in Kiel will now make their way to Sopot in Poland for their European championships starting in just over a week’s time.
Day 4: A Light Breeze Returns To Kieler Woche
It was a bit of a nail biting day again in the morning of the fourth day of Kieler Woche, penultimate stage of the ISAF Sailing World Cup. By noon a light breeze filled in and all classes could finish enough races before the medal races begin on Wednesday. “The forecast was really the opposite of what we saw later on the water. But to make sure enough races were completed for the Finn and Star classes, who had only raced two before, we relocated their course close to the shore. And it worked, they could sail three races,” explained Jobst Richter, Chairman of the Kieler Woche
49er
Only three points separate the top six competitors in the 49er fleet going into the medal race. Of three British boats in the top five the young team of Dylan Fletcher and Alain Sign have enjoyed the light conditions to lead the consistent Danes, Emil and Simon Toft Nielsen, the first of three other Danish teams in the medal race. Yann Rochierieux and Morgan Lagraviere of France sailed very consistently, winning the last race of the day and finishing in the bronze position but only one point ahead of the chasing pack of three boats including former leaders Draper and Greenhalgh (GBR).
The medal races will start on Wednesday from 11am. They can watched live on the internet by logging on to: www.kieler-woche.de
It was a bit of a nail biting day again in the morning of the fourth day of Kieler Woche, penultimate stage of the ISAF Sailing World Cup. By noon a light breeze filled in and all classes could finish enough races before the medal races begin on Wednesday. “The forecast was really the opposite of what we saw later on the water. But to make sure enough races were completed for the Finn and Star classes, who had only raced two before, we relocated their course close to the shore. And it worked, they could sail three races,” explained Jobst Richter, Chairman of the Kieler Woche
49er
Only three points separate the top six competitors in the 49er fleet going into the medal race. Of three British boats in the top five the young team of Dylan Fletcher and Alain Sign have enjoyed the light conditions to lead the consistent Danes, Emil and Simon Toft Nielsen, the first of three other Danish teams in the medal race. Yann Rochierieux and Morgan Lagraviere of France sailed very consistently, winning the last race of the day and finishing in the bronze position but only one point ahead of the chasing pack of three boats including former leaders Draper and Greenhalgh (GBR).
The medal races will start on Wednesday from 11am. They can watched live on the internet by logging on to: www.kieler-woche.de
Day 3: The wind disrupted racing at Kieler Woche again on the third day of the ISAF Sailing World Cup. Only the 49er, 2.4 mR and the Womens Match Racing competition could finish races today. “We tried to get all classes on the water today but every time we thought we could start the wind dropped again,” Jobst Richter, Chairman of Kieler Woche explained. And the forecast for tomorrow promises not much more wind. In this case Jobst Richter and his team may take the decision to cancel the races for the 2.4 mR, who have completed nine races in Kiel, to use this course, which is close to the shore and shows promise of a chance to sail fair races for the other classes.49ers: It was another long day on the water in very light airs for the 49ers. They did manage two more races and the leader board resembles a real battle between the British and the Danes. Leaders at the beginning of the day, Chris Draper and Peter Greenhalgh scored an eleventh in race six but recovered with a second in the last race of the day to lead the gold fleet by three points from the Danish crew of Emil and Simon Toft Nielsen who have recorded very consistent results with a win and a third for the day and a lowest score of seventh all week. Chris Draper said, “It was around 2-5 knots with very disturbed water, an unstable breeze with a lot of traffic. We lacked boat speed in the first race but in the second we had a good start and more boat speed.”The Nielsen brothers sit on 23 points, eight points clear of the chasing pack of four boats on 31 points including two more British teams, another Danish crew, and Swedish and French teams. The fleet is very close and in these conditions one small mistake can be very costly. As Draper (GBR) confirms, “All the best teams are here except for the other British teams, the Aussies (Outteridge and Jensen and the Sibello brothers from Italy, most of the top crews are here.
Day 2: 49ers: After the surfing conditions yesterday the 49ers were able to maintain a bit more control out on the race course but it was still very tricky for the top crews. The British teams currently hold the top two places after five races sailed. Chris Draper and Peter Greenhalgh started their Kieler Woche campaign with two bullets yesterday relishing the conditions, “It was a good day yesterday, really good fun conditions, flat out, what 49er racing is all about.” Today they continued their good form with a third and a second discarding one bad result (12th). Greenhalgh explained, “It was tough today, 2-5 knots in a lot of spectator boats, the wake caused us to park up a few times but it is the same for everybody so it’s just about dealing with it.” In second is the other British duo of John Pink and Rick Peacock and the first of a number of strong French teams, Yann Rocherieux and Morgan Lagraviere are making up the podium one point adrift.
Day 1: With strong conditions up to 24 knots of wind, Kieler Woche the penultimate stage of the ISAF Sailing World Cup started today.
“We are pretty happy with the first day of racing here. We had to postpone the start this morning by one hour because of the high waves outside but finally we could finish our scheduled programme for the day”, Jobst Richter, Chairman of the Kieler Woche explained.
49ERS:
Placed third overall behind the two British teams of Chris Draper and Peter Greenhalgh and John Pink and Rick Peacock. The current leader of the ISAF World Rankings Nico Delle Karth and Nikolaus Resch (AUT) finished sixth today right behind the winning team from last year Lennart Briesenick-Pudenz and Morten Massmann (GER).
All results Kieler Woche please use following link: www.kieler-woche.de/eng/livecenter/olympic.php
