2016 Chronicle #2 - Kiel Week Races

We were the first F-18 to arrive in Kiel even though we arrived only three days before the event.  Most of the boats showed up on Friday but a few arrived on Thursday so that we had some training partners for Friday.  We had a two hour practice session on Friday in 13-15 kts of wind and then rushed back in to the beach when thunderstorms started to approach.

The Venue

Kiel was the site of the 1972 Olympics hosted by Germany.  We are sailing out of the Olympic Sailing Center but are staying in an AirBNB rental in a small town about 15 minutes away.

Olympic Sailing Center Kiel

Kiel Week

Matt has never experienced anything like it.  When we sailed out to the race course there were literally more than a thousand boats sailing out and everywhere we looked you could see boats going out to race.  The sailing area is very large and they have it divided into 10 sailing rings for the different classes. 

Beach Launching Area -flying our California flag

Kiel Week Racing Areas

Except for the second day we were assigned to “Charlie” area, one of the rings furthest away from the harbor.  For the second day we were assigned to the “TV” ring which is just off the Olympic Sailing Center where there was full TV coverage of the races.  We were on the course along with Hobie 16’s who started second but we had to sail through their fleet on the other legs of the race.  The race committee always gave us a three times around windward-leeward course with downwind finishes.

Kiel Week with Tall Ships

In addition to all the racing boats, we saw numerous tall ships and naval vessels attending the Kiel Week festival.

Kiel Week Races

There were four days of racing with 26 boats sailing.  There were a total of 11 races where your two worst races are discarded from your score.

On Day 1 with 15 – 20 Kts of wind and significant chop we had were able to continue to improve on our finishes. We had an 11th the first race, then 7th and finally 6th.

Day 2 on the TV course was in a more sheltered area but there were significant oscillating wind shifts with the 13 – 17 kts of wind.  We had a great start the first race but then in a wind hole almost capsized backwards which set us back.  We managed to recover to a respectable 8th place finish.  The second race was our best of the entire regatta where we figured out the wind shift phases and finished 4th.  The final race was also an 8th.

Day 3 was back on the Charlie course and was our windiest day with 15 – 25 kts.  There were many capsizes by other boats but we managed to say up right and finished 10th, 11th and 7th.

Day 4 was the lightest wind day of the event but we still had 13-16 kts.  It was a beautiful sailing day!  For race 10 we had a poor start and were working our way back through the fleet when a trapeze problem dropped Matt into the water dragging behind the boat.  Once we managed to get Matt back on board we had lost a lot of boats.  For that race we finished 13th which was our worst race of the regatta and became one of our two discarded races.  For the second and final race of the day we had a very good start and were up with the leaders for the entire race.  We finished on a high note capturing 5th. 

The winners of this event are local Kiel legends who know the area very well and also were the F-18 World Champions in 2005 and have won Kiel Week 9 times over the past 11 years.  The second place boat was a local German team who had trained with Seamus and I last year for the F-18 Worlds and were only two points behind the champions.  The third place finisher was also from German whose skipper is an ex-professional 220 pound hockey player who loved the heavy wind.

If you are interested full race results are posted at:

http://www.manage2sail.com/en-US/event/3d6e4588-3363-4d3d-afad-8e656da38cba/#!/results?classId=3459cfc2-29bf-46de-a20b-b3e2986f9c1c

Next Event – Surendorf Cup, June 25-26

Getting the boat to the next event was easy since our Kiel Week race course was already half way there.  There were seven F-18’s who sailed straight from the last race to the small town of Surendorf to place our boats on the beach positioned for the weekend regatta.  It was nice not needing to lower the mast and trailer the boat to Surrendorf. 

This will be a low key regatta with only about 7-8 F-18’s racing for two days.  But two of the competitors will be the people who placed 2nd and 3rd in Kiel Week so we are looking forward to sailing with them some more. 

Steve & Matt on German Search & Rescue Vessel – No we were not rescued – just visited during Kiel Week.

Stay tuned for the next Chronicle!

Steve and Matt