Light Winds Keep All Ashore Except the Elliott

It was not only a promise from the day before that there would not be much wind on the second day of the 127th Kieler Woche. Only the third group of the 21 teams of the women’s match racing sailed today, completing their first round robin in very light winds. For all other Olympic Classes in the ISAF Sailing World Cup the races were postponed until Monday.

Rain and light winds kept all the sailors of the Olympic classes ashore today except for the women’s match racers. Near to the shore Group C began their round robin to decide which two teams would qualify automatically for the Quarter Finals and join the four teams who qualified yesterday. 

Hahlbrock and Tulloch Qualify for the Quarter-Final
It was a long day on the water for the seven teams in Group C and with three German teams in action there was plenty to interest the local fans. The first match of the day saw Olympian Ulrike SCHUEMANN (GER) take on Amanda SCRIVENOR from Australia. Schuemann has only recently begun match racing and her win against the Australian team was exactly the start she was looking for.

Finally however, it was Germany’s Silke HAHLBROCK who made the best of the day, posting five wins from her six matches; her only loss was to Ulrike SCHUEMANN. Genevieve TULLOCH (USA) and Schuemann both finished with four wins but it will be Tulloch who joins Hahlbrock in the quarter-final because she won the match between the two of them.

Hahlbrock and Tulloch join Lucy MACGREGOR (GBR), Nicole SOUTER (AUS), Paula LEWIN (BER) and Renee GROENEVELD (NED) who qualified from groups A and B. For the remaining 15 teams a second round robin will decide the last two places in the quarter finals and is scheduled for Monday. 

German Sailors Campaign for 2012
So with no racing there was time to talk about the German efforts for the 2012 Olympic Games in Weymouth, Great Britain in the daily press conference. Just back from the 470 European Championship with the silver medal in the bag Lucas Zellmer and Heiko Seelig are focused on 2012. After a year break Lucas ZELLMER and Heiko SEELIG started training seriously again this winter in Palma and came to Kiel with a complete new boat. And it works obviously as they scored first place finishes in both races on Saturday to top the leaderboard. “We hope now to get funding from the German Sailing Association to accelerate our Olympic campaign”, explained Zellmer.

With former Olympic Tornado sailor Johannes POLGAR teaming up with Tim KROGER in the Star, fresh winds came into the German Star fleet. Re-organized and building up a new training group together with Johannes BABENDERERDE and Timo JACOBS and Alexander SCHLONSKI sailing with Frithjof KLEEN, Polgar is looking forward to the future: “With a big portion of freshness but highly concentrated on our target we look forward to optimizing our training efforts. We are happy that Robert STANJEK and Markus Koy also joined our group before Kiel. It is a new approach for us to train together but it is in all our interests to work together.”

One race was completed by the Star fleet yesterday and it looks like the new training system is paying off; Stanjek and Koy took with the bullet with Polgar and Kruger second. The light winds suit Polgar and Kruger and both are enjoying the new challenge. Polgar explained how he has had to completely change his whole training program after his Tornado campaign: “In Qingdao my weight was 68kg, now I am 86. But I have to take care not to build up weight instead of muscles. We have a long way to go to reach the best crew weight and are working with nutritionists to get the best diet and training regime.”

The other strong training fleets here in Kiel are the RS:X. With the RS:X European Championship finishing on the same day that racing began in Kiel, many of the big names in fleet are not competing. But for up and coming talent Moana DELLE, whose next target is the world championship in September, Kiel was the best choice of event. “Kieler Woche and the World Championship was the best combination for me to be able to take my exams at university and to get a good preparation for the Worlds”, stated the 20 year old from Kiel. Delle made the perfect start to her regatta yesterday, finishing first in both races. Currently in eleventh position on the ISAF World Cup Standings, an overall win for Delle will put her in a strong position to challenge for a podium position if she competes at the final event in Weymouth in September.

Having learned a lot from his 2008 Olympic campaign Toni WILHELM will be back for 2012: “I have analysed my last campaign to avoid making the same mistakes again. I started my training again in March and after finishing my studies I have now enough time to be on the water.” After two races yesterday, Wilhelm is third on the leaderboard after finishing second and sixth. 

For full results from all classes, visit the Kieler Woche website 

Besides the ISAF Sailing World Cup competition, Kieler Woche has even more to offer. Three high class international championships (the X-35 Worlds, the X-41 Europeans and the SAP Europeans of the 505) and the virtual Kieler Woche online are other highlights of this year’s event, which again brings together all varieties of the sport from cutter sailing to surfboard, dinghy and offshore yachts, disabled sailing events and the famous windjammer parade. 

ISAF Sailing World Cup

The ISAF Sailing World Cup 2008-2009 consists of the following events:

16-21 Dec 2008 – Sail Melbourne The Asia Pacific Regatta, Melbourne, Australia
25-31 Jan 2009 – Rolex Miami OCR, Miami, USA
4-10 April 2009 – Trofeo SAR Princess Sofia MAPFRE, Palma, Spain
18-24 April 2009 – Semaine Olympique Francaise, Hyeres, France
27-31 May 2009 – Delta Lloyd Regatta, Medemblik, Netherlands
20-29 June 2009 – Kieler Woche, Kiel, Germany
14-19 Sept 2009 – Skandia Sail for Gold Regatta, Weymouth, Great Britain

Find out more about the ISAF Sailing World Cup, including more on the seven events, the latest World Cup Standings, the scoring system and the Notice of Series at www.sailing.org/isafsailingworldcup.