It’s been a tough old week to say the least... A seriously high quality fleet combined with strong winds everyday made for an extremely fun week of racing, but jeez was it hard!
The regatta entailed 4 days of racing with a medal race on day 5. The first two days were the qualifying series to decide gold and silver fleet with the following two days being battled out in the respective fleets.
Day 1
Kiel is an incredible regatta, with a brilliant setup and atmosphere, but one downside is the commute to the race course. Day 1 saw us sail an hour out to the race course and an hour and a half back, but it was well worth it.
Once we rounded the headland we were greeted by some big waves and big wind. My qualifying races weren’t my best; and that definitely showed in the first two races, with my poorest starts of the regatta. However, I felt relatively fast and managed to gain a lot of places back throughout the races.
Day 2
The second day was a bit of a waiting game. It was a stormy looking day with large, black clouds dominating the sky and a strong breeze across the race course. The committee held the lasers ashore and rotated most of the classes around on the inshore course that was more sheltered. It wasn’t until 6.45pm that the race committee launched our fleet. The late start made it pretty hard to get into race mode; but some dinner before racing and a coffee sorted me right out!
The two races weren’t my best results, but I was chuffed with my starts. Although they were good, and a big improvement on the previous days, I wasn’t able to convert them in the end. But it’s all learning! After the late start and 2 races, we didn’t get ashore until 10pm, which is the latest I’ve been racing by a long shot.
Day 3
The first day of silver fleet racing was a bit of a mixed bag. We had 1 race on Charlie course, around the headland in some BIG waves and 1 race on Juliet course, further inland with small chop and some mega shifts.
Race 1 was super fun and I was mixing it up with the front runners which was brilliant, even though it’s only silver fleet! The big waves and big wind made it one of the more physical races, the legs were definitely feeling the burn.
The wind picked up a touch so the race committee decide to move us inshore to Juliet course. It was incredibly shifty and felt a bit like snakes and ladders. I got one of my best starts at a senior level regatta which was great, but again I struggled to convert it into a good result.
Day 4
Shattered is an understatement, but day 4 was a good day, my best of the regatta! The day started off with 15-20 knots of breeze which lighted off during the second race to about 10-15 knots, a bit of a relief on the legs. I finished 6th and 8th in the two races; a nice way to finish what was a very tough week of racing.
Although I didn’t make the Gold fleet and my performance wasn’t my best, I am super happy with how I’ve performed against my process goals. This regatta is all about getting sharp and refining small things in preparation for the Under 21 World Championships next week in Poland.
Today we were lapping up the sun in Kiel before we travel across to Gydina tomorrow. I’m feeling good for next week; roll on the Worlds, racing starts on the 3rd!
Lewis
Standard Results:
http://manage2sail.com/en-US/event/kiwo18#!/results?classId=StdM