Das Kieler Woche. We [Zack Downing and Andrew Cates] arrived in Frankfurt on June 16th after a long day of travel. After taking a bus to Kiel, we met with our host family, the Jansens, who were kind enough to house us for 10 days leading up to and during Kiel Week. We then set out to find and rig our boat. We got out on the water with several other American teams to train in the following days, taking the day before the regatta off. We were fortunate enough to be at the venue, Schilksee, which hosted to 1972 Olympics, before our racing started but during the racing of the Olympic Classes. The event is very impressive, with Audi supplying countless vehicles simply to tow trailers around the venue or sit unused on display. A highlight of the event was certainly watching Germany play in the Euro 2012 on a big screen with hundreds of Germans. Although our fitness level may have decreased due to the copious amounts of bratwurst Andrew and I consumed, we were ready for the first day of the regatta.
Day 1: The 96-boat fleet was split into two flights for two days of qualification. Our fleet was to be the second of the two to race, and we raced between 4:00 and 6:30 PM (fortunately the sun doesn’t set until nearly 11:00 PM!). The wind had come up to about 15 knots from a north-northwest direction for our racing. We started at the favored pin in the first race and managed to hold on to finish 3rd in the tough flight, a great start to our regatta. We struggled with starting in the next two races, unable to replicate our success in the first race, instead settling for a 6th place finish in both the second and third races. We sailed each race in the same manner, pushing out far to the right side of the racecourse where there was more pressure. We were able to sail through the fleet in both races and we were very happy with our boatspeed and boathandling in the 1-meter chop and medium breeze. After the first three races, we sat in 6th place. We were not unhappy with our scores for the day, though we knew that we could have done better.
Day 2: The flights were rearranged, however we still in the second fleet to head out on the water. Unlike the first day, the wind was coming out of the south. There was far less chop and the wind was a bit lighter: about 8-13 knots. We did two races between 2:00 and 4:00 then headed back out for another race at 6:00, which ran until 7:00 PM. We again struggled with starts, which turned out to be our downfall in the regatta. In the first two races of the day we posted a 5th place finish and an 8th place finish. After the break on shore, when we headed back out for the last race of the day, the breeze had lightened considerably. We finally had a decent start- though as the wrong end of the line. Due to the light and shifty winds, we were unable to sail back through the fleet and finished 28th, which we later dropped when enough races were completed for a throw out.
Day 3: At this point in the regatta the fleet was divided into gold in silver flights, each of 48 boats. In 10th place, we easily qualified for gold. Although the racing would certainly become more difficult, we were determined to move up in the standings. We arrived at the venue in the morning expecting the same frontal winds as the previous day, which held to be true. The wind was a south westerly at 7-13 knots, which shifted 25 degrees south throughout the day and built to 13-18 knots. The chop was larger than normal for the wind direction, for it was consistently 2-4 feet. Large, streaky puffs ran down the course. The racing was very tactical and almost anything could happen, largely dependent on which side the wind filled in on at any given point during the race. It was frustrating at times, with others sailing through unpredictable puffs while we fell behind. Our coach, Fred Strammer, compared the conditions to collegiate sailing. We sailed four races on the day, with the unfortunate results of 17, 10, 21, 16. This moved us down to 12th place overall. We were unable to put together a fundamentally sound race, though we did play the edges of the course quite successfully in several instances, which saved us from doing even worse. After the disheartening day we were still in position to move up on the final day and very determined to do so.
Day 4: As is typical in Kiel, it was a rainy day. We raced from Noon until 2:00 with 5-8 knots westerly winds increasing to 8-10 knots as the rain begun to fall. After numerous generally recalls with the entire fleet stacked up at the pin, we got a race off. The excess of starts gave us extremely valuable starting practice. When we finally got a race off, our starting tactics had improved. Although the start wasn’t perfect it was better than many of our previous starts. We were still forced to come from behind, but due to effective downwind tactical calls we were able to finish 9th in the race. At this point it began to rain and it became slightly windier. We again started at the pin with a very good lane, for more boats were at the boat end of the line which was slightly favored. We played the left side of the course very well and at one point we may have been able to port tack the fleet shortly after the start. However, the wind shifted right and the wind velocity increased on the right side of the course soon after the start. We rounded the windward mark ahead of only about 5 boats, putting us around 40th place. Over the next run and the ensuing beat and the final run, we played the wind almost perfectly, coming all the way back to 15th place right at the finish. This brought us back up to 10th place overall!
Over the course of the regatta, we sailed twelve races with one throw out. Finishing 10th, we were the second American team and top American youth team. We aren’t displeased with our results, but we know by fixing several aspects of our sailing we can easily be at the very top of the fleet. I would like to thank Fred Strammer for extending his own European adventure to coach us, The Jansens for their warm hospitality by housing us, and the SDYC competition fund for assisting us in pursuing our goals. The regatta was a very good tactical learning experience, which has prepared us for the upcoming European Championships and World Championships.