125th Kieler Woche: Two one-day victories and the yellow jersey for the anniversary

Others would have wished for a start like this: Paul Kohlhoff and Alica Stuhlemmer lead the field of Olympic Nacra 17 catamarans at the start of the 125th Kiel Week with an almost clean slate. The pair from Kiel opened the second Olympic half of the world's largest regatta series with two victories and a fourth place, leading the field on their foiling catamaran with the sail number GER 77 by one point ahead of the Italian World Cup final winners Vittorio Bissaro and Maelle Frascari after the first three races. "It was great fun out there today," said a delighted Kohlhoff on his 24th birthday on his home turf in imperial Kiel weather, "I couldn't have wished for a better present. And tomorrow we continue in yellow."

Germany's best skiff sailors, on the other hand, have rung in the second half of Kiel Week with a rather weak start. While the Australians Will and Sam Phillips lead the outstanding fleet of 79 49er dinghies from 29 countries and the New Zealand top favourites Peter Burling and Blair Tuke are only two points behind them in fourth place, no GER crew was able to place in the top ten at the start of the German showpiece discipline.

Jakob Meggendorfer and Andreas Spranger (Bayerischer Yacht-Club) are the best Germans in 14th place after three races, followed by world championship bronze medallists Tim Fischer (Norddeutscher Regatta Verein) and Fabian Graf (Verein Seglerhaus am Wannsee) in 15th place. World number five Justus Schmidt/Max Boehme (Kiel) are 17th. "The sailing conditions out there were fantastic today," said Schmidt, commenting on the sunshine and up to 20 knots of wind, "but obviously we didn't have enough fun. We struggled a bit today and paid for our mistakes with 9th and 10th place in the first two races. We're obviously not happy with that and want to do better tomorrow."

At least at the top end, the Olympic part of the 49er fleet with Olympic champions Burling and Tuke, world champions Sime and Mihovil Fantela (Croatia) and world number one James Peters/Fynn Sterritt (Great Britain) is almost as well-staffed as the 49er fleet at the 125th anniversary edition of Kieler Woche. As the best German 49erFX crew, Vicky Jurczok/Anika Lorenz (Berlin) were initially in seventh place, with Tina Lutz and Susann Beucke (Chiemsee Yacht Club/Hannoverscher Yacht-Club) in tenth place.

Due to clashes with other major events such as the Laser World Championships in Japan, the entire world elite is missing in some of the other Olympic classes. "The second part started with somewhat thinned-out classes," admitted Dirk Ramhorst. The Kieler Woche organising director hopes "that in two years' time we will receive an overarching calendar from the World Sailing Association, which will ensure that Kieler Woche is not cannibalised by other series". With just under 500 active participants and 325 boats from 48 nations, the world's largest regatta week is weakening in its Olympic heartbeat chamber through no fault of its own.

Here to see the results.