Kiel Week: "A beautiful November day"

"It was a beautiful November day today". The much-quoted sentence came from the mouth of Kieler Woche's head of organisation Peter Ramcke, who summed up the autumnal temperatures and fresh winds best. However, the conditions did not detract from the sailing sport on the fjord at the start of the international half of the world's largest regatta. The athletes simply sailed themselves warm. Only some teams were denied the pleasure. The FDs, the 420s and the Staren each suffered a mast break in gusts of up to 24 knots. After the first day of the regatta, German teams are in the lead in nine of the 17 international classes.

On Thursday, many eyes were on the man who has almost become synonymous with Kiel Week. Record winner Wolfgang Hunger from Strande near Kiel and his co-sailor Julien Kleiner sailed to second place and two day wins in their "living room". The five-time world champion is now heading straight for his 21st Kieler Woche title. Who will stop him this time? Perhaps the European champions Meike Schomäker and co-skipper Holger Jess. The mixed crew achieved a fourth and two third places. The Hamburg world champions Claas Lehmann and Leon Oehme will have to attack from sixth position on Friday.

In the small 49er sister 29er, two German crews are among the leaders of the impressive fleet of 101 boats after the first three races. Jasper Steffens and Tom Lennart from the Kieler Yacht-Club are second at the start, Paul Kohlhoff and Carolina Werner fourth. In this young class, Thursday showed how useful knowledge of the outer fjord can be, as Jasper Steffens and Tom Lennart live and train in Kiel. "A win at Kiel Week would of course be a great thing, but it's still a long series," said Jasper Steffens. "The wind picked up right at the start today. They were tough races."

The German leaders in their classes - and even with an unblemished series for the time being - are: Gordon Nickel (Stade) in the new B/one, Kilian König/Johannes Brack (Edersee) in the Flying Dutchman, Christoph Nielsen (Berlin) after his comeback in the Folkboat and the catamaran dominators Helge and Christian Sach from Zarnekau in the Formula 18. In addition, Ingo Delius/Sabine Delius-Wenig (Bielefeld) took the lead in the Hobie 16, as did Peer Kock (Hamburg) in the J 24. Hannah Anderssohn from Rostock took the lead in the Laser 4.7 junior class.