One of them was delighted with his favourite conditions and really turned up the heat in the strong winds on Friday: Laser helmsman Philipp Buhl catapulted himself to second place in winds over 20 knots on the third day of the Olympic half of Kiel Week with three day wins in a row. "How long have I been waiting for a day like this?" said the delighted 27-year-old from Sonthofen, who also thanked the race committee for three long, intensive races on the Kiel Fjord. The four-time Kiel Week winner from the Alpsee-Immenstadt Sailing Club said: "I just want to emphasise that: It was pure and full-on sailing today with races lasting around an hour each, not just short close races for which you are dragged out and back in for hours. That's really fun!"
The other was annoyed at first and then fought: 49er helmsman Erik Heil and his coxswain Thomas Plößel from the Norddeutscher Regatta Verein were rammed by the Japanese 49erFX women's team Harad/Namagatsu on Friday in the eighth race while rounding a mark. With a broken boat and a torn shin, the Rio bronze medallists Heil and Plößel had no choice but to head for the harbour. The Berliners had to abandon the race and were unable to compete in the next one. On paper, this initially meant two 36-point scores and therefore no chance of winning the Kiel Week title. Heil's first protest was rejected, but the Olympic bronze medallist went into the resumption with a new witness and new video evidence - Germany's most successful 49er sailors were not going to let themselves be knocked out of the field that easily at their home event in Kiel. In the end, Erik Heil spent a nerve-wracking and hungry seven and a half (!) hours negotiating with the jury and waiting. The jury awarded the Germans 13th place for the eighth race and the average of the points sailed up to that point for the ninth race. This meant that Heil/Plößel would finish in third place in the results adjustment on Saturday morning at the latest.
The NRV crew had a lot of fun playing with the wind until the crash. "It was actually a legendary sailing day," said Heil after the race in 20 knots of wind with gusts of 25 knots and more. The strong winds and high waves took their toll on the sailors at Kieler Woche on Friday. A series of capsizes, breakages and several cancelled races were the result. "It was tough, but fair," was the verdict of Brazilian double Olympic champion and five-time medallist Robert Scheidt, who himself capsized three times in the 49er field with foresailor Gabriel Borges and fell back to 17th place.
In the women's 49erFX, the defending champions Tina Lutz and Susann Beucke were in third place after sailing at the limit behind the Olympic silver medallists Alexandra Maloney/Molly Meech (Australia) and Charlotte Dobson/Saskia Tidey (Great Britain). Susann Beucke said: "We wanted to sail a solid course in the conditions today. We managed to do that." And Tina Lutz admitted with a laugh: "We did see the gusts. But that's not where we wanted to go..."
Jan Hauke Erichsen and Ann Kristin Wedemeyer put in a strong performance in the Nacra 17. After ten races in the Olympic mixed catamaran teams, they are in second place behind the Olympic bronze medallist Thomas Zajac and his new foresailor Barbara Matz from Austria and have already achieved three victories on the day.
Kiel Week comes to an end this weekend with the final and medal races as well as the final sprint at the Para World Sailing World Championships, where Heiko Kröger from Waldbröl kept his medal chances alive in fourth place, six points behind the leading Paralympics winner Damien Seguin from France. Berlin 2.4mR helmsman Lasse Klötzing was in sixth place after five World Championship races.
Jens Kroker took third place on Friday evening. The Paralympics winner and former Sonar helmsman explored the new Paralympic class Hansa 303 - only the fifth day of sailing in the new boat - which proved to be very open in the high waves. Many Hansas ran full. The Paralympic athletes had plenty to do to get the water out of their boats. One British sailor had to receive medical treatment for hypothermia. She was unable to empty her boat, could not be recovered at sea, had to be towed ashore and received immediate medical treatment there - accompanied by the dedicated Kiel Week team.
Tatjana Pokorny
Sports reporter
