Seven-time 470 and 505 world champion Wolfgang Hunger and his co-skipper Julien Kleiner have made a promising start to the world's biggest regatta week on their own doorstep. After four races and places 4, 3, 2 and 3, the duo are in third place. The orthopaedic surgeon from Strande won his 21st title in 2013 and is now back on the attack at his home race in Kiel. However, it was Hunger's former co-skipper Holger Jess who initially took the lead. The Eckernförde boat dealer is in the same boat as Australian Michael Quirk at this Kieler Woche and is aiming for his tenth Kieler Woche title after his last win in 2015 with Meike Schomäker. Stefan Köchlin and Andreas Achterberg secured second place in the highly competitive 505 class.
At the weekend, the 505 sailors and twelve other international classes were challenged on the short courses in the area of the Kiel-Schilksee Olympic Centre. After Saturday's thunderstorm cancellations, the races went into extra time on eight courses on Sunday. All fleets completed four races, the skiffs even five. In the evening, organisation manager Dirk Ramhorst was able to sum up the first weekend with satisfaction: "We got the maximum out of today and were able to make up some ground. That makes the mediocre first day less important." However, the athletes also wanted some rest after this demanding day. "It wasn't easy with the short, steep wave," Ramhorst confirmed.
At the top of the field after the second day of the regatta is a colourful field with overall leaders from four nations. German teams have the lead in most classes. The fastest Formula 18 crew so far are Martin Friedrichsen and Björn Wendel from Flensburg. In the Albin Express fleet, Jan Brink from Flensburg and his crew have laid the foundations for their third title. Christoph Homeiner from Bremen leads the fleet in the Contender. In the former Olympic boat class Flying Dutchman, Kilian König and Johannes Brack (Hanover/Edersee) are leading the bow after two days. Sönke Durst, Marc Rokicki and Ulrich Schäfer are the leaders in the Folkboat at the halfway point of the international first half of Kieler Woche. Jens Gröritz and Kerstin Wichardt are leading in the Hobie 16, while the Berlin crew of Daniel Frost is leading in the J/24. In the OK dinghy, Jan Kurfeld from Wismar is the measure of the fleet at the start.
There was one downer for football fans at the Kiel-Schilksee Olympic Centre: due to the high fees for public broadcasts, the opening match between the German national football team and Mexico was not shown on a big screen. In previous years, thousands of sailors from many nations had often watched and celebrated the games together at similar broadcasts.
Tatjana Pokorny
Sports reporter
