EM 49er, 49erFX, Nacra17: One early start, lots of seaweed and blatant wind shifts

They want to shine in their home waters at the European Championships of the three fast-paced Olympic disciplines 49er, 49erFX and Nacra 17, but the DSV starters did not have as easy a time as they had hoped at the start. "Once again, we're making life difficult for ourselves," said 49er helmswoman Vicky Jurczok. The world number four and Olympic ninth is one of the co-favourites at the World Championships off Kiel. The 27-year-old has set herself the target of a top five finish for the European title fights in her home waters with her foresailor Anika Lorenz. "And then such a stupid early start right at the beginning!", Jurczok scolded herself. Because the Berlin team achieved good 5th and 2nd places in the subsequent races despite battling with seaweed and "blatant spins", they can hope for a big leap forward in the rankings after grabbing the "string" on Monday. However, Jurczok admits that it is not exactly ideal to take the scratch result in the very first race. However, the crew is known for achieving good results under pressure.

With the first German win of the day and 9th and 10th places, Tina Lutz and Susann Beucke sailed to 12th place at the start of the title fights, with the Kiel twins Jule and Lotta Görge (10, 6, 3) one place ahead of them. The best German team on Sunday were Gwendal Lamay and Luke Willim, who were sailing as juniors in this European Championship field on the high-performance 49erFX dinghies. The Danish Olympic bronze medallists Jena Mai Hansen and Katja Salskov took the lead in the fleet of 64 49erFX boats. Helmswoman Hansen has just signed a contract with the Volvo Ocean Race Team Vestas 11th Hour Racing and will be sailing around the world from October, as will 49erFX Olympic champion Martine Grael, who has signed on with the Dutch team AkzoNobel and therefore, unlike Jena Mai Hansen, had to forego a start at the European Championships in Kiel. In second and third place in the strong field of 49erFX sailors at the European Championships are Annemiek Bekkering/Cecile Janmaat from the Netherlands and world number two Charlotte Dobson with Sakia Tidey from Great Britain.

For one week, the best crews from the three fastest Olympic disciplines will be sailing for the European Championship medals off Kiel. The 49er, 49erFX and - for the first time fully fouling over the water - the Nacra17 disciplines are also taking part

While the Nacra 17 mixed catamaran teams were still training on Sunday for their first start on Monday, the 49er men also got into the action in the afternoon. After the first four races, Great Britain's Dylan Fletcher-Scott and Stuart Bithell were in the lead ahead of Austria's Benjamin Bildstein/David Hussl. The best German team was Jakob Meggendorfer and Andreas Spranger from Bavaria in 11th place on day one, while Justus Schmidt and Max Boehme dropped back to 17th place after a promising start with 3rd, 5th, 7th and 8th places. However, the fleet of 92 (!) 49ers - as with the 49erFX sailors - is still close together in groups in this initial phase of qualification. "All of our races were impressive today," said Justus Schmidt from Kiel, "we were fast and are looking forward to the next few days." The title series will continue on Monday and end on 4 August.

Click here for the results.