They themselves do not want to overestimate their success after six of twelve races up to the medal final. "But it was a really good start for us," said 49er helmsman Erik Heil cautiously. Heil and his co-skipper Thomas Plößel are in second place after the first two days of the Olympic regatta for the skiff sailors.
The crew from the Norddeutscher Regatta Verein is only three points behind the New Zealand gold favourites and America's Cup sailors Peter Burling and Blair Tuke. "We are happy that we have obviously found the right strategy for this area a little quicker than some of our competitors," said Heil on Saturday evening in Rio de Janeiro. With 15 and 18 points each, the Kiwis and the Germans are in a commanding lead. Behind them, in the fleet of 20 racy 49er dinghies, there was already a gap of 15 points to the Danish Olympic champion Jonas Warrer and his skipper Christian Peter Lübeck at half-time.
In the 49erFX fleet, Victoria Jurczok and Anika Lorenz made up ground after the early start the day before with 7th, 6th and 7th place and fought their way up to eighth place. And there was also good news from the Nacra 17 track: Paul Kohlhoff and Carolina Werner moved up to ninth place with 5th, 10th and 2nd. "We want to consolidate our place in the top ten," said the foresailor of the youngest team in the fleet of new Olympic mixed catamarans, setting out the next stage goal.
The Olympic regatta continues on Sunday with the RS:X final with Toni Wilhelm and further races in the 470 men's, 470 women's and Nacra 17 disciplines. The skiff teams are taking a break and are looking forward to the rest day after an exhausting Saturday. The final of the laser sailors will take place on Monday without Philipp Buhl, who was eliminated in 14th place overall.
Tatjana Pokorny
Sports reporter
