Final Day of Kiel

The final day of Kiel again brought light and fickle winds and after a few hours of postponement we were able to get off two races. When racing was all said and done we scored a 31 and a 24. It was definitely one of the more frustrating days racing as our boat handling coupled with a few critical tactical mistakes cost us big.

In the first race, with the pin clearly favored, we chose to start just to windward of the clutter and had a great start with good speed. Unfortunately, we misjudged a cross as we attempted to port tack the half of the fleet nearest to the boat and had to tack back to starboard where we still had an ok lane and were able to round the windward in the top 12- if only we had made the cross! With more time in the boat, we will be better at judging crosses and have quicker tacks, but nonetheless frustrating.Well, here comes the most trying part of the day. As we rounded the windward, the fleet was very, very condensed with many boats locking rails etc. To avoid all the commotion with other boats we decided for a quick gybe over onto port. What a mistake that was. The breeze shifted left in a PERSISTENT SHIFT and we got owned. To exacerbate the mistake, we chose to round the less crowded gate, but having it be so unflavored left us in poor shape. Verdict- though we had a great start, and good positioning on the fleet, a few critical mistakes can cost you ALOT.

Having tried to clear our heads after the first race, we decided on a very similar tactic of starting to the first race, though slightly closer to the pin. We again had a good positioning, but our acceleration wasn’t quite solid enough, and were unable to hold our lane. As we approached the windward in a largely left favored course, again the fleet was ridiculously condensed and we were unable to have a good tack onto the starboard layline. This set into motion an awfully painful rounding, and though we had a good final downwind, we were unable to feel satisfied on the day.

Knew it wasn’t going to be easy coming right to an event following our time off this spring, and Kiel didn’t disappoint! So, onto Poland for a couple weeks of training before the Europeans. Hopefully we can continue to shake off the rust of the last few months and start to feel more comfortable sailing the boat and with other boats around us.