After two hours practice on Friday, yesterday was our first day of racing at Kieler Woche and our first day ever racing the new Elliott 6m. And so far so good, the boats appear to have been the correct choice and we’re through the first round and into the quarter finals.
With 21 teams entered to Kiel, the chosen format for the event is to have three groups of seven completing separate round robins with the first two going straight through to the quarter finals. The remaining teams then split into two groups and race in another round robin with the first team in each group advancing to the quarters. In the quarter finals it is planed to sail a round robin with the first four advancing to a knockout series for the semis and finals.
Yesterday in a fairly light and very shifty breeze we completed our group (A) round robin and the group B round robin with us, Nicky Souter (AUS), Paula Lewin (BER) and Renne Groeneveld (NED) advancing through to the quarters. Group C are currently sitting out on the water in no wind and rain trying to complete their round robin.
Being the first day sailing the Elliott was always going to be tough because we wanted to start learning everything there is to know about them within two hours of practice! However we tried to approach the day as an opportunity for learning but not so much that we threw away races doing so. The day started well with straight wins until we raced Anne-Claire Le Berre where a mistake by me earned us a penalty on the final windward mark. Despite several luffs, we were not able to even the score. Our final race against Souter because a must win in order to advance through to the quarters. Take one was going really well until the race committee abandoned the race 100m from the finish line! Then take 2 started well with us holding the Australians out to the left side of the start line until the start gun, and from there we were able to keep a two boat length lead through to the finish.
With a day off for us today while the Group C round robin and repechage stages take place we have some time to think about the new boats and how to speed some of our boat handling up and straight line sailing. They seem like they will be tough to sail really well which is an exciting prospect for the next few years. In the breeze on Friday they were pretty quick downwind but had quite a lot of sideways motion at slow speeds! There are probably a few layout issues with things like jib cleats at the moment, but we are definitely looking forward to some hard training sessions in them back home in the coming months before the next ISAF World Cup event which will be held in Weymouth.
The forecast for today and tomorrow morning is not too good but hopefully we’ll be out again in the afternoon tomorrow to start the quarter finals, fingers crossed!
Lucy x
PS — we’re in the boat with bow #1 in the following snippets from yesterday’s racing
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