Kieler Woche: The Results

So even though I scored 51 and 51 in my two races, every one else did pretty well, and the Americans not to shabby. In the Lasers, Tom Slingsby (AUS) took home 1st with 21 points, and Gustavo Lima (POR) with 2nd with 59 points. I have a feeling Tom should do fine the Olympics next month. And even though I failed, Zach Marks represented America very well, coming in at 103rd, with 366 points, good on ya!

In Radials, I was thinking that Xu Lijia (CHN) was going to clean some clocks, as she was early on, but she fell to 3rd with 54 points, being narrowly beaten by Sari Multala (FIN), who came 2nd with 53 point, and Sophie de Turckheim (FRA) came in 1st with 46 points. Anna Tunnicliffe (USA) came in 22nd with 121 points, I think she had a couple of Black Flags or something thrown in there, I'm not quite sure what the story is, but I hope shes not suffering from Paige Railey syndrome, and getting all Rule 42 crazy. But I'm sure she will be firing on all pistons and will make us Americans all proud at the Olympics. Also representing USA was Sarah Lihan (USA), she did very well and came in 22nd with 153 points, great job for your first Kiel!

Stars were a major upset, for me at least, I had totally expected Robert Scheidt/ Bruno Prada (BRA) to take first, but they took 2nd with 14.02 points. Now let that sink in, they lost 1st place by .02 points!!! I think Robert is going to be loosing some sleep over that for awhile. And 1st place went to Fredrik Loof and Anders Ekstrom (SWE), with 14.00 points Th Stars will be very interesting to watch at this Olympics, I am of course pulling for Robert Schiedt.

The Finn fleet is always interesting to watch. For awhile it was looking like the great Rafael Trujillo (ESP) was going to take first, but he fell to 2nd with 23 points, and Jonas Hoegh-Christensen (DEN) took 3rd with 25 points. Ben Ainslie was not able to show for some reason, but his fellow Brit Ed Wright did, and took 1st with 19 points and did the Queen proud. Zach Railey (USA) came in 4th with 53 points and did very well. He seems to do better and better at every regatta, he should make us Americans very proud at China next month.

Kieler Woche

I’ve been meaning to write this the last couple of nights, but dinner and beer run late, so I might as well do it now, as some people are probably getting antsy for it. Lets see if I can do this on 1.7 liters of German and Czech beer, which is what, 5 cans of beer? I should be fine.

As you all might have read, my scores for Kiel Week did not quite meet the high held expectations, as I only raced the first day. Well my mum decided to take it upon herself to trip and fall on the way to the bus stop and break her left arm near her wrist, and a section of her hand, which required a plate and 6 pins, and 4 different casts. There goes her life long record of never breaking a bone. So I was able to race the first day, and I did terrible. I had lost a lot of weight coming over. Before we left, I weighed about 171- 175-ish, but the trip over really did it to me, as I can loose up to 3 pounds by skipping a meal, so sitting on a plane and in airports for 20 hours will takes its effect, that and all the walking involved every day, and it took us an hour by bus to get to the Olympic Center every day, we also missed a couple of meals, as pretty much EVERYTHING closes by 8. By day one I recken I was at a slim 160 pounds, which is no good for 30 knots in a Full rig, and when I went out the second day, I went up wind for all of 2 minutes at the start line, told the RC I was heading home. It just wasn't going to work. Its interesting because it took me 39 minutes to get out to the course that that, and about 2 hours to get home, and about 6 flips. The reach there was great, a once in a life time kind of reach, especially if your come from California. You can't complain about a 30 knot reach, with flat water. The beat home was a different story, 2 hours, upwind, 30 knots, and your too damn light.So from there on out, family came first, with my moms surgery, getting her to the hospital, and all her multiple casts. But even though I didn’t get to race as much as I would have liked it was still a great experience, and one that I will never forget. It was probably one of the greatest regattas that I’ve ever been to, with food and beer stands, gear and boat bits shops, shopping, a market BMW cars for trailering, music, everything you ever needed all on site, I had no idea what to expect, but this tops it all. Being the site of the 1972 Olympic games what more would you expect? (I never did find the changing/locker rooms, but there are rumored to be showers.)

Lastly, I want to thank my parents, my sponsors, BYC, the BYC dock crew, LMVYC, SAYC, and everyone that has gotten me this far. I might have fallen short of meeting expectations this time at Kiel Week, but there’s always next time, and I’ll make sure to give em hell at Baltic Sprint Cup, and US Laser Nationals. In the end, I might not have won Kiel Week, but I win this awesome board game tonight, so I guess that counts for something?