Day One of Kiel
Kiel lived up to its reputation today: we had 12-18 knots, big choppy, rain, temperatures in the low 60s, and we sailed about 45 min to an hour to our race course! I was in yellow fleet today for the first of two qualifying days. We had three races on the outer loop.
In the first race, I had a great stat at the pin and tacked and crossed the fleet. After I crossed most of our group I flopped back over and headed left. The breeze went a little further left though and a few guys I had crossed were now ahead of me. I sailed out and tacked on their hip and rode the lefty all the way to the weather mark. I rounded in 6th place and started on the reach. On the downwind I caught up to 4th and rounded heading to the left. The top two were pretty punch, so it looked like it was a race for third. I stayed left, thinking the breeze was going to pay like the first beat, but a few guys went right and rode a big shift across. I tried to get in touch with the fleet, but had lost a few boats. I stayed left and capitalized on a lefty at the top of the beat to round in 6th. I stayed in 6th on the downwind and reach and began what was an unusually long last upwind to the finish. But the long leg worked to my benefit as I was able to get around two guys to finish 4th!
In the second race, I had another great start at the pin and tacked quickly to port. The breeze had gone far to the left, and I was almost laying! I rode the lefty across and ended up rounding in 3rd. Unfortunately on the downwind I stayed in the middle and pressure filled on either sides. I dropped back to about 6th at the leeward mark. On the next upwind I went left, again thinking the breeze would stay left like the first beat. I was looking really good for the first half of the beat, and I was conscious to stay near the guys right behind me on the left. But a bunch of guys who were deeper in the race went hard right and got big pressure and a shift. I had nothing coming back from the left (which was kind of odd) and could only get around in 12th place. I had a good downwind, closing some distance on the guys in front of me. On the last windward beat I passed a few boats to finish in 9th. A little frustrating, but a keeper race.
In the final race, I started middle-pin this time and sailed almost to the layline. I tacked onto port and crossed, sailing in about 5th place. I was 5th at the top mark with the fleet pretty spread out. On the downwind, I caught one boat to move into 4th place. For the rest of the race, I bounced around between 3rd and 5th. On the last downwind I lost one boat and rounded in 5th. I stayed there until the finish.
So overall, it was a long, cold day. Solid results though of 4-9-5 put me in 11th overall. But with three fleets the points are all very close.
