Kiel week 2024
Linking up with Krauss Suemmchen once again, we arrived in Kiel for splendid conditions. We went out for some training on our own on the first day, practicing our starts, maneuvers with small waves and doing a lot of speed checks and acceleration. On day two we were joined by the sailors from Warnemünde and were able to train together. We dominated the speed tests in light conditions, but struggled a little when the wind picked up and we sailed short race formats. On day three of training we decided to go out with the Swiss youth boys and do some speed checks and racing. We tested our new style jib for the first time, struggling to adjust it correctly. Completely focused on the new jib, we completely forgot to adjust some of the basics and did not perform to well during practice racing.
The regatta started, with winds of up to 20kn we left the marina on our way to the race course. We had to snake around the other race courses and could then finally set the Gennaker, but to our surprise our new Gennaker Sheet broke on the first leg. We were happy it happened before racing, but had to replace it with a towline which was thinner, making it hard for the hands. Frankly Leander didn’t notice a lot of it due to the extremity of racing and the strong winds not demanding a proper feeling in the kite but rather just keeping it tight. The racing felt great, a competitive fleet, our sails all black and the handling worked out, but we just could not get the boat up to speed.
The next day we struggled during our starts and the tactics were poor. Unfortunately too many bad results resulted in no qualification for the gold fleet, which had been our goal for the event. There was no racing on day three due to a lack of wind and on day four we could not perform either. This left us questioning a lot, because the fleet in general was quite strong, but the silver fleet and especially the last half of the silver fleet should have been easily beatable. We questioned whether this journey further makes sense, with the huge investments in time and money virtually leading nowhere, but we will not give up. Our dream is to win. To win at international regattas and showcase what we are able to do. We believe in ourselves and in our future and sometimes when things go bad you have to just continue pushing. We want to build a legacy and we need supporters on our side. We are looking for sponsors who are willing to make a change and commit to something special. Let’s work together and mutually benefit.
Check out our sponsorship page.
