Trujillo at Kieler Woche, © segel-bilder.de /Christian Beeck.
by Robert Deaves
For the second year running Kieler Woche has thrown its worst weather at the Olympic classes. For the Finn class, after two days of waiting for wind, there was finally some racing on Tuesday. With five races now on the board after four days, Rafa Trujillo (ESP) takes a four point lead over European Champion Ivan Kljakovic Gaspic (CRO) going into the final day, with Deniss Karpak (EST) another four points behind.
Though the forecast looked no more promising than previous days, race four got underway at 14.30 in a shifty 4-6 knots. The two day break didn't seem to hurt regatta leader Trujillo as he scored his third race win in a row, with the fleet behind him generally pretty mixed up. 22 year old Max Salminen (SWE) placed second in the race with Vyacheslav Sivenkov (RUS) in third. Third and fourth placed overall Kljakovic Gaspic and Oleksiy Borysov (UKR) stayed in touch with Trujillo with a fifth and a sixth.
Race five got away at 15.50 is a similar shifty breeze with Trujillo having to re-round the committee boat and starting late. Karpak, who placed tenth in the first race said, "Today there was a light wind. The first race was almost hiking, but then wind died and sometimes we had 3 knots. I was unlucky in the first race today on the first upwind but then recovered well."
"In the second race I was lucky from the start. I rounded the first mark second after Florian [Raudaschl], and then he went to the wrong mark and then I took the lead. Then I was all the time in first, and Zach [Railey] second. We had a nice match race on the last beat to the finish." Zach Railey (USA) placed second in the race with class veteran Thomas Schmid (GER) in third.
Karpak concluded, "So I'm happy to be in the medal race again, first time this year, and to be in third position is great."
Another happy sailor is recent silver medalist at the Junior Europeans, Luke Lawrence (USA), in 19th place. He said, "I'm very happy about my performance today because it was sufficient enough to move me into the top 20, which was my goal. The conditions were light and shifty for the first three-quarters of the race which made for tricky sailing. The wind lightened on the first beat and I was in a position to keep going to the right when the left died out completely. This allowed for a top 15 rounding. On the second upwind, I dug into the header much harder than I usually do because this was one of my weak points and I wanted to make sure I did it. This pushed me into 8th position which is where I finished the race."
"In race two, the same light and shifty continued. On the first beat I practised the same shift-digging technique which allowed me to round in the top 10. I lost a few boats on the second beat because I wasn't far enough left when a large shift came in. I finished just inside the top 10 on the second race, about half a boat length ahead of the Swedish sailor."
"I am very excited about my light air technique starting to develop, a new mast has also helped the process along. Next I need to gain strength and size to better my heavy air performance." Lawrence
In 15th place overall lies the current world champion Jonas Høgh Christensen (DEN), sailing his first regatta since he won the Finn Gold Cup in Vallensbæk, Denmark last year. He said, "Since the Gold Cup I have done no Finn sailing at all. My boat was still rigged and when I packed it up to come to Kiel. I found a couple of old power bars, a half empty bottle of champagne and the Danish flag. So I really haven't touched the boat since then."
"After the first day of racing I was in a lot of pain - it was fun but painful. I had to fix the boat so it was up to racing standards and that meant I was the last guy on the water. I got a good start and I was second at the windward mark, then I passed the German who was leading and I thought to myself, "If you win this race you better sail in and pack up and wait for the Games...ha ha. Seconds later I tried to gybe for the mark and rusty as I am I went strait into the soup."
The Dane, who hasn't finished top ten in any race is hoping to get to San Francisco in August to defend his world title, but admitted, "I need to get fit before San Fran. At the Games in 2008 I was in the shape of my life and I tried to keep it that way so I was in pretty good physical shape for the worlds last year. But I have lost way more in the last 10 months than in the months after the Games."
A good result in Wednesday's medal race from either Trujillo or Kljakovic Gaspic will see them jump ahead of Ed Wright (GBR) in the overall Sailing World Cup ranking, and set up a tight battle going into the final event in Weymouth in August. The Skandia Team GBR Finn sailors skipped Kieler Woche, preferring to train out in San Francisco in preparation for the Finn Gold Cup, whichis being held just a week after the Weymouth event.
Trujillo summed up his day, "I feel very comfortable with my new boat after a winter of testing all configurations and many hours work. I am four points clear in the medal race, but it is very tight because of the small number of races. Let's see if I can continue to demonstrate this line of improvement also in the medal race."
With 17 points separating the top 7 boats, and only nine points between the top five boats, the final race is going to be where the week is decided.
Results after 5 races
1 ESP 100 Rafael Trujillo 11.00
2 CRO 524 Ivan Kljakovic Gaspic 15.00
3 EST 2 Deniss Karpak 19.00
4 UKR 1 Oleksiy Borysov 20.00
5 FRA 112 Jonathan Lobert 20.00
6 ITA 117 Poggi Giorgio 27.00
7 USA 4 Zach Railey 28.00
8 CZE 1 Michael Maier 31.00
9 SWE 6 Björn Allansson 33.00
10 AUT 3 Florian Raudaschl 44.00
Finn Class
Kieler Woche
