The international part of Kieler Woche startet with tricky windshifts and dark clouds above course area Alpha for the European Championship in the Farr30 class and the X99 Gold-Cup.
Strong gusts with about 30 knots threatened the fleets but did not made their way to the sailing areas.
Martin Strandberg from Sweden startet the first Race in the Farr30 class with a bullet. The german Martin Christiansen (Strande) on "Xive“ is leading the 36 boat fleet in the X99 class with two second place finishes.
In the first race he got beaten by the four times World Champion Christian Soyka and his team on "ImmacX“ "We found perfectly the way around the shifts and pressure fields“, said Soyka one of the hottest favorites. But in the second race he was not too happy. After a moderate start "ImmacX“ raced the first race siede by side with "Xive“ but manoeuvred himself on the wrong side of the course. "Me and my tactician had a different view about the next move. We were not sure if the wind would shift more to the left or oscillate back. We made the wrong decision.“ But he was not keen to clarify, who was wrong. "It was a team decision“, he said with a smile.
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