Thursday, 28th June 2018
Tayla and I have just completed Kiel Week 2018. The event is known as the largest sailing event in the world with over 50 nations and 4000 competitors. We used the regatta as a training event in the lead up to the Nacra 17 European Championships and World Championships to be held in the coming months.
The regatta involved 2 days of qualifying and 2 days of finals series. We had a decent qualifying series allowing us to qualify for the gold fleet. The gold fleet racing in the finals series was challenging. We used every opportunity to learn and improve. This attitude was evident as our results improved throughout the finals series. The final race of the regatta was our best result. We fought it out with the top Nacra 17 sailors in the world, including three medallists from the 2016 Olympics and multiple world champions. Despite the shifty and breezy conditions in Kiel, we held 10th position around the track in the last race of the final series and posted the 5th fasted average boat speed of all the teams.
We finished the regatta in 21st out of the 40-boat fleet. The regatta was very promising as our results improved significantly throughout the event. We are now heading to Poland for a solid training block before competing in our next event, the Nacra 17 European Championships 8th – 13th July in Gdynia Poland.
To follow our results and what we are up to next, head to our Facebook page “Rietman White Sailing”.
