Sun, wind and waves: The first day of the 133rd Kieler Woche (Kiel, Germany) offered everything to make a sailor happy. As a result, “the first day in the office” for the sailors could be finished quickly. All planned races were done in less than three hours. “That was a good start in all aspects”, said Dirk Ramhorst, the Regatta Chairman for Kieler Woche! “The only problem now is that expectations are high! After this day, it can only get worse!” He would have loved to let the sailors sail even more, but he had to stick to the framework. Ramhorst’s team was most fortunate, after three days of racing, the race directors had most of the races sailed for all fleets. It’s not a trivial task managing the one of the world’s largest sailing events. The week-long event took place from June 20-28 for 1,500+ sailboats and over 5,000 sailors. The J/70s were sailing the first German Open National Championship. It was a great event with 31 boats. In the end, it was Spain’s Olympic Medallist Hugo Rocha on NEW TERRITORIES that won the J/70 fleet in his first major regatta with a 3-4-2-1-6-4 record for 14 poins net. It was a closely fought regatta for the top five with positions changing every day. Leading the fleet after the first four races was Germany’s Hubert Merkelbach, with a 1-1-4-4 score sheet. However, the last two races proved his undoing as a 13-9 led him to finish second overall with 19 points. German star Claas Lehmann on TRE MAKRELLER was caught in a five-way battle for the bronze position on the podium. Ultimately, Lehmann sailed a 2-10-11-3-18-5 tally to finish with 31 points net. Only one point back in fourth place was Sweden’s top J/70 team, Oscar Lundqvist on THE PURE CIRCLE with a 5-2-1-7-17-18 record for 32 points net. Fifth was taken by a tie-breaker between Phillipp Kadelbach and Phillipp Bruns with 33 points each, the tie-break going to Kadelbach’s team. For more Kiel Week sailing information, visit http://www.kieler-woche.de/english/sailing/.