Kiel (Point of Sailing) – World Championship starts with strong winds at the Olympia Centre Kiel-Schilksee.

After the first day’s competitions and the 3 planned regattas on Monday, the day’s champions of the J/80 have been established. The Spanish crew of the “Bribon MOVISTAR“ is in the lead. Followed by „Co-Pilotes“ from France and the Hotel Princesa Yaiza also from Spain. Directly following the the favoured teams from France and Spain are, at present, two German teams: The “Procedes Diva“ with helmsman Björn Beilken and Martin Menzner’s “Pike“.

“Today was the best day’s sailing of this year. Strong winds, sunshine and perfect manoeuvres” explained the helmsman of the ”Bribon MOVISTAR“ Marc de Antonio. The team from Barcelona is sailing for the second time in the J/80 and has already concluded the 2015 Spanish Championship with a third place. The crew of the “Princesa Yaiza“, lying with a 4 point gap on second place, had also a very good day at sea. “The speed of our J/80 was super. We already have trained last Wednesday with similar wind conditions. With strong winds everything on board worked perfectly”, explained Maxime Mesnil, skipper of the French yacht.

Following the leading trio on the forth place is the crew of Björn Beilken. The team from Bremen also had fun on the first three competitions of the World Championship. “It was very windy, but was definitely sailable” said skipper Björn Beilken at the end of the first day’s regattas. His brother, Alexander added “That was an awesome ride on the downwind leg, the field spread out here in all three competitions. We started each time consistently with a left tack and had much less waves as to the right to the right of the lane. With a bit of luck we could even have improved our position, in one race or another, by a place or two”. Now, after the regatta, the guys from the Hansa City need repair work done, as one of boat’s many the cables snapped in the stormy winds

As the practice race on Sunday afternoon had to be terminated shortly after start, due to lack of wind and a following storm warning, the prevailing conditions for sailing today on the Kiel Fjord were fantastic.

With an average westerly wind of 22 knots (5-6 Beaufort) and gusts of up to 26 knots the water-born competitors were certainly very much challenged.

Martin Menzner and his crew are presently on the fifth place. The member of the Kieler Yacht-Club won the Kieler Woche two weeks ago and presently follows, 3 points down, the crew of Björn Beilken’s ”Procedes Diva“.

De svenska båtarna ligger på 21:a respektive på 49:e plats. Det är Lars Gellerhed som har försvarat de svenska färgerna bäst så här långt.

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