Difficult conditions limited Kiel Week's opening day to just two events: the 49erFX women's fleet and the traditional Aalregatta offshore race. Thunderstorms overnight gave way to fierce thermal battles with the gradient southwesterly, producing wild wind shifts and near-becalmed patches across most of the racecourses. Only the inshore waters off Schilksee offered anything workable, and KielerWoche.TV broadcast three 49erFX races live from there.
Canadians Georgia and Antonia Lewin-LaFrance made the most of it, taking two wins in the blue group to go straight to the top of the leaderboard, with a subsequent twelfth discarded. "It was tricky. We had to be incredibly careful every second not to be caught off guard," the coxswain said. Helen Pais and Helen Ausman from Tallinn finished just one point back in second.
Jule Ernst and Lea Adolph from Bavaria were the surprise package, finishing fifth overall as the best German pairing. Olympic fifth-placers Marla Bergmann and Hannah Wille from the Mühlenberger Sailing Club finished tenth, while Kiel rivals Maru Scheel and Freya Feilcke were twelfth.
The Aalregatta kept more than 200 boats at sea for most of the day across approximately 35 nautical miles. First starters left at 9:05 a.m., the last at 10:30 a.m. When the finish line closed at 7:00 p.m. in front of Eckernförde town harbour, not all had made it within the time limit.
Gerhard Clausen's "Calypso" from Hamburg was first home after almost four hours but could only manage third in ORC Group A/B. Ralf Lässig won the group with "Xenia," narrowly beating Sven Zoller's "Bajazzo." Harald Brüning from Kiel took ORC Group C/D with "Topas."
Jonas Hiller and Lea Spitzmann won the ORC Double-Handed category aboard "Voyage" by eight seconds from Patrick Heinrichs and Jan Findeisen on "Lynx." The International German Inshore Championship, part of the Viking Challenge alongside two Scandinavian regattas, went to the protest room after the finish before Erik Stannow's "Dixi 5" from Denmark was confirmed ORC A/B winner ahead of Norway's Jan Sverre Hoiden on "Son of Hurricanes." Sweden's Patrik Forsgren won ORC C/D aboard "Garmin Team Pro4u," with Torsten Bastiansen of Flensburg second on "Alsydbank."
Under Yardstick handicap, Philipp Zülsdorf of the Eckernförde Sailing Club steered "Concordia" to the fastest corrected time overall. The two-person Yardstick category went to Jan von der Bank from Eutin, a long-time Contender class performer at Kiel Week internationally, sailing with Wiebke Siemsen on his Berckemeyer 31 Classic.
