"Kiel Week: Survival on the High Seas"
Torrential criticism is sweeping over Kieler Week due to its perceived weak performance.
If you're not into survival situations, then Kiel Week might not be your cup of tea. On Monday, things got wild – and not in a fun way – with mass capsizings and strong headwinds that left organizers scratching their heads. And despite putting up a valiant effort, they were met with heavy criticism from the competitors.
Take the sea sailors' International German Championship (IDM), for example. On the second windy day in a row, anchors of start ships failed to hold their ground, causing chaos on the water. A similar situation unfolded for the Olympic Ilca-7 sailors, who had to wait an interminable amount of time after only one race because their start ship was drifting around like a lost polar bear in the brisk 20 to 25 knot winds. To add insult to injury, the sailors had prepared for four races with provisions, but were sent back to the Olympic Center Kiel-Schilksee after just two runs in "best conditions." Philipp Buhl, the 2020 world champion, summed it up: "This is a tragedy and not Olympic-ready."
According to Buhl, he and his fellow sailors were asked to bring an on-board camera onto their boats but refused, along with other sailors in the class, as there was no balancing weight available for the boats without a camera. Apparently, it's not just about sailing – it's also about the equipment that supports them out there.
The unsuitable start boat for strong winds also caused discontent on the sea course because the anchor didn't hold. Race committee members had tried to exchange the start boat the day before, but to no avail. Disappointment was palpable among the teams, with Jürgen Klinghardt, owner of the third-placed "patent 4," expressing: "We feel cheated out of the chance to still decide the IDM Inshore in our favor."
After a radical weather shift, Kiel Week 2021 played host to broken start ships, lost anchors, mass capsize incidents, and race cancellations on Monday in the rain and storm. Half of the planned races had to be postponed to the following day. Elena Stoltze, a helmswoman in the Olympic 49erFX, put it bluntly: "[The wind was] crazy. It was quite survival conditions out there."
Source: ntv.de, dbe/dpa
- Kiel
- Storm
Sports, faced with challenging wind and weather conditions, were marred by survival situations during Kiel Week. Even the topsailers, like Philipp Buhl, the 2020 world champion, saw the events as "Olympic-unready" and a "tragedy."
