The race started around 11:45am and lasted around 30 minutes.  At the start of the race the fleet was pushing the line, so I bailed from my position a bit late and got stuck in the second row on the start line.  This is not good when there are only ten boats racing and nine of the them are on the line.  I quickly tacked out and got a great lane and tacked back and headed for the left.  I sailed a good beat and caught back to fourth at the top mark.  Downwind I lost a boat, but gained it back on the upwind. On the last lap of a three lap race, I caught up a lot of distance to the leaders, but slightly misjudged the layline and had to do a double tack to get around the mark.  The conditions were very choppy so the two tacks put me back a bit on the leaders, and put them out of reach.  I held on to fourth on the downwind leg and to the finish.  Unfortunately the two boats that I needed to beat were ahead of me at the finish, but the boat I was tied with going into the race, was back in the fleet behind me so I retained my position overall of third place.  The final results can be viewed here.

Photo: Luther Carpenter

In the ISAF World Cup Standings, I extended my lead by another two points over Croatia’s Tina Mehelic.  With a third place here, I am locked into one of the top two spots overall in the World Cup.  The final event of the series is in Weymouth in September. 

From Kiel, Brad and I and the Radial team are heading to Denmark, a four hour drive north of here.  The Radial Europeans Championships are there at the beginning of July.  I am not sailing the event, but wanted to get in some good training before I left for my World Championships in Japan in the middle of July.  Brad will be up there coaching me and Paige for a week. 

I would like the thank my sponsor Carmeuse for their continued support of my campaign for the 2012 Olympics in London.  I would also like thank US Sailing Team AlphaGraphics. 

Sail Hard, 

Anna