Zach Railey dominates to take Finn lead at Kiel Week

Zach Railey (USA), the 2008 Olympic silver medallist, dominated day three for Finns at Kiel Week with two bullets to take the overall lead, following the eight races that have now been sailed.

Jonathan Lobert (FRA) drops to second, while Ed Wright (GBR) remains in third, but extends on the rest of the fleet.

Day 3 at Kiel Week again brought moderate to strong winds with 12-17 knots, cloudy skies and more tough racing. In the first race of the day, Railey battled against the two French sailors Thomas Le Breton (FRA) and regatta leader Lobert for line honours. In the second race, Wright placed second, while Lobert got another third place finish.

“The weather was better today, with only a little bit of rain and the wind was still strong but shifty coming from the land, Railey said of his day.

“I had a great back-and-forth race with both the French sailors in the first race. I think the lead must have changed 10 times and we all finished within two boat lengths of each other. It was a great race between all of us," he said.

“In the second race, again it was both the French sailors, Ed, myself, Deniss and Björn. I was able to get a lead on the second upwind and held that to the finish. With the wind shifting so much the final results in each race always came down to the end and it's been tight racing.”

Björn Allansson SWE) is in seventh place overall after scoring 8, 4. “Today was another physical day in Kiel. In the second race I was able to take the pin end start and round just behind Le Breton at the top mark, and passed him on the downwind. I finally finished in fourth after Zach Railey, Ed Wright and Jonathan Lobert,” he commented.

“For me, this is a great week and I am learning a lot, both new things as well as being reminded of old stuff. It's close racing with many shifts so I always have to stay 100 percent alert, and try to calculate the next move. I'm having a great time so far.

"It was the right choice to hit the left on five or six of today's upwinds, but the tricky part was to find the perfect time to tack over. The wind was also today like prior days shifty and gusty, but to a lesser extent than the last few days, making the tactics of today slightly easier.”

Two more races are scheduled for Tuesday local time with the final race and the Medal Race for the top 10 on Wednesday.

Results after eight races 1 USA 4 Zach Railey 18 2 FRA 112 Jonathan Lobert 20 3 GBR 11 Edward Wright 24 4 EST 2 Deniss Karpak 30 5 FRA 29 Thomas Le Breton 36 6 GER 151 Matthias Miller 46 7 SWE 6 Björn Allansson 51 8 AUT 3 Florian Raudaschl 61 9 USA 1140 Caleb Paine 62 10 GER 771 Jan Kurfeld 63


(yachte.com)