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Champions and aspiring Olympians including brother Jesse and Zander Kirkland are doing battle at the 49er European Championship, taking place in Gdynia, Poland.
The race committee split the 90 boat fleet in two, making for two large 45 boat fleets. Zander Kirkland said, “In the first race, with the starting line bias towards the committee boat, we were battling near the boat, and with great positioning on the line with 25 seconds got swallowed by the pre-start muddle and had a poor start. After a predictably mediocre first beat, we were able to put together two good legs, playing laylines and some shifts leaving us in with a respectable 27th place finish.”
“Following our first race start, we were eager to put ourselves in a better position for the next race. And we did not disappoint! With the boat still favored, we managed to have our best start to-date. What an amazing feeling.! After 4 min off the line, we were still on starboard, holding our lane with a Danish, German and the Italians (Siabello brothers). We fell from the top 5 to 10th near the windward mark as FRA4 slammed us perfectly leaving us to tack two more times to clear out lane. After a relatively uneventful downwind (maybe lost one boat), our second beat saw us round in a decent position and with a good breeze (comparatively), however, we missed a good chance on a lane and were forced too far left. Definitely frustrating, but we were able to minimize loss following our mistake and finished 20th,” said Jesse Kirkland.
“In the final race of the day, with decent positioning about midway down the line, we were unable to hold our lane on starboard(Siabello Brothers are a little fast…), but we managed to find a good lane on port and get locked in. After coming back from the right on a good righty with a Canadian, we failed to recognize the priorities of “large fleet, Sea breeze style 49er sailing”, and crossed the middle too early. And to make matters a lot more worst, near the windward mark, on the port layline, a few boats who committed to gybe setting fouled us(maybe 3?), and completely stopped us in the water. We then just hit the windward market, and before we knew it, we were last. We managed to pick off a few boats, but were very disappointed to end on that note finishing 35th,” said Zander Kirkland.
“So after another long day in the heat and a sun that hardly ever sets we recuperate. Hoping tomorrow we get out of the gate in more than a race, and put together some tactically smart races(boat handling aside…), regardless we are excited to be able to be “racing” in a world class fleet and will look to continue putting all these lessons to work as the regatta unfolds,” concluded Jesse Kirkland.
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