Sweden’s Niklas Edler has maintained his lead in the 49 strong OK Dinghy fleet at Kieler Woche on Friday with a 2,1 in fairly breezy conditions and holds a 2-point lead over Canada’s Ben Flower who scored 1, 2. Germany’s Andre Budzien moves up to third overall.
The second day brought stronger winds after a lot of rain on Thursday evening and Friday morning, and the fleet set out in light rain and heavy cloud. However, this had cleared through by the start time for a day of increasing breeze and intermittent sunshine
There was an hour delay as the race committee boat struggled to hold position and by the time the line was set an hour later, the wind had increased from 10 to more than 20 knots.
Stefan de Vries, from The Netherlands, was the early leader in the first race, but overstood the second top mark. Flower took the lead with Edler moving up to second after rounding the first mark in fifth. Budzien crossed in third.
The wind increased further for the second race with many pulling out. Poland’s Michal Strumnik pulled out a perfect pin end start and led up the first beat to round first, followed by Germany’s Oliver Gronholz and Flower. Edler was not far behind and took the lead on the second beat to lead down to the spray filled finish from Flower and Strumnik, with the wind reaching around 25 knots.
At the halfway stage, Edler has a two-point lead on Flower, with four races remaining. Racing continues until Sunday.
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Results after 4 races
1 SWE 71 Niklas EDLER 4.0
2 CAN 26 Ben FLOWER 6.0
3 GER 71 André BUDZIEN 10.0
4 DEN 21 Bo PETERSEN 16.0
5 SWE 72 Benjamin HAMMERÖ 18.0
6 DEN 61 Henrik KOFOED 20.0
7 GER 72 Oliver GRONHOLZ 20.0
8 POL 777 Michal STRUMNIK 21.0
9 NED 6 Stefan de VRIES 22.0
10 DEN 1580 Troels TRABJERG 26.0
Full results: https://www.manage2sail.com/en-US/event/kiwo2025#!/results?classId=85aa9aec-9bb7-472d-add6-312391fc7822
