Long day on shore for most Australian crews at Kiel Week

7:36 AM Mon 22 Jun 2009 GMT

'Katie Spithill and crew in Kiel' Kieler Woche

Day two of competition at round six of the ISAF Sailing World Cup- Kiel Week, didn't get underway for the majority of classes with a lack of wind keeping the fleets onshore.

Racing was postponed this morning for all classes except the Women's Match Racing, with the initial review of conditions occurring at 11.30am. At 11.30am the race committee until at least 2.30pm, and then at 3pm racing was cancelled for the day for all classes except the Women's Match Racing.

The Women's Match Racing Group C round robin went out early, but the conditions were extremely difficult with wind shifting constantly and very light. Despite the conditions the race committee did manage to complete all of the flights. The Australian girls had a tough day, with Katie Spithill, Nicole Douglass and Nina Curtis finishing fifth in their round robin and Amanda Scrivenor, Ray Martin & Stacey Jackson finishing sixth.

Tomorrow's racing will see the repechage of the Women's Match Racing completed, with three of the four Australian crews racing for the two available quarter final positions. There will be two groups and the top crew from each group will proceed to the quarter finals.

While the groups are yet to be determined, the Australian Sailing Development Squad are hoping that all three Australian crews will not be in the same group, increasing the chances of getting two crews through to the quarters to join Nicky Souter and crew who qualified on day one.

It is expected that the race committee will try to get in three races for each of the other fleets, though the forecast is not looking too good, with winds predicted to be only 5-8 knots.

by Craig Heydon