Winter mode and talks about Foiling

Everyone out here in the North of Germany is now getting into winter mode. Not that it has been cold at present, the point of freezing seemed far away. Interestingly, my little DN (history & race results) booklet tells me that in the past years we have had some nice days sailing the DN at the end of November. Having seriously raced in Germany in the middle of December, which needs safe ice. This will not happen this year. We have to be patient.

Bar talk at the local sailing club at present is about apparent wind sailing and the message has spread that we will have two Bladeriders (Foiler Moth´s) sailing, or should I better say, trying to fly, on the waters of the Schlei next spring. Boats are not produced yet, but delivery has been confirmed by KA sails. Being an eagerly waiting new owner of a Bladerider, I have had a look at the Aussie Moth website and found the discussions about the status of the class, e.g. will the Bladerider ruin the Moth class etc, astounding. My friend and I would never even have suggested to purchase a Moth from what we had seen so far within the class in Germany. The boats being used looked very crude, they normally did not survive one race without going back into the "homeyard". One particular boat, (a Prowler?) looked well sorted and Jens from Ratzeburg was flying it very well. This pulled the trigger and the Bladerunner, exhibited on the Hanseboot show, looked sorted. Looked the business. Also the fact that Rohan did sail it on the River Elbe (my homewater for many Flying Dutchman years), a tidal water with busy traffic of the biggest container ships, right before Hanseboot. This showed us, what is possible. Far, far away from going racing in the class we want to learn about this exiting thing, called foiling, and if it is not for us, I am sure that many people want to jump on the wagon next year and we will be able to easily sell the boats. Of course this is not the objective. Definitely not.

Some people asked about the foil for the windsurfer which I mentioned during Hanseboot conversations and my blog. We showed the crude equipment (MarkII), built by Werner, on the boatshow and people were interested but did not believe, that you can fly with it. There is actually a video, which proves that it is possible to do so and to steer as usual with the mast raked forward or backwards. I wish I would be technically able to put it into You Tube, but have not tried anything like that yet. For my Blogger friends I put a photo down here.

In the middle of this week I have to fly out to Dubai. This time only a couple of days and for "business only" reasons, but I think, that I will spend one or two evenings on the patio of the Dubai Offshore Sailing Club. Meet me there.