Let s put the Cup behind...

It had been exciting times during this America´s Cup period. Due to Internet it was possible to follow the races live. To get pictures, we had Livestream from the German National TV programs and on top of that, I had wonderful mail conversations with friends and enthusiasts around the world. I love this and the sooner (2009?) the better. We are not getting any younger and I doubt that the heros of today, e.g Paul Cayard or Brad Butterworth (just to name a few) would be able to play on top of the game in 4-5 years time. We will definetely see new stars like Dean Barker, James Spithill, Karol Jablonski rising and some of the very good match racers from Denmark, the likes of Jensen, Mohr, Radich will play important roles in this game. I have now put my special America´s Cup link list to rest at the bottom right and brought back on top my favourite bloggers and others. The photo (courtesy myself) by the way, shows the ETNZ Team going out for battle (eeh, get the A-Team up for speed) before the start of the exiting third race.

It had also been exciting to follow the Moth´s World at Lake Garda. What an achievement from Rohan Veal with the series built Bladerider to win the title with 8 straight bullets. There had been a lot of critics about the boat and the "lofty" PR campaign he was running but me and a sailing friend from Kiel never doubted the boat being a success. Now we are eagerly waiting for ours to play and swim and later maybe fly. Will keep you updated. The photo in the Post above (courtesy by Thiery Martinez) by the way, does not show me and Peter K. from Kiel on our first outings, NO the Bladeriders haven´t arrived yet. It shows the genius on foils development, Andrew Mc Dougal (AUS) riding high at a demo in Valencia last week.

My latest sailing adventures are put together in a short story. The Musto double-hand-challenge had been a challenge this year indeed. I had to accept that I was not fit enough, nor had the boat being prepared well enough. We gave in at around 06.30h in the early morning, when we had to round a buoy close to where SAMANTHA ist berthed. Fully drained, two sets of sailing clothes completely soaked and feeling very, very tired. The last boat in the 50 strong fleet at this point had another 18 hours of sailing before them. They managed this in their small Speakhuker. A lot of upwind work to be done. Hats off for them. The weather forecast showed 38-40kn wind on the Saturday and a friend, who was sailing the same area had a period of 50kn on his instruments. I doubt these to be real but for me 40kn is already too much being in a double-hand competition. Therefore we abandoned race. The boat is now close by here in Schleswig and the "to-do-list" is being worked down. Next thing will be our cruising holiday in the Baltic sea.

Uuhps, nearly forgotten. Yesterday we did win the Wednesday night race with the Bull. That had been good for the ego after the weekend. I just have to accept that I am more a triangle (ups and downs these days) sailor than anything else. Lack of competence on navigation, weather and other things which you really, really need for overnighters and distance races. And my crew, my lady, she is a triangle sailor as well.