Donnerstag, April 30, 2009

18 (days of sailing) and some ramblings...

Looking for a picture of the number 18 to replace my "days of sailing in 2009" - a couple of pictures from 18 years old people came up. Yoh, dreamin about being 18 years old and going Mothing. Maybe doing a foiling jibe within the first hour of sailing. Yes, some did. But not this old dude, Still trying but not really hard enough.

Nevertheless, I enjoyed the two days of sailing last weekend. Though on Saturday the preparations took longer thatn the actual time on the water. I was lured back to the shore as I was waiting for friends who wanted to pass by on their way home from Hyeres, France, back to Estonia. All on the road. Laser on the roof, RIB on the trailer. That really is a long haul. Nearly Eastcoast to Westcoast in the US, but lot´s more country borders. But with the EU regulations nearly no controls at all. All easy these days.

This upcoming weekend the weather forecast is for good weather on Friday, where we have a national holiday in Germany. Good for sailing and I have heart that abt. 100 IRC/IMS and OD keel boats have entered the MAIOR races in Kiel. A good sign in these tough days.

More about sailing hopefully after the weekend. Have to have a look at a paint repair job on the Bull now...

Montag, April 20, 2009

2 Days of sailing the Moth

Had a short session last week after installing a new tramp and looking for problem areas to overhaul. All in all the Bladerider is in good shape. Sailed the boat on Saturday morning until I had a couple of capsizes, than stopped mothing. I struggled a bit with the standard sail as the top batten is not shifting, no matter how much tension I have on the downhaul. Therefore the boat exhilerated (and foiled) immediately on port tack and did not do well on starboard. Have to play more with batten tension maybe. Saturday afternoon i went mothing again and it was a good session. It lasted 3 hours after which I was totally worn out. No energy left. Not even for another sailing on Sunday. The whole body felt sore. Still I enjoyed it very much and hope to get into better shape slowly. As a first sign of will, I did not take sugar into my tea this morning.

There were already many keel boats out here and the nice sunny weather with wind from the east brought some chilly temperatures. In the afternoon the breeze was building up to a handy 5 Bft which in my opinion is caused by thermal effect. We heart from people who had sailed out on the Baltic sea that they had only seen max 3 Bft. This is a typical spring easterly which will last a couple days. It is only a bit early this year. Normally this high settles in the mid of May and in the afternoons the winds is building sometimes up to 7 Bft here on the Schlei Fjord. This is windsurfers delight. Way too strong for me to take the Moth out. Should maybe undust the slalom gear.

Sonntag, April 05, 2009

Updating the Blog...

Not much happening on the water since mid of February, after I packed it in for the winter season. Due to job commitments I did not go sailing in the Swedish Championship, which had been a well organized regatta as far as I had heart but with conditions on the ice only marginal. Anyway this is past time and we are slowly moving into the soft water season.

The Melges 24 sailors from North Germany had asked me if I would run an early season training on the water for them in Flensburg. I said yes and the date was fixed. Running the RIB, laying the marks and maybe help them to get up to speed had been the goal. There were 7 M24s and 3 SB3 boats participating. We set a short windward/leeward leg and I was playing with the startline to get them to find the right side, the windshifts etc. I thought that they are really able to help themselves with trimming and timing their manouvers. It had been a good, but cold and wet Saturday out on the water and I was happy to get home, soaked wet and cold and taking a hot bath first thing.

From Friday until today I was taking part in a rules seminar held by Dave Dellenbaugh (of Speed and Smarts fame) in Langenargen, Lake Bodensee in the south of Germany. Lake Constanz) It had been three extensive days with hours in the "class room" going through the new rules and it s implications on the race course and having on-the-water sessions on Saturday and today. Debriefing and video analyses in the late afternoon. We were divided early in the seminar into 2 groups sailing as a team on the Bavaria 35 Match from the German-Match-Race-Center. The boats were in outstanding good conditions bearing in mind that the only German Grade 1 Matchrace, as well as other professionell Matchraces being sailed on the same boats. A lot of well known skippers had left their name at the back of one of the hatches on the boat which we had got to use. Anyone interested in the rules seminar or Matchrace training should pay a visit to their site: www.match-center.de.

Donnerstag, April 02, 2009

America´s Cup. Court Decision

SCUTTLEBUTT EXTRA - Thursday, April 2, 2009 (www.sailingscuttlebutt.com)

Scuttlebutt is published each weekday with the support of its sponsors,
providing a digest of major sailing news, commentary, opinions, features and
dock talk . . . with a North American focus.
(Apr. 2, 2009) - The New York State Court of Appeals, in the case between
Golden Gate Yacht Club (GGYC) and Societe Nautique De Geneve (SNG), regarding
the validity of Club Nautico Espanol De Vela (CNEV) as the Challenger of
Record, has found in favor of GGYC, reversing the Appellate Division and
reinstating Justice Cahn's orders. In its unanimous opinion, the Court held,

"Since CNEV has failed to show that at the time it submitted its Notice of
Challenge it was a '[c]lub fulfilling all the conditions required by' the Deed
of Gift, it does not qualify as the Challenger of Record for the 33rd
America's Cup competition and Supreme Court was correct in declaring GGYC to
be the valid Challenger of Record. It has been posited that the right to act
as trustee of the America's Cup should be decided on the water and not in a
courtroom. We wholeheartedly agree. It falls now to SNG and GGYC to work
together to maintain this noble sailing tradition as 'a perpetual Challenge
Cup for friendly competition between foreign countries.'"

Court decision:
http://www.nycourts.gov/ctapps/decisions/2009/apr09/25opn09.pdf