Montag, August 23, 2010

Impressions from the Startline at Silvaplana

Still on the road to do some business whilst down in the south, I can recommend to those who want to know more about the happenings at the Moth EC (with some outstanding top sailors from abroad) to read the blogs of other Mothies. (see link on the right) For my part I can only say, I have never done an event with 14 races in total. Mostly 3 races a day in the demanding Moth. With a few capsizes, usually on the downwind the body felt sore and tired already after day 2. I had given up 2 races when the wind blew over 25 knots and for the first time I stuck the tiller through the sail in one race. Getting back to shore and changing sail for the next race was not a problem.

The one thing that sticks to my mind had been the great sportsmanship and cooperativeness to help everyone who had a breakage. Parts had been lend out, laminates had been done overnight for others who had not done this before so that everyone was able to get back on the startline for the next day. Something that reminds me a lot about the spirit in the DN class. It was also motivating that some of the top sailors cared a lot about us, the rest of the fleet. For example they pushed the race organisers to extend the "open period" of the finish line from 10 to 15 minutes. Which meant that a lot more sailors were able to finish after saling the full 4 lap course instead of being timed after 2 or 3 rounds. (Grand Prix Finish)

As there are only a few sailors with more points on the scoresheet than myself, I have a lot of motivation to improve. I like the class and I just love the foiling. Markus, the top German sailor (placed 13th) analysed his result as being 2000 practice tacks short to break into the top five. For me this could mean that I need to add 2000 jibes to get a result mid fleet. We will see if this is possible.

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