Sailracing, Sailing on Hard & Soft Water

It´s all in the links...

2012-01-19T12:41:00.006+01:00

Had a fantastic weekend on the Ice in Sweden with my new boat and a new mast. It is amazing how one can have small problems with the set up of the boat when not doing a full rigging process at home in the driveway or else. Which I had not done due to various circumstances. Raising the masts on the hull first time, it looked like my old shrouds were way too short for the new higher hull, but with a set-up of the mast at 94 cm it worked and did not look too bad. Rake was OK. Shrouds at the last possible hole. Anyway it was OK for sailing and for racing within the first third of the competitive fleet. Tips from the current European Champion, Karol, P-36, to move the mast back to 104 cm for more speed did not help me as it was impossible. Now I cannot wait if it is true and I will find a bit more speed when changing the set-up, which is meant to be for strong wind and black ice. A different story in sticky conditions of course. More important would also be to get a bit stronger, to have more willpower on the downwind to fight hard for not loosing places. (Same, as in the Moth Class) It is amazing how much one can gain if purely holding on and blasting away from the weather mark. I am under the impression, that the top 5 gained half a leg on the first 1,8 km downwind flight.

Now, before writing up a more detailed report, which I had already done in German language Report (use your favorite translater) I give my fellow 3 readers, who like to know more, some links to more information and pictures:

An nice article and video link can be found about our first training session on Friday 12th in Sandviken at Segelreporter.com : Segelreporter.com
This article also contains other links, like my report for the German DN site as well as the result list. Some great shots are to be seen at: Fotos from the weekend

Next stop: Somewhere in Northern Europe in 10 days for the World Championship and the Europeans which will be sailed straight afterwards. There will be about 10-15 participants from the US this time as well as Canadian sailors and with all the independent States in Europe we might have again 18 - 20 Nations raising their flags. I hope that all the anthems, though nice to hear, are not played in full length out there on the ice because than we would be finished with the opening ceremony only in the dark.

The picture above had been taken in Sweden on Friday. Some early arrivals are being shown.
The second picture shows me (G-99) starting to hike just before the mast will fully bend and is taking the load and acceleration.

End of the Moth Season...

2012-01-10T12:46:00.005+01:00

This text below had been written earlier last year but I had been too busy to post. Now with the DN season -eagerly awaited- to start for me at the upcoming weekend in Sweden, I am trying to make a smooth transistion into winter mode:

Today, not even the middle of October, I had to search for the ice scraper to clean my front window before going to work. Might be the time to dismantle the Moths and stow them away into their boxes and to make room for the DN equipment. A pity, as my intentions had been to do at least one more weekend of practicing and to test my "KA/M2 rig" for height and speed. Now, that it makes sense to sail and test against K., who had beaten me the last two regattas, I should set modest goals, just trying to match her speed and height. Having been the lone Moth sailor here during my practice sessions, I must have developed backwards. Not sure if it is the set-up of the boat, if it is in the rig or if it has to do with calcification. (Good excuse by Tillerman).

Watching Psaro...

2011-11-18T00:27:00.002+01:00

Team Aleph doing great in the Match Racing going from win to win but now this last race against Artemis was abonnded. Aleph had worked their way nicely into the front after having taken a pennalty. They were nearly qualified into the Quarter Final in San Diego but now they have to start the race again. Sofar good job by Pennec and Moth sailor Arnaud Psarofaghis (wing trimmer) and the French team with a comeback from behind. Back to the race. 5 min to the start.

Moth Racing last Weekend

2011-10-10T22:31:00.003+02:00

Great Racing Saturday and Sunday here in Schleswig on the Schlei-Fjord.

A picture can say more than a thousand words. Have a look at: Pictures taken by Andreas

Pictures 1-20 taken in the strong breeze on Saturday.
Pictures 21-48 from the Sunday. The morning started with only 5°C. We did sail on the "inner Schlei" and the weather got better and better by the hour. These pictures are courtesy by Andreas B.

Pictures courtesy by Michael von F.: Pictures taken by Michael

My German readers will find a great report & video, contributed by Andreas at: Segelreporter

Cheaper and faster?

2011-09-28T10:29:00.002+02:00

For the few followers of my blog, who are not regular Scuttlebutt readers, here is a direct link to an interesting Moth article which in most cases puts together the development in national fleets and how to do better. State of the Class in the USA

An interesting option for a good Euro winter training & racing -bar travelling to the Mar Menor- is the Miami proposal. 45 Moth boxes into one 40´Container. Yeah, it´s about time to make plans.

On the road...

2011-09-23T20:34:00.004+02:00

Last weekend we took the two boats to Ratzeburg, some 140km east from our home. 7 Moths attended the races over the weekend. It was a first for the club but with Sven K, known to most international Mothies as the "fast German", it was easy for him to get an alternative in his homeclub for a cancelled regatta in Goldberg. The wind was cooperating only with the local, Sven foiled most of the time, whilst myself and others did a lot of low riding in between moments of good breeze.

The Ratzeburg fleet, namely Jens S. had prepared really nice prices for the price giving which was held on the Sunday after we had decided, due to lack of wind, to call it a day. Sven won, me second, Kerstin and Jens on equal points and count back in third place, Helmuth fourth and newcomer Merlin in fifth. Hans from Denmark with his new Mach 2 was not able to compete on Saturday, due to his cambers jumping off anytime he righted the boat. He was really frustrated. He had bought a M2 with all options from England but it looked like the previous owner and never been out on the water, just tinkering with the boat and putting on many gimmicks. The camber thing was corrected in the evening and the boat was stripped from a few unnecessary ropes to make it more easy to sail for Hans. To correct the sail setting, we used my last spacers... Felix did you order a hundred as promised???

Tomorrow we are sailing the "blue ribbon" with some kids from our youth group on the 36db. I had some divers in today to clean the bottom and took away a lot of weight. All the cruising gimmicks, Sprayhood, second anchor, chain, carpets, cushions, and all the wine. I prepared the carbon racing jib and we will see how she goes within her Yardstick group. Really looking forward to a last sunny day on the "big boat" with nice breeze. After that, she´ll be readied for winter storage.

Zhik Moth German Open

2011-08-31T15:17:00.006+02:00

A great championship with participants from Denmark, Holland, Sweden and of course all the German Top Guns had been sailed between 26th of Aug until Sunday 28th. 10 races in three days at a mostly very windy venue. The PRO was not shy to lay a long course over the lake and mixed the program up with a number of different rounds to be sailed. Anja, of Mottenfieber Sailing TV fame, has again taken great shots and survived 3 windy days on a pram to bring some of the action straight into our homes. In the name of all participants, Anja: Thank you very much.

Look for the Friday and Saturday races no further than here:
Zhik Moth German Open at Lake Wittensee, Friday/Saturday

Look for the very windy (gusts up to 25kn) Sunday fotos here:
Wittensee, the windy Sunday

And look for the attending persons during the price giving here:
German Open, Price Giving

Again, my sincere thanks to Anja. She is a real class act.

Foto courtesy: Anja R.

Sailracing or not?

2011-08-25T11:48:00.002+02:00

Last weekend had been full on with racing though I thought. And I tried to be mentally prepared. One of the local clubs held their annual regatta and there had been a start for the dinghies. I was going to start in the Moth and my YS was set on the A-Cat Class number of YS 76. Not that I cared about it. I was happy to have a race to compete without packing and traveling far. Went out to practice on Friday but it had been a bit breezy and after a capsize fest together with a 29er and some Lasers, who all went into the "drink" at certain times, when strong gusts from the East came through, I skipped sailing and left the energy for the next day.

Next morning the wind had not eased much but it all looked good. Somehow the race committee had their own way of giving signals and as they never took "P" down, I missed the start by 30 seconds. Climbed back and lead at the weather mark right in the middle of the keel yachts, which had started 5 minutes earlier. Made a mistake (capsized) in front of the mark due to giving right of way and than bore off to a great downwind run. Tried to figure out how to best attack the "narrow path" as the water was very low and the sandbanks nearly looked through. Therefore no way of foiling over them. All of a sudden I hit, or better, something hit me underwater. Turned the boat over to inspect the foils but all looked OK.

Righting the boat was OK but starting it, was difficult. A lot of times I buried the bow and kind of cartwheeled whilst bearing away. Not funny. In hindsight I think, it had ben the eased vang and the outhaul. Note to myself: pull tight after capsizing in a breeze. The swimming and all took much of my energy and I still feared some damage. Next Moth race is ahead next weekend and I want my boat to be in the best possible condition. I sailed the boat home without making it around the course. Fastest boat on the course had been the Melges 24 followed by a windsurfer. Claus, who is more than 70 years of age and spending every wintertime windsurfing at the Mar Menor from Camping La Manga. A great role model. He used a modern raceboard and I think 9 qm of sail. The participating cats ended up in the back with a lot of capsizing. The only Laser who finished, came back "home" late in the evening. The party was on in the Fahrdorfer Segel Club vis á vis from were we live. We took our 36db to cross the water and take part in the festivities. During the trip back in the pitch black night (not really, the town was lighted) K. and I decided that we take "Samantha" and do the Sunday race doublehanded.

So we did. But first we had to wash the boat and to get rid of all the spiders and dirt which had aggregated due to the long time being without moving from the berth. We had a good start, being more familiar with the signals in very, very light air. Code Zero or jib had been the question before the start but the small wind shift two minutes into the start left no option and upwind we tacked with jib. Only the Melges pulled slowly away from us and extended after rounding the weather mark for a long reach. We hoisted our 0.5oz "Whomper" which I had purchased as a used sail from a Mumm 36 about 15 years ago. What a great sail this spinnaker still is. Two reaches and we had sailed away from the X-79´s an Luffe´s and other keelyachts. Just the Melges in front. I was surprised as with the boat only being used occasionally this summer it still was slippery throught the water. No underwater species to see. Anchor and chain in the front locker and some water in the tank. Normally on race day this would not have been our style. But this was a sunny Sunday. And it was a real pleasure to sail the boat. On the second round we were nearly passed by Andreas and his X-79 team but with a good mark rounding an a beat in the light wind (no ripples on the water) saw us in front at the last weather mark. Due to the very light, drifter like conditions, we did not hoist a different headsail, instead kept our cool and sailed away again from the fleet, which had caught up on the last leg and desperately tried spinnakers and other combinations to catch up with us. To much tumult on their foredecks and just not enough breeze to fill a 0,75oz spinnaker.

Looking forward to the upcoming weekend, when we will be sailing our "Zhik Moth German Open 2011". K. will take part in her first Moth regatta with her M2 "Goldfisch". Three Moth women have signed in. Participants from Denmark, Sweden and the Netherlands will come to sail 3 days at Lake Wittensee. Weather forecast looks good. Again our president Carlo has found great sponsorship and the food and party will be as good as at the Europeans this year. If you can manage a last minute entry, you are welcome. Look for details at the German Moth Homepage: mottenfieber.de/

Great Live Pictures from Cartagena

2011-08-24T15:16:00.003+02:00

The first Audi Med Cup race in Cartagena Spain will start soon. The boats are leaving the dock. All live on at:: audimedcuptv

During Moth Fest we took the chance to go sightseeing in Cartagena and it was worth the trip. An interesting town with some roman history. Great to see again (on my screen) the port, the cruise ship at the dock and hopefully in abt. 30 - 45 minutes some great racing from the TP52´s. The camera was just featuring CONTAINER when she left the dock. Wishing them and also the other "German" boat, AUDI ALL FOR ONE with Jochen Schümann as skipper/helm all the best. Good luck and Smooth Sailing!

Campione, the Formula 40 and other Memories

2011-08-18T12:49:00.007+02:00

There is all this talk about Campione, Lake Garda within the Moth enthusiasts at present. Carlo will take part in the Italian Championship coming weekend and I am envious about it. Campione is one of my favorite places though I do not know how it looks like today. But the mention of this special place brought back some incredible memories and soul searching. Many years ago I had spend time there with my Bavarian friend Konny to train on our DIV II boards. (good ´ol times) Later through the years, I had done trips with K. and our two singlehand dinghies and we had taken the Bull down there for some speed blasting with Gennaker in the Ora. It had always been very enjoyable. I remember one great summer when friends and I drove down there for a couple of practice sessions with the Formula 40 Cat "Double Trouble". See the photo. It had been owned by a windsurfer friend who started to get into sailing. He had built it from scratch himself and whilst on a windsurf holiday in the Canaries (Gran Canaria) he had asked me if I could help with materials for building the craft, with organizing a rig and to find some crew for sailing. I helped him to get a used "Fleury Michon" rig when the French F40 team had decided to up their 22m mast for a 24m and we also got their nearly new sails etc. This was really different sailing other than my IMS sailing in those years and I much enjoyed our sessions. The loads on the F40 boat were massive. Grinding the mainsail up (with flaps on the mast) took already two man, two winches. I was helming the boat as the owner had never had helmed a boat before. He was an enthusiastic windsurfer, though the waves in Pozo were a bit much for him. Due to costs and other reasons we did not manage to take part in the planned Formula 40 events at Lake Garda and Eckernförde (where later "Full Pelt", the trimaran, helmed by Joe Richards, capsized). Those were the days!

Anyway, the 1400 km trip to Campione is too long for me for this weekend trip. The weekend after we are already sailing the German Moth Class Championship. Our Swedish and Danish friends have already committed to be on the start line. What about the Dutchies and Giovanni from Belgium. I had better do some practice on my home water. Working out the best (if I would ever know) set up. In the meantime the Wednesday night races have started and I should have sailed on a M24 which would have been nice but this week there were family commitments. But besides this, there are a couple of events coming up with different boats to take part in. It is always in autumn, when I get busy with the sailing because the usual 6 month of "Wintertime", which normally only allows for two month of iceboating, is way too long to stay away from the sport. Or shall I turn back the clock some years and take the 2.55m Litewave windsurfer from it´s shelf, still in it´s flight bag, to go windsurfing in Pozo or Maspalomas as I did for many, many years with my KAFC friends until the last years when it was only me, shredding some waves. Where are you today, guys?

Pic 1 "Double Trouble" at Lake Garda with me at the helm. Photocredit: ES
Pic 2 Loaded for the trips to Campione. Same place for a tank stop but different years. Photocredit: myself

What is coming next after the great MOTH Euro?

2011-08-17T12:36:00.003+02:00

It had been a great week in Travemünde though not sailing wise for me. In hindsight one always thinks that he could have done better but having been on the water on Tuesday, with 4 races being scheduled, the wind howling and the waves getting bigger the more outside of the harbor I sailed, I had to rethink my DNF and DNC´s a couple times. Actually i did not even start the first race as I had capsized my boat on purpose before the race in order not to run against a big police boat which was lying square in my course on a first downwind trial run. I needed about 30° left and right to stay upright, to steer the waves and all was fine and I had been motivated until the moment when I decided to better capzise instead of running into this blue/grey police boat not knowing if it was moving forth or back. Something must have gone mentally wrong, I still do not know what. The result: I decided to skip it for the day and not doing the races. My inner will had been broken somehow. Sailing back to the shore was not a problem at all. I shortened the wand and I was sailing around 18-20kn downwind home without problems. Due to strong gusts I had a bad entry into the steep shoreline and had to swim and to push the boat until I had ground under my feet. That gave me the rest and I did not want to go out again.

On the last day with a good breeze around 5 Bft and waves, I felt comfortable and started to gain places in the group around me. All of a sudden, I lost height. Could not sail as close to the wind as my fellow Moth friends, Harald and Carlo. I discovered that the rig had come loose. The pin on the mastfoot had grounded itself inside the plastic by 6 cm. No way to keep on sailing as it could have done more damage to my boat. I sailed back to the shore and started packing up and washing down the boat before everybody else arrived. Not good moments these two afternoons spend on the shore when most everybody was outside having a great time foiling. Anyway this is past me now and after Travemünde, I think we only had rainy days here in the North of Germany and except one afternoon sailing it only got better yesterday afternoon and I went out for an hour. Have to practice for the upcoming German Moth Championship on the lake Wittensee. Promised K. some hours to train with her or to give advise from the RIB. Will see how that goes. We are both looking forward to take part in the regatta, alone packing up the two MACH2´s on the trailer and towing them with our van to the site will be enjoyable. If I manage to get them on the trailer without dismantling them, I will publish a photo right here.

Improve your German language...

2011-08-05T11:12:00.002+02:00

The latest German Moth Newsletter, called "Der Falter" is out for easy download. Many thanks to Nina for all the work she has done and the incredible improvement to have it in color. Der Falter

Hope to see all you Scandinavians and Dutch friends on the annual German Moth Championship on Lake Wittensee, near Kiel. A great location usually prefered by Int 14s and the 505 class. Look out for the Invitation and program, coming out soon, on the German Moth Site

It could not be said much better...

2011-07-31T18:40:00.002+02:00

Due to family commitments, I am just not able to put together a report about the last great day on the water and the festivities put on by the German fleet for the price giving and the final diner in the Moth Hangar. Maybe I get something together later but for now, lets speak Mike C. who must be a happy man with the final results of the Team Ninja. Follow this link: Cookies report about day 4 & 5

No races during the Day, but...

2011-07-29T07:40:00.000+02:00

Dash for cash: 1st Philipp Käsermann SUI, 2nd Matthias Renker SUI, 3rd Markus Steeg GER
11 hours ago · reply · retweet · favorite

The Ninja Days

2011-07-28T10:04:00.007+02:00

Been busy with boat and entertainment prep and already this morning with tinkering on the boat to find a little bit more speed.

For updates you do not need to go any further as to: bristol-moths. Mike Cook, despite some mishapes during the windy day managed some great reporting. It is Markus on his MACH2 , who is matching with the Ninja´s and the open competition is enjoyed by everyone. Look for the results sheet at: Ergebnisse nach 8 Wettfahrten

Believe me, I am fighting to not become last in this tough competition with everyone having real good boat handling and course management. Gone are the days of Moth´s capsizing all over the course.

UPDATE: 3 races yesterday in marginal conditions (70% lowriding) for me and some others. NEvetheless we had good racing at the end of the fleet. Adjustments have to be corrected on some of the boats and there is lots going on in Camp Moth at present. It had been a day for the under 72 kg guys and gals.

What a great day, sunny and windy!

2011-07-26T19:18:00.004+02:00

Yeah Alan, your wish came true. Wind and sun in Travemünde for the day....and maybe tomorrow as well.

We got held ashore until 14.00h when the announcement came via the public system that the first starting signal (all classes) will be at 15.25h. A bit if a surprise here in the "Kuhle" as the wind just does not come in. A look outside surprised many of us. Great seabreeze from the North/East. I had been nearly first on the beach but after forgetting my "Sign out" and a long way to the board to do, my time buffer was gone. Nearly last out on the water and a great upwind sail to the starting area. It was easy to sail upwind so I ended high above the line and realized some problems going down. No, not of technical nature, just the mind set and the inability to just "send it". I nearly ran down a Police boat, lying square in my course as I ran out of option staying on foils and I splashed badly. I gave it one or two more tries but my mind had already decided to hot the road for home. The waves had been builded up too much for me. The wind was just perfect 15 kn but the rollers from the North knocked my will, of staying out and racing, down.

I sailed home which was not bad and maybe you know the feeling after such a day. Everybody has a smile and some great stories to tell about wave height, max speed, great starts etc.Some had to hit the shore early but the majority of the fleet "must have" sailed three races. The list is not out yet, maybe later at: http://travemuender-woche.resultsl

The full stories of the day on the water, Ihave no doubt, will be on Cookies blog: The Brits put in some great results and they shall speak for themselves. Look at: bristol-moth blog, The Ninjas.

Before I forget: What a great demonstrations some Germans, Brits and Swiss sailors were putting in after the races, right in front of the "public meile" on the Trave, opposite the "PASSAT". Flying tacks!!, gybes, criss crossing like a Moth swarm. One swiss sailor got applauded loud from hundreds of people for showing a "running on water" stunt. Simon and Bora style. Impressive. The whole thing had been moderated from Gerd Girschkowsky, who is famous here in the North for good and fair sports reports. He was on top of the job. Thanks Gerd.

Pictures from Anja, Mottenfieber.de will be out later on the Nordea Moth European 2011 site at: imoth.de/euro2011

A lot of trying but just one success

2011-07-25T22:52:00.000+02:00

After the pouring rain had gone and the Moth Sailors woke up at a cloudy but dry morning, it was first for the Moth Camp for a great breakfast provided by the German Team. The first start had been announced as per the program at 11.00h flat. And that is what happened, despite a few sailors did not reach the starting line in time. It was not only me and to start the competition with 3 letters is not really a good idea. But like the wind disappeared for the back end of the fleet on the way to the race course, it did also in the first race. Marginal foiling condition and than suddenly none. The race was abonded. When the light weight sailors, under 70kgs started foiling forth and back at the race committee, the PRO called for another start. The first eight sailors from the list managed 3 laps, the rest of the fleet had been counted Grand Prix style. It was Chris Rashley in first, JA
Jason Belben second, Mike Cook, Ben Paton and in 5th Emma Aspington. Full results should be on the dedicated homepage.

The fleet was moving slowly back to the base after the first race. Most sailors were freezing and the light conditions did not help. The sky cleared partly and at 15.15h flatt the German PRO, Rallle Meyer called for another start. The line was not biased and the fleet produced a foiling early start and had to be called back. Second start was OK but the sound signal for a delay was overlaid by the horn from a big freighter in the background. Some sailors, like me, had a good fight low riding. Emma was flying forth and back but was not gaining much on the Lowriders. I had the race of my life, beating Harald to the post errg weather mark but when we came back to the start/finish line, nearly everybody was already there. We had not discovered that there was no race because 3 seconds before the starting signal, theres was another horn and a flag. Bad when you are staring at the pin end, fully concentrated on the competition and a clean start.

More drifting and a nerve wrecking last end of the home race. Barely not wind and the water felt even more cold when we had to jump into the drink to get our boats ashore.

Not much time left for packing up the boat and for a good shower as we had the official invitation from the organizers for an evening out on the tall ship "Passat" including food and drinks. Weather forecast for tomorrow is mostly sunny and maybe good thermal breeze in the late afternoon. Let´s see what happens.

No change of action in T´muende

2011-07-24T17:44:00.004+02:00

Sitting here in my Van in the late afternoon rain, I am reading about a great report about a trip through the sunny Med. Keeps me warm: medcrossing in a 'Mini 6.50´ This guy has a very fresh and subjective look at things. Read some of his older posts.

If you want to keep up with the Moth action at the Nordea Moth Europeans 2011 and want to get some more inside info, go to: bristol-moths.

Foto is taken straight out of the window of the Van and shows camp Moth in the "Kuhle".

Raining in Travemünde

2011-07-24T14:33:00.002+02:00

Good Morning from Team "Kuhle", Travemünde. Ir is raining again this morning and the weather forceast is not promissing. Just heard it on the radio. Wind regularly Force 6 gusting to Bft 8 from the South-West. The "Dash for Cash" yesterday evening had to be cancelled and it is now put forward to Tuesday. Yesterday there had been 3 or 4 Mothies outside the breakwater practicing and they came back with a smile. Flat water and Force 5 outside. Our Australian friend sailed out late and I saw him doing a stunt which I would not recommend. Crossing the fairway was necessary but than crossing _in front_ of a medium size ship after a jibe was not really necessary. These big ship cannot move a centimeter and we should all be crossing behind ships.

At the skippers meeting today it had been announced that there is no practice race today due to wind gusting from 25to 35 through the afternoon. Even the Offshore racing had been cancelled. During a very warm welcome speech from German class president Carlo Mäge, it had been made public to the participants and the organizing committee, that there is a "freebe" party or dinner or BBQ every evening with drinks and food in the Moth-hall or one evening on the Tallship "PASSAT". Already this morning breakfast had been served, though the person in charge could not come today but Nina and Markus were always present and organized everything very nicely. It came in very handy for most of the sailors who are living in tents.

Over and out from Travemuende

Cruisin´

2011-07-13T22:01:00.005+02:00

The pleasure of cruising had nearly been forgotten because all I wanted to do is sailing the Moth. This had been a bit disturbing and I had used a couple of different excuses to myself and to the family about not going to sea. And when I could not manage to get the hours in the Moth which I had planned for, I thought it would be better to spend last week with the family. Going cruising in the Baltic sea. It was very enjoyable and I should have kept on sailing until the EURO starts but instead the office was calling and that is why I am back at the screen now. Oh, there was some Moth talk underway. Met Felix after such a long time and tried to convince him to come back into the class. He still has the BR from former World Champion John Harris which he takes out in Berlin from time to time. It is pimped with the Holyrod rudder, as he told me.

We had not looked on the weather map one day, and it happened that we cruised around (with stops, see map) around the island of Als with only headwinds. But our boat is really going well and I can sit on ends going upwind, squeezing out a tenth of a knot more and a degree higher and it all takes place around the 6-7kn speed range. Not impressive for the Moth high flyers but totally absorbing the outside world. Real holiday. Now a week and a half and maybe some tinkering on the MACH2 3835 and I will be in Travemünde to sail in the Moth EURO. My KAFC friends should come and join the class at the CTM BBQ on Wednesday and talk their way into the most exciting boat class in the universe....at present.

Whovever has written this shite, he/she is right!

2011-06-29T09:13:00.005+02:00

Some marketing guru must have written this article, taken from the SA frontpage today: Sailing Anarchy Frontpage and except of the thoughts about going back into motorbikes (did ride earlier in my life) I can find myself in it. Especially as I am of that "certain age" group which is being mentioned. I had the pleasure to go out already two evenings this week from about 7pm- till 9pm in a good 12-15 kn breeze and it gave me everything I needed to clear my mind and to be one with the boat in these difficult commercial times. I even managed a foiling jibe though I did not feel ten foot higher afterwards and did not celebrate as the manouver must have looked a bit rough and not as elegant as the great masters in the class are circling it into the water. It is just difficult to train an old dog a new trick but I feel, that I am getting there. And isn´t the "journey the reward"? Certainly for me. Thanks SailingAnarchy for bringing this up and spicing my day.

quote

Born Again

There sometimes comes a time in sailor’s life where things need to change. Where we wind up searching for something else to keep our passion flowing.

Remember when you were a kid? You were first to the newsstand to get the new sailing magazine, and you read it cover to cover? Eventually, that puppy-like enthusiasm wanes, and you drift away to other activities, where, in tackling something new, you once again experience that same excitement of childlike learning.

For most sailors, this means golf. Which is a shame, golf being possibly the only sport more boring to do than it is to watch. But if you don’t like golf, there are few other pastimes that a racetrack refugee can try. The possible exception is motorcycling, man’s greatest expression of freedom where you can look bad-ass, even if underneath your helmet you are a financial controller with thinning hair. But you can travel, experience the oneness of man and machine, and leave your troubles geographically behind as you yank open the throttle. But where to go? That dream of oiled girls flick-flacking down the bar as your bike pinks outside is just a dream, and if you do manage to find a place like that, then good luck, keep it a secret and don’t come back.

But if you don’t, what’s there to be done? Well there is something, my friends, something that combines the technical nature of golf with the desirability of gold and lets you ride out like McQueen on any Sunday.

And that’s Moth sailing. And you can do it and I can do it in the same way we can ride a motorcycle or hit a golf ball.

More and more sailors have discovered that Moth sailing is the place to go to get fired up once again. Unique enjoyment in a boat which is just as much fun to cruise around on as it is to race, a boat that only weighs 65lbs all up, where the mastering of a foiling gybe makes you feel ten foot tall and is significant enough to celebrate afterwards. Where, after many, many years, your childhood dream of flying finally comes true.

Right now there will be a sailor rigging a Moth, heart beating a little faster than usual in anticipation of that stunning acceleration and the deafening silence of flight. His polished black carbon boat is gorgeous, people comment on it and he replies with a brief explanation of how it works, but it is brief and that’s because this is his time, and the newness of sailing is back!

On the water and in the right conditions he will be doing some 12-17 knots upwind and cruising in the mid to late twenties downwind. Sure he falls off, but progress is good, the boat is a nautical gym and so he’s getting a good work out too, and all those years of sailing aren’t wasted, in fact they help.

You should be this guy (or girl)! It may seem difficult, but everyone who’s tried agrees that its not nearly as hard as it looks – it’s the class’s biggest secret. Furthermore, when you buy a Moth you are joining a very helpful club full of support and encouragement from both association and manufacturer alike.

In a short space of time, the Mach2 Moth has sold well over 200 boats, and while you may think they all go to the young guns and the rock stars on YouTube, you’d be wrong! A great deal of customers are sailors of “a certain age” who want, with the time they have available, to sail the most exciting boat on the market today. Blessed with Harley Davidson-like residual values, the boats cost a lot less than you think and a good few seasons’ sailing can be had for not very much money.

Yet we all like a holiday, so why not pack up your boat and travel? Events exist in locations to die for. Italy, anyone? Oh, the Cappuccino culture would fit in very well with a couple of afternoon races on Lake Garda, especially if you take the family. Or maybe Hawaii is a better fit for you, where the 2013 Worlds are rumored to be? And the boat can go on the plane with you!

Off the water, I’m afraid you will be online late into the night learning from the blogs and forums of the mothosphere, with that same exhuberance that you once hit the glossy magazines. So you may soon need reading glasses, but it’s a small price to pay to master an 11-foot nautical combination between a motorcycle and an airplane.

Interested in learning a little more? Check out the new Mach2 Moth USA site for all kinds of great info today, or hit up East Coast Mach 2 Dealer Anthony Kotoun here. Photo of Anfernee by the excellent Amory Ross.
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Photo: Me and my Moth. Photo credit goes to Alan Hillman at pro-vela Moth Sailing School

Hej, I am a father and this one really touched me...

2011-06-22T10:14:00.003+02:00

I will not take the honor away from SA who brought this up on their frontpage. But I know that not everyone checks in at SA every day or even has it on his favorites. I got my eyes wet this morning, reading this story. Good for a clear view. Read yourself this amazing story. Great Opti story from the SA forum

And I will keep my eyes open for the kids in the club coming weekend when we are running the yearly regional Opti regatta with all the parents and helpers from the little sailing club here in Schleswig. And I can give back for all the help the juniors are giving me when running our Moth regattas in spring and autumn. It would not be possible without the Lüttsegler team in the HSVS.

Photocredit goes to the great photographer from Argentine, Mr. Capizzano

Three is a Moth Nest

2011-06-20T11:33:00.003+02:00

We had Carlo up here in the North and I think that three Moths are already giving the impression of having a little nest. Some great sessions on the water and a lot of tinkering on the boats had been done last week. Sunday, Carlo was pushing for another session in abt. 15-20kn of wind but horrendous rain from time to time. But it made the water fairly smooth and we did some speed runs. I got used to be above 20kn quickly and launched it up to 23.9 whilst Carlo managed for a short period 26kn. We had downloaded his tracks from the Speed Puck to my Mac but we failed to download from the SC1 which I am using. Must "steal" K´s Speed Puck next time as I am not even able to take a shot of the max speed this morning from the SC1.

I was thinking about how big the difference is between 23 and 28kn, the speed which our friends Harald and Markus released recently. For me this is a very big gap and if will need some "balls of steel" and longer lasting gusts in the 25+ kn wind range. And yes, I was using the orange MSL10 and the soft mast which is a combination that feels good to me in stronger wind. The day yesterday definitely brought the fun of Moth sailing back to me which had been lost a bit due to much necessary work on our two boats to have them shipshape at all time. For example the #3627 "broke" it´s boomvang strap for the third time. I know it was my bad as I did the splicing. Glad to have Carlo taken over the job at last and it will hold together, I am sure.

One thing is puzzling me these days: It is Kieler Woche Kieler Woche 2011 results and I am not being tempted to be there. After 28 years of participations in FD, H-Boat, IMS, the interest has faded away and I am at present totally happy to spend short periods out on the Moth on the Schlei or going to our local races.

The next two weekends are being spend with and for the Youth in our small community and sailing club, the HSVS. See also the homepage from the youth group, the Lüttsegler: Lüttsegler Homepage HSVS Coming weekend we are organizing the yearly Optimist-Liga regatta, were also Europe´s and Teeny´s will take part and the weekend after we will cruise/race with a 36´and a 39´footer down the Fjord to a place which cannot be reached by cars. Overnight will be spend in tents and we will have a great BBQ and singing some shanties.

Am I standing still?

2011-06-10T10:00:00.007+02:00

Lot´s of things have happened since my last post here. E.g. I had taken part in the pro-vela Moth Fest and maybe I have not reported because I could not find any good photo (of myself) anywhere. So there would have been a lack of evidence. But it is OK, I give you a great shot of Harald, who flies high on his DIY Moth. He even had build the foils by himself. And though there shinned a little bit of jealousy through one particular post after Moth Fest about Harald "winning" the KA sponsored MSL 13 sail, I think he deserved it. Anyway, I will not mention the war, Moth Fest was a big event with 40 participants, with WAG´s and Kids and some great sailing in good atmosphere. At the last weekend, there had been an official regatta and if you like to read more about it, there is a report in German language at: www.mottenfieber.de/node/424

After Moth Fest a lot of tinkering on the MACH2 boats # 3627 and # 3835. Simon P. brought me back on the water quickly with a split second decision for a warranty part. Thanks for that one. Went out on the water a couple of times. Even possible one afternoon together with K. with our two boats. Great fun but my rope splice for the bottom boomvang rope gave up and she had to come in early. Bloody me. With new Marlow ropes (not available in Schleswig) from Peter B. it was no problem to do a better one this time and hopefully we will have more time to spend on the water together with the two Moths.

Yesterday I had a sailing session in abt. 15-20kn gusting. The 29ers out did a lot of capsizing and so did I. Nearly every gybe went wrong and I ended up in the brink. Is it because I am way too focused on the instructions and after being able to follow them around at about 60-70%, I am lacking in the last bit. The most important ones? Weight out on the wing, stable platform, proper steering, sheet control. Yeah, one day.

What gave me inspiration for the headline this time? Yes, it is about the speed which I am not getting out of my boat. Both my Moth friends Markus and Harald, see his post: Harald´s Blog reached 28+kn on the water. Both are using an MSL13 as far as I am informed. I had ideal conditions yesterday with some gusts really taking me down the Fjord but my boat made a lot of noise and never reached more than 20,9 kn/h per 10 sec. average. One should know that I had prepared the foils before with a bit of wet sanding. I had cooked a camber soup the night before and the sail now looks better and the cambers are not dropping off like before. It feels like there is a barrier and I do not think it is in my head as I am so used to do the 18-20 kn/h runs, that I am not scared a bit. Any hints or tips, please leave a comment. All well appreciated.

Looking forward to the visit from Carlo and Gaby next week and maybe having three boats out on the water one afternoon in the "back of my garden"*. Than off to the Moth regatta in Horsens. Søren promising a lot of fun and best weather and flat water in the Horsens Fjord. Let´s see, if Per E. wants to keep the Swedish Moth Girls for himself or if he sends them over to Denmark to play with us. The invitation had been send out.

*In the back of my garden" is a phrase which I am connecting to an early 18 Footer video (way before Youtube times) which I have had on Betamax and which had been shot in Australia. Ian Murray, now connected with the America´s Cup had been the star of the scene and I think he was sailing the Color 7 boat. Good times. The second photo in this entry shows "bottom of the garden" sailing as per today in Schleswig. Photocredit to Randolf Teppner.

Three Mothies on a Melges 24

2011-05-12T16:12:00.000+02:00

No, no, we do not want to compete with Bora, who actually wants to become the World Champion 2011 in the Melges 24 class in the windy Corpus Christi of USA this year. At least what I interpreted from reading some sailing sites.

We sailed the beer-can-race on Wednesday night in a boat, borrowed to me by my friend Jürgen, who took the pain to put his boat "Henry Lloyd" into water, but than he had to travel home for abt 120km for a business date, fixed some time ago. It was the start of the season. So it was me to search for crew in the last minute and I checked in with Markus and Nina, who were still around in the area for some Moth sailing and testing some lakes for our upcoming Moth training camp. One of Jürgen´s crew joined us and off we sailed, racing against the clock (Yardstick) and boats like the X-99, X-34, X-79´s, H-Boats, etc. Not a big deal, we rounded the weather mark in third behind bigger boats and with Markus experience on the G-sail from his 49er campaign, we VMG´ed fast to the leeward mark. It was all fun and a good evening sail. The air was warm and we were in good company. As the three Mothies of us are usually singlehanders, everyone had a turn on the tiller. Nina found it a bit awkward that the boat heeled to leeward after she had trained hard for windward heel under the auspices of Markus. Yes, and the mainsail did not look as nice as a cambered KA moth sail does. And with a bit of lead on the bottom, it won´t fly.

As nobody took photos from the Wednesday night regatta, I´ll post here the winner of our Moth event, Markus. He is just rounding the leeward mark. You can see the Schleswig Dom in the background and the old town, the Fisherman´s village is to the right. Photo courtesy by Anja Rupp.

If you have time to waste...

2011-05-11T11:38:00.008+02:00

From the last weekend regatta, the "Carbon- Motte". Anja just published hers and other photographers photos on Picasa. There are some great shots and the winner in posing is again Hannes. What is it, that makes him always looking smart on the photos. If you see him foiling and being so relaxed on his Bladerider, don´t you think, you also want one? Anyone looking out for a used boat to start with, here is a linky: Used Moths for sale

And if you have time to waste, have a look here:

87 photos from Anja on: Anja´s Photos
92 photos from Randolf: Randolf´s Photos
49 photos from Andri: Andri´s Photos

Thank you Anja for all your great work for the Moth Class. Thank you again to all participants and especially for all those who helped us with all sorts of things, hands on, to make this a great event. A truly regatta from sailors for sailors. Hope to see you all again in October and I can promise you already now: a "Sauna on the beach".

Demolition Derby and than you need service...

2011-05-09T14:21:00.011+02:00

What a great Moth regatta we had sailed over this past May weekend. Blue sky and the wind was nuking in the 20kn range and gusting up to 25kn with a fair bit of 10° direction changing. 13 Moth sailors from all over Germany participated but the early season and the strong breeze took it´s toll on the boats and on the bodies of the sailors. Only 2 sailors, Markus, GER-3732 and Hannes, GER-3444 survived the 6 races held on Saturday and Sunday. Nothing beats experience and these two great sailors have both a 49er Olympic Campaign behind them with Hannes, together with his brother, taking Bronze in the windy 2008 Quingdao races. You guys done the fleet proud.

Anyway a more complete report and a link to great fotos will follow later. This is about how to fix and how to get spares for our beloved boats. We are in Germany and this is not really Mothland when seen through the eyes of the current bread of highTech boats. So for broken booms, broken tillerarms, for the necessary RHA (ride-height-adjuster) and various other bits and peaces my first choice now, are the people at SailingBits., Australia. Have a look at their website: sailingbits.
They do understand that we do not want to waist our time waiting for answers, waiting for spares, they just do it. They offer at competitive prices, take in the order and the moonies and despatch immediately by courier or fast AUSSIE post. That is what I call great service. For the Newbies in the Moth class, John Harris won 2008 the World Champion (on a Bladerider) so he knows what he is talking about. His winning championship boat is now owned by Felix S. which brings me to say "THANK YOU" to Felix in the name of all the competitors from the "Carbon-Motte" event. Felix donated vouchers, specially for this event through his company: alendra.de, who are supplying clothes and other sailing related gear. I would say: For sailors body and soul requirements, first have a look at the alendrashop Felix text message to me, that I should hand out one voucher for every competitor, came a bit late and therefore we only issued 3 vouchers, polite as we are. Maybe I can take his word and use ALENDRA again next time at the autumn event or at Lake Goldberg, when the next regatta, sponsored by CTM will take place. Please feel free to leave your "mark" on the Facebook site if you like it.

Full results list from the Carbon-Motte here: German Moth Class and an article SHZ, vom 9.5.2011 about the CTM "Carbon-Motte" was printed in the local newspaper today and can be seen on the German Moth site where a hundred fotos and videos, courtesy by Anja @ Mottenfieber.de will appear soon. Fotos on this blog entry courtesy by Andreas Borrink.

Thanks for the inspiration Andrea!

2011-05-05T16:32:00.004+02:00

Coming weekend we will sail for the "Carbon-Motte" trophy here in Schleswig, North Germany. We have 15 sailors from Germany and Denmark signed in at the moment and maybe some others will come out of the bushes in the last minute. You never know. The weather only turned into nice and sailable just recently. Before the water had been in the single figure temperature range. You know, this range where the foils loose grip in the water...

I was inspired to produce this challenge trophy after reading Andrea´s blog entry about a Moth-Carbon-Key-Ring. Have a look yourself at: carbon-fiber-key-ring. The photo is a bit rough, taken on the iPhone and it does not show the fine woven carbon fabric and the 8mm solid carbon plate (infusion technique) from which we milled the Moth. The trophy has to be challenged every year either here on the Schlei, as long as I am able to put my Moth into the water or maybe somewhere else. I am not donating a trophy again in a class with one outstanding sailor (Sven K. in this instance, whom I think would walk away with the trophy after 3 wins in a row) without putting it onto an "endless challenge" Nobody will win it forever. Like one of these great trophies, like the Admiral´s Cup, the Commodore´s Cup, the Roosevelt Cup and many others. It just lacks a bit of height and silver, this Carbon-Moth. But than, is black carbon of today not the silver of yesterday?

On a different note I promised to write about some misshapes on my boat due to my own repairs and some spares which I had used and which did not do the job properly. I have lost a wand in the process, had water in the bow, was fighting with the cambers and slacking hiking straps but now the boat #3627 seems to be in good shape. Thanks to sailingbits and thanks to Amac . Hope everything will work out fine on the weekend and I will not miss the races due to boat problems. Will keep you updated.

Anyone interested in the German press release about the regatta, follow this link: SA-Cup Germany

Moth Ramblings...

2011-05-02T13:10:00.006+02:00

Reading the latest in the Moth-blog-world by Cookie, I am under the same impression like him, that professionalism must have taken over way too much and has taken time away from fellow mothies which usually they had spent for the blogosshere. Yes, I am missing the ramblings from a few great sailors and especially the comments which are following them usually. I do hope that Simon P. will keep us entertained as well as educated. (What would I have done without his tips about the draining hole positions in the M2. Maybe I would have hacked a draining hole which would: "look like you cut(hacked)that first hole with a wet fish!!!", according to a quote by Marty J in the following blog entry: m-m-m-m-mach2-mod/

And that reminded me about writing about some misshapes or mistakes or misfortunes I had lately after coming back from some great and some not-so-great-sailing in Spain. Don´t get me wrong here, I am not blaming anyone, I am purely blaming the messenger. Where should I start? Maybe a good idea to start with the "finding of the names" session for Kerstin´s GER-3627 (new MSL10 and soft mast) and my new GER-3835 (old MSL13 and stiff mast) Just for the reference, both are M2´s and my Bladerider went to a happy new owner in Holland. Yes, I do not name my DN´s though I have various hulls, I am purely known as G-99 as we are keeping our registration numbers for a life time. Not that I started the DN sailing some 50 years ago, which the number would assume. No, I bought my first boat (a wreck) from a gentleman who decided to retire from the sport and he donated this great number to me. Anyway, I am sometimes a traditionalist and real boats shall have names. I was reminded by one great blog entry (AGAIN!) by Simon P. and I never felt comfortable having a new or used (3627) Moth and not naming it. This we now wanted to change for the two Moth´s and martyred our brains. She came up with the great name ORANGE, as her first Moth (complete different story) which had never been finished by the builder, was supposed to be painted in part orange and some visible clear carbon. Yes, and I came up with the simple solution to name the new one, MOTTE.

Man, we got hammered or verbally beaten by Alan at Pro-Velaonce we mentioned the names in a light evening conversation. He must be an authority in English Yachting rules. Wait for what he has in mind for the upcoming Moth Fest. What a laugh we had that evening, how negative the words sounded when he spoke them out and yes, it began to sink into me that "Agent ORANGE" can be a very bad association. And this in the middle of all the Orange plantations down there in Murcia, Spain. Just think about how these beautiful trees would look like without leafs. And also think about the "all-orange" sail, where the sailmaking people must have understood something wrong from K´s wishes to have some orange applications (reinforcements or such). It must be the language barrier which had played a big part to make a whole sail in orange. It reminds me to the meaning of the "Morning Glory". A great boatname, for a string of successful German Yachts, but a nasty meaning in Aussie slang. Or would you really let the world know you have a: "....". It is the language barrier, I told you. OK, ORANGE will now be named GOLDFISCH, which shall reassemble the color scheme of the sail well.

A different story for my own findings in the word: MOTTE, for the new GER-3835. Avid readers will associate this rightly with Moth. Just the English word put into understandable German. What is wrong with it? No phantasy, a lack of wit I was told whilst we had a big laugh about the theme. To make a long story short, Alan came up with the new name of LUNA. He told me, it stands for Moth in some other language, but carries a lot more phantasy... Yes, hopefully.

So time is limited today and though I wanted to add some useful information about the repairs I had to do on 3627 which did not all come out successful and which kept me busy more than one evening, but I spare that for next time. Hopefully before the upcoming weekend where I am organizing a Moth regatta Regatta: "Carbon-Motte"on my home waters. As per today we have an international field signed up and the best German sailors have also signed in. You should not miss it. If it does not blow stinks from the East, like the last 8 days, (up to 30kn/h) we will have a great weekend.

Fun in the Sun...

2011-04-14T12:06:00.003+02:00

Yes, a great week here at Pro-Vela, Alan´s Moth camp at the Mar Menor. Great weather, the boats arrived in time, lot´s of help and tools from the pro-vela team to put the boats together, and of we went on to the water. You can see here three happy campers: AJ who is the red baron and man, did he buy speed. Of course he is very talented and a good boat can only help getting the best out the sailor using it. Than you can see KR, she has only started foiling this week and man, is she progressing. Her will-power to get up on the foils and flying was only dampened by Alan´s thorough training methods, when he strictly forbid foiling for the first sessions. Boat handling and understanding how it reacts comes first in his training methods. The training boat is in pristine conditions, newly rigged with a tramp, made by a sailmaker called Snail Sails. I do not get it. Do you? But the tramps are better than the one I had seen lately from one of our German Moth friends. Yes, and the proud owner of the new black beauty is me.

But my sailing is worse than average, I mean, my average. Maybe I will become the "famous Moth sailor" unable to foil jibe. Or I have to start a new (regatta) class for myself, forbidding to jibe and doing tacks instead. It is only the ever motivating Alan, who keeps me on track. But it is the choppy Mar Menor which is dampening my will-power and yesterday I gave up after only being out for 15 minutes. I unclipped the ball joint and sailed downwind back to the shore. But other than my own performance it is great being here when at home it barely gets above 10°C and the water not even in the double figure region. Hope you do enjoy your season start as well as we are doing. Over and out and back to school.

Just can´t wait...

2011-04-01T13:34:00.002+02:00

Just can´t wait to finish work... sometime after 17.00h
Just can´t wait to hopp in the plane...early Sunday morning
Just can´t wait to feel the warm air surrounding me... around Sunday late morning
Just can´t wait to arrive at the CAR... 90 minutes later
Just can´t wait to unwrap the new beauty...at the first possible moment
And to take her out when she is ready for me.

More about her later.

End of March and away with hard Water...

2011-03-27T11:09:00.002+02:00

Saw Harald´s Blog entry today. He went sailing on his Moth with the new foils. He took a photo from the water, with a lot of water. Went back to my own blog and realized that there is still frozen water in the header. Need to change it. Took a photo from the window yesterday. The Wikings are already out here.

On a different note: It was so much fun to assemble the M2 3627 which had been stowed away in the box over the winter. Everything is ready to go but the water here still under 4°C. How do I know? From the Fishermen in the village. The Hering (?) is not coming into the Schlei Fjord for spawning with the water being so cold. They need abt. 5-6° and than they are coming in shoals. Good times. Hope to see you on the water soon.

Our Sport: It is about the People

2011-03-21T15:36:00.006+01:00

More often I have written about similarities between my two favorite classes of sailing boats. The DN Iceboat and the Moth class. Both are development classes and both have a rich and long standing history. As being a longtime competitor in the DN with nearly 40 years of building boats and racing them behind me, and only a short period in the Moth (only foiling) I am not able to verify what had been discussed in the Moth and being similar in the DN but the other way round I am rather well informed.

Uuuhps, now this blog entry is going to become complicated and starts to become technical. Instead, it should better express my initial thoughts, before writing this one and better not getting into discussions like e.g. max 15 (Moth) or max 20 (DN) races at championships, which I personally find stupid. Better two series with a short break in between and the Worlds or Euro Championship with 7-8 races and after that using the time left for "Cup races" with max 6 races for the competitors who are left to participate. Those will usually also be the ones who do it for the love of the sport and not for the sake of their sponsors nor for the title alone. Bringing the fun back, when the all important thing, the title, had been decided.

Actually I wanted to bring to you the three part CNN Mainsail episodes, lead by two times gold medal winner Shirley Robinson, about the last DN European Championship held in Estonia in March 2011. What you will see is not much about boats racing past a mark but it is about the essence of the sport, the people. For me this was pretty emotional to watch. Take your time. Have some fun and give me your comment.
CNN mainsail.DN one
CNN mainsail.DN two
CNN mainsail.DN three

Advise for Alan

2011-03-18T16:39:00.003+01:00

Graham had asked Alan (see Alan´s latest blog entry) how he will manage to put his boat on top of the Van and I´d like to share an idea which I had used for my other dinghy. Of course Alan, you must de-rig, or maybe your Father can help you lazy bugger, otherwise the next short circuit (Kurzschluss) in Murcia will be yours.

Other than reading from the post and subsequent reply, I would like to recommend Travemünde 2011 to you guys. The Moths are not at the wurst-mile, we are located on the other side, behind the "PASSAT". And we are launching from the big beach there. Some surprises are planned but I cannot take away from our organizers the glory which will go with it. I think that the location alone will bring us together a bit more, if that is what you are aiming for. And you should not worry about the following:

1. Weed: We will take care of it, raking it away for you or we will have wind from offshore and it´s been blown away.
2. Money: Don´t worry, your spouses will be able to spend loads on the other side whilst you are swimming errg foiling.
3. Arrest: If you have not heart until today, the iron curtain isn´t anymore. If you are washed into the shore, you are still in (West) Germany and you can take a taxi home and pay with €´s.

That is convincing, isn´t it?

DN Season is finished, Moth is coming.

2011-03-15T12:22:00.007+01:00

There had been small hopes for a Danish Championship last weekend but due to rain and temperatures above zero it had to be cancelled and I took the opportunity to clean and oil and check my gear and to stow it away after taking some notes for the start of the next season. There is some work to do after the last couple of seasons being lazy, but I cannot do the work now, when the spring is lurking around the corner and early spring flowers start to blossom.

Today I have received confirmation of the new boat (MACH2) to be supplied to the Pro-Vela for an early season practice session in the beginning of April. Good job so far by the M2 team. Hopefully the customs declaration will run a bit smoother other than for the parts from SailingBits, which I had ordered for myself and Moth friends. Wanted to make life easier for them but with our customs authorities clinging to their jobs with overseas deliveries, it now becomes a small problem to get the goods out of customs. As my friends are located in different places, I am sure it would have been messy for them to get hold of the parts. I am sending my charming colleague out tomorrow to talk to the bureaucratics in Flensburg.

If things with the new boat to be delivered to Spain are not going according to the plan, I am sure that Alan would appreciate, if I send him the stunning girl to help with custom house bureaucrazy (!)

Edit. A video called: The Making of Eissegeln Europameisterschaft Saaremaa 2011. Heli Videos
Edit. 17.3.2011: Another one I really like to recommend: DN EC 2011 on CNN Mainsail
Edit. 22.3.2011: The German TV report at: ZDF report

Back from the DN Europeans

2011-03-07T12:15:00.004+01:00

Just back from the DN Europeans with abt. 160 competitors I had found this report from the winner, Karol Jablonski, in my inbox: I would not be able to describe the event and the tough conditions, which we had faced, any better. Also, I will not take credit away from the publishers and therefore please go to the following link to read in English and German a great report about our last week, spend on the Ice of the Baltic Sea in Saaremaa, Estonia. DN EC report by winner, Karol Jablonski

The photo shows me and fellow iceboater "Praline, G-666" on the left. With special regards to the Detroit DN fleet.

Photo courtesy: Andreas Seegers:

PS: I wonder about this blog entry appearing in NZ? Was not able to leave a comment on the sailracewin blog. Never had a Kiwi sailing a DN with us though me and other DNérs have offered various invitations over the years. It is not the BloKart style, man. It is tougher.

Good Bye to the "Old Faithful"

2011-02-23T11:17:00.003+01:00

Yes, you see my wonderful Bladerider X8 being on the move to a new home in Holland. May Jaap, the new owner enjoy the boat as much as I did. What a great time we had together, the X8 and myself. And it had been reliable through all the sailing, that is the reason I was calling it "Old Faithful". Just like my old 1973 MG B GT which is being used very seldom but when it is needed it starts roaring after a few revs.

Selling the X8 was not easy at two ends. First there had been no reaction on my advertisement on the International Moth Homepage (thanks to Doug for such a great tool). Than, out of the blue I had 3 highly interested people in the boat. One from Holland, one from Germany and one from Poland. I settled with Jaap as he made a decision without much fuss and the boat was his. Michal from Poland, with whom I had good correspondence settled with MACH 2 and a distributorship. After the dust had settled there came another very interested person via my good friend Søren from Horsens, Denmark. Anyway it was a bit of an emotional departure as K´s and my idea had been to keep the boat for her. But the more I thought about it, the more I thought about the logistics with spare parts for two different brands. (Spares, big or small always needed when sailing Moths) the closer I came to the conclusion to buy another MACH2. This will help with having equal parts and the possibility to vandalize one boat whilst waiting for spares. Downtime must be short as are the month of summer.

Also my Moth buddy, Andreas, being on the rise and becoming quick on the race course, wanted a M2 himself. When he was a bit undecided I pushed him into Simon´s direction and as far as I am concerned, nothing speaks against a well set up ABARTH Moth on our home waters on the Schlei Fjord. So, there had been a few good Moth deals lately in our small fleet. And we will all meet with our new toys at the Moth Fest in May at the Mar Menor. (No direct link here as I think it is already overbooked...)

As far as activities around the house are concerned, I am preparing for the DN Euros in Estonia, Latvia or Poland. The news this morning had been that even Finland is an option now. Our president and the professional race committee* are concerned about snow coming in on the "best ice since 30 years" in Saaremaa, an island near Haapsalu in the Baltic Sea. Have not sailed lately as I was not in the mood for the long trips to the south (Lake Rescia) or to the north (near Gothenburg). Family kept me away. The ones who are interested in the more technical side of the DN rig should read the German article which was written in the SR online mag at: Segelreporter.com

I hope to be able to send a small report from the DN EUROS but anyone being more interested should check in at: www.eissegeln.de. Either the Pinboard or the DN Yacht button will contain reports. The racing will start on Sunday 27th and I think I have to go through a qualifier to try to get from the "B" fleet to "A" fleet as my last ranking in the World ranking list just does not qualify me directly for the Gold fleet anymore. It will be difficult but not unmanageable. First I need boat speed on the given day. What I do not need, is a starting position outside on the left (always computer generated for first race, odd numbers on the left) as that will give me 2 more tacks other than the starters on the starboard side. Anyway the preparation of the gear already gave me some fun and I am sure I will enjoy the event. Meeting friends from around the world and sharing the same passion is always great.

* In the DN class we have a professional race committee (Stan Macur and friends from Poland) which are assisting the officials from the country which is responsible for the event. Compared to other classes, this works on a relatively small entry fee of € 150,--per participant for the whole event. Usually there are around 150 to 180 starters which are divided into 3 or even 4 fleets depending on the size of the available area. The maximum fleet size is about 54 starters and that works great. Something which I am sure will happen in Moth fleets in the very near future. I am with Simon and do not think it is possible to let 150 Moths foiling straight to the wall. Anybody knows what he meant with the broken pencil in the same post at: SP´s Blog ?

DN Racing in Denmark

2011-02-02T10:56:00.004+01:00

What a great weekend we have had in Roskilde, Denmark, racing for the Seeland Championship or whatever it was called. Photo credit to Sejlfoto.dk And I got back into it. Got back my grin and will not compare it with the summer Mothing again, to say which is better for me, like I showed doubts about the Iceboating still being my favorite in my last post. No, you cannot compare, you should not. It is all very special and it is both rewarding to the work and time which you have to give into both sports. I am such a lucky guy to be here on Mother Earth, still being in decent shape and to discover it and to enjoy it. Sailing on hard water and foiling on the soft one.

For people being interested in more details about how DN regattas on ice come about, I would suggest reading John Casey´s last bit on his blog. A great sailor and journalist himself, he had been invited to take part in the 2011 DN World Championship in the USA, also held last weekend, whilst me and 40 other sailors from Denmark, Netherlands and Germany where sailing in Roskilde. Good and tough competitions in both events.

And as this blog entry is appearing on the IMCA site, I like to present my friends from both worlds two videos which I found to be very interesting to look at. Especially for people who are following the discussions on SA.com about Bora´s Wing. Enjoy and see you next time on the water. Hard or soft.

For the Moth Wing Video:

For the DN Video from Roskilde:

Who is behind this thing?

2011-01-27T23:02:00.007+01:00

I had been pointed into the direction of this virtuell Moth Sailor by Magnus Wheatley, the handgranade journalist, see also link on the right side. Visiting the site, which Magnus also mentioned in his blog post which has an entry I would call: Virtuell Moth Sailor I am a little puzzled. This guy or girl must know a lot about sailing, hanggliding and such. Smells a bit like SP, hiding behind a different personality. Beside the Moth sailing on a very, very high level, I have read that he has a similar boat as described in one of the "noodleqt" posts, going cruising. Or could it be KK? She knows a thing or two about sailing. She is one of the gifted writers and story tellers like the gentleman mentioned before, as well. And does the sailing club not look a bit like the HISC? Never been there but seen photos. But it could also be someone from the Isle of Wight, who dreams about Moth sailing and who is or had been a hangglider pilot as well. The Deeg? Or one who sold me his "Magic MKIII" after teaching me the finer points of watching the clouds for thermal winds after a lot of "looking at the green barn" during the first lessons on the IoW. Feel free to guess who is behind the "noodles" personality.

Anyway, great stories to read after an evening of working on my DN runners which had an alignment problem. And one of the 440C runners had a notch which took some time to smooth on the belt sander. All this work because the Danish DN friends are calling for a regatta in Roskilde on the weekend. Haven´t done much sailing so far due to other commitments.

On the Moth side there is some planning for the Moth Fest and some training before at the Pro-Vela in April. Flights are being booked and everything else will fall into place, I am sure. It really is the first of many, many DN winters where I could live without ice sailing and instead going foiling with the Moth. Sailing on soft water has never been so exiting for me.

Spend the last two days at the "boot" in Düsseldorf. Haven´t seen a Moth there, instead I had met someone from real life in the seventieth. A gentleman who had sailed Flying Dutchman in some of the events where I also took part. Great stories to exchange about the Worlds in Weymouth ´74, about Travemünde and about Kieler Woche. Does anyone today believe that Rodney Pattison came to Kiel with a Morgan+8 towing his FD behind? John Mellow and I had witnessed it. He is now producing really nice sculptures in stainless steel. Some had been donated at the TP52 Audi Med Cup. I immediately ordered two "Moth Sculptures" to donate during two Moth events coming season. Hopefully they will help increasing participation in the planned Northern Europe Moth Circuit, where we expect sailors to participate from Sweden, Denmark and Germany at three events. one in each country. Of course Moth sailors from other countries are also invited to come. More news and maybe a flyer later on the IMCA site.

Anyone interested in composites or boatbuilding in generell should visit my companies new Facebook site at CTM Facebook and become a supporter. This will enable you to receive composite news or special offers on carbon and other materials.

Now we have a decision

2011-01-06T20:07:00.005+01:00

Yes, it just came over the Internet. eissegeln.de German DN Championship is on. I have two afternoons of sailing just behind me and the body is a bit tired. The ice was very bumby, comparable to chop on a lake at 5 Bft. Need to work on some of my runners tonight which I had used yesterday for practice. Of course I will take my Lappie with me as it is nearly more interesting to know what happens in Belmont other than on the ice in Germany. Wishing all competitors from both mediums (the liquid in Belmont, Australia for the Moth class and the hard water DN friends in Klink, Germany) good luck and smooth sailing! See you on the Ice.

PS: Deutsche DN Segler sollten sich an der Diskussion im Forum beteiligen: Sind wir Memmen?

Edited at Jan., 28th:
The German Championship had not been sailed due to lack of wind, lack of sight and lot´s of water on the ice. Temperature was above 6°C but ice had been 30cm thick. No worries but you need at least wind and good visibility when you are crossing with your friends at abt. 40-50km/h upwind and around 80-100km/h downwind. Yes, I was happy that the racing had been skipped by those responsible. All the friends had a great time partying in the castle of Kling without me, who was suffering from bloody nose bleeding.

Wishing everyone a happy and prosperous New Year!

2011-01-01T18:31:00.003+01:00

This aint no speedo foto. It is a shot of my weather station during the last couple of days. Taken in the morning at 09.30h we had this unusual low temperature of -16.1°C. One might think this is good for the DN season but due to massive snowfall after the first ice had appeared on most of our sailable lakes, the ice was not able to grow under the thermal snow layer. And the snow is too deep to sail through. Only one lake, called "Plöner See" froze over late at 24th of December and after 3-4 days the first sailors could be seen via the webcam installed at the local sailing club. I had been out there on the 30th and we did sail some short races around the marks which we had put up. I had not expected anything, my knee somehow injured, but my gear worked well and I had good speed and was able to be in front in all races bar one. It must be said that I took the chance about fourteen days ago, after the first cold nights, and sailed with a friend "at the bottom of our garden" on the Schlei. Not much wind but good for rigging the first time and checking the trim. All my DN stuff had been put away quite hectic in March as I was so keen to go foiling at Alan´s www.pro-vela.com. Nothing more than a bit of WD40 on the runners. Should better go into the workshop but you know what: There is still some Moth gear to be put into good shape and order.

Working on the DN stuff had also delayed more than one evening, because I had followed the Moth Wing discussions. Very interesting as a wing would also be something for me. I will not have transport or storage problems and I would really like to try one as I think it is cool. Cool in the way of interesting for me as a sailor, as someone who loves all windsports but has to make decisions about which ones to take up. I skipped the idea of kite surfing due to fancying the Foiler Moth. And to have a wing for the fun and technical interest of it would just be great. Not all that had been said in the SA forum discussions is fair and I can only appreciate that the executive committee in the Moth class kept their cool. Good job. Thank you very much. I am very keen to see results and to hear about the happenings in this great Mothosphere. Wishing you all, be it on hard water or on the liquid one Smooth Sailing and a great season!

Read this about Wing Development

2010-12-02T14:40:00.002+01:00

Haven´t come to grips with blogging. Not even about the last great regatta in early November. Alster Glocke. Maybe later this year. Today I found a must read for most of my Moth friends. Have a look at

Bora talks about wing development. Thanks Bora!

Everyone is a Winner...

2010-10-11T12:27:00.006+02:00

...at least on this page accept myself, as I am not one of the winners. Not a winner in terms of NOT having a picture of myself on this blog entry as there is none sailing picture available. Haven´t been able to sail one of the 8 great races which the International Moth fleet, who gathered here in Schleswig, sailed in great conditions past weekend. My bad luck had been two major breakdowns. On Saturday the MACH2 bow fitting did not allow me to participate, as breaking before the races even got started, and on Sunday the day was finished for me and my "old faithful" the BR X8, after the first race, where I might have hit something on the downwind. A log of wood slightly under water or something which knocked on my main foil which I lost later during the second start sequence. Very bad.

As I am sure you will find the complete results list and a report on the Mottenfieber site, I will not bore you with the details about the sun, the wind and the fun everybody had. You can see yourself if you follow the link to the photo book: All Photos courtesy by Andreas Borrink who did a great job on Saturday, running 4 races as PRO together with Johan and Jonie and also finding the time to take these 400 selected shots. Andreas and the young Johan and Jonie: you are always welcome in the Moth fleet. We appreciate your efforts to work with us and to understand the Grand Prix finish which made it possible to run 8 races in two days. Our thanks also goes to Philipp who worked as the PRO on the race committee on Sunday.

Edit: Not everyone might know. If you click on Diashow, the fotos appear in full screen in great quality.

Great sailing, 4 Races on the Saturday

2010-10-09T23:15:00.005+02:00

We had four great races on the Schlei. Wind at around 20kn and 3 laps up and down. Sven is leading with 4 first and Burkh is on his heels.12 competitors who really enjoyed it. Let the pics speak for themselves

Wish I could be there...

2010-10-08T09:38:00.003+02:00

Going to Spain to see Alan and the ProVela is always tempting but with a busy September behind me (we are talking sailing and racing here) and an upcoming Moth regatta organized by me, my family and my homeclub, does not allow for more adventures. So Alan and David, I am sorry, I will not be able to make it but comes spring, you will see me.

Apart from some Mothing alone or with Andreas, I did take part in some Yardstick regattas with the Black Sheep to gain experience on this new style of boat. Very, very wide and hard chines. Double rudders. In short I must say it is fun to sail but the Melges 24 (who were our benchmark at the Blue Ribbon regatta) have developed themselves so far ahead that beating them in a distance race seems questionable to me.

K. and I also sailed the yearly Laser-City-Championship and whilst she finished all races in an old, worn out boat in style, I tried two starts and had to retire in both races due to stupid rigging errors. I wished I had Tillerman or other great Laseristi to help me with rigging an old boat like #84084. Maybe they would have told me what I knew afterwards: Change all the ropes and black plastic cleats or double secure behind the cleats with figure eight knots. See the amateur movie: Schleswig Laser Regatta

Anyway there had been a Moth regatta in between in Kiel. The Inshore race. I took the boat down there on the trailer, did not manage to hit the startline at first start, tried to sail the course for practice with 3 other Moths who were in the race but got so frustrated about the wind, the weather mark under the high shore line and myself about being unable to cope with the conditions. I had stayed complete dry getting on the tramp as the ASC, Kiel had provided personnel to help the boats into the water (Moth´s, I14´s, 18´s and a YS group even containing a Devoti D1 Skiff) but heading for shore I capzised badly just in front of the ponton. No wind, hazzle to get back on the boat and all. Not a good Moth show for the spectators though some came up and asked questions and wanted to help de-rigging the boat after I had put it ashore. I went straight home after that experience. Ole had also to give up due to a broken boom vang shackle (and you really need a Ronstan reserve in your tool box for this job on the Bladerider). Hannes and Sven seemed to have sailed all races, even the long-distance on Sunday and I am looking forward to meet with them as well as a couple other Mothies for a great weekend of racing the Moth on the Schlei. My X8 Bladerider is well prepared and test-sailed by me last Wednesday and it will be used by Philipp and before we will have some newbies who are interested to sail a Moth. I will use my MACH 2 with the new parts from Graham S. New Parts mounted and hope for a less wobbling wand. May the wind and Sun come as expected Weather Forecast for the weekend in all available weather-reports.

Sailing the "Black Sheep"

2010-09-14T21:27:00.005+02:00

Should have sailed it earlier but had some Moth duties and than got sick for a whole week, but last Sunday was the day. A local regatta with a mixed YS fleet. You find more information about this incredible Sportsboat under: Sportsboat 5,50m

Anyway my expectations were high as I had seen the boat, nearly winning it´s way (elapsed time only) in a bunch of 50 other boats at a regatta a week before. We took the photos from aboard our spectator boat. "Black Sheep" came second after leading about 80% of the race. Their last beat was poor (hmm, hmm from the outside....). The fast X-34 found better lanes and the 5,50m boat was outpaced by this very sharp competitor. I started to believe and was able to see first hand that the old saying: "Länge läuft" (only length is counting) does not relate to modern Sportsboats if designed right.

Rod, the builder of the "Black Sheep" had his friend and designer of the boat, JP to visit and to test sail the hard chined, super wide (2,40 is wide related to only 5,50m length) boat. The wind on Sunday morning was very light and I offered to give a lift with the Bull driven by the Outboard. Walked over to get the Bull ready for the tow but when I saw the 5,50m boat sliding through the marina, faster than I could walk in nearly no wind we skipped the idea and I jumped onboard to take the tiller. We made it in time down the Schlei-Fjord to the "big-wide" and did not have to wait much for the start. Despite the light wind we got in front quite quickly but on the last long downwind we got passed by the DB1 (old 3/4 tonner, built by Dehler). Should have rolled the boat over to windward as suggested by JP and pressed hard down to leeward but with a straight pole and a flat gennaker this is not easy to achieve in the light air. Anyway upwind we were fast. You can see the upwind performance of the boat on the photos which are running through this entry. The small boat in the lee of the X-34 is the "Black Sheep".

Moth wise I had only 2 outings lately. Both together with Andreas on his BR and it was great to be back on the homewater for some practice. Still lacking good jibes but going nicely upwind. Have I told you that I am sailing a MACH2 by now? Not that I think I can improve my results much with this boat at present but it came along my way as a very positive surprise or should I say, a chance I could not dismiss. Should anyone out there be keen to buy a good solid Bladerider X8, I would negotiate if it finds a good home. Otherwise I might take it to the Mar Menor for the upcoming October Fest organized by: ProVelaComing weekend is another Moth regatta in Kiel ASV Kielorganized by the Academics who always throw in good racing and good partying. The races are open for 18th, Int. 14th, and Moths. The usual suspects will be on the startline.

See the boat right in front there. that is the "Black Sheep" not long after the start. Should anyone out there like to have more information about this new boat, contact me and I put you through to Rod and JP.

Impressions from the Startline at Silvaplana

2010-08-23T21:00:00.004+02:00

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.

Silvaplana - a lousy Internet Connection tonight

2010-08-17T23:32:00.002+02:00

Trying to send a report and photo off to a friend on www.Segelreporter.com did not work but maybe this one will do it. A shot of the first start from the far distance. I am sure that those with a good internet connection will have all the reports and results which we, the sailors here at Lake Silvaplana will only see tomorrow. The sailing was great. Even with the cold water. I would not have started a fourth race as already in the third one I could feel a loss of power and concentration. The boom struck my back several times and it took away the cap from my head two times. Tacks were awfully slow and despite a very good start in the third race (who tried to squeeze in at the boat end with no right of way? Could have let you bump into the starting vessel) lost sight of most of "my friends" with and against whom I am racing in this big fleet. But fun it was. I came off the water with a big smile and I am thankful to Carlo who helped me to drag the boat out of the water. Without him it might have stayed there overnight. The Aussies are doing very well despite a finish line deep in the upper bay of the lake with a lot of non-foiling. Easy to win or loose 10 places here. Maybe this will be changed tomorrow.

Edit: Photos do not work today.

Moth EC - it´s real, the snow has arrived

2010-08-16T21:35:00.003+02:00

Waking up this morning, there was some blue sky shining through the shades. Got up early and it was cold but the sun came up over the mountains. And there had been snow. Not just a little bit but as you see from the shot a bit more down to abt. 2200m. And we are at abt. 1800 m altitude. Lots of waterfalls and small rivers and all spend their ice cold water into the Lake Silvaplana. No wonder the Dutch Moths ventilated. Mine did not fly but that could have been another reason. Sweet-water kelp. Anyway during the day it started raining again, which made wet sanding easy for some participants with mud and garbage on the rigging area now taking over.

There had been a practice race today. And we had to collect our transponders to carry on the boat. Who in the world wlll know about the tracks of the sailors behind place 10? I was actually thinking about putting mine under the table in the tent (with tape) It would have looked like I am stationary at work here in Silvaplana and not drifting around on a cold, rainy day on some mountain lake. I am not sure who won that 4 lapper practice race. I was told that Nathan was circling around Simon but have no eye witness as I was in the way of Scot some times. Had a good lowriding race with Harald who beat me to the mark. We both had sailed 2 laps after having been lapped. But it seemed that nobody sailed up to the finish line and cared about a result. The official site (see Linklist) will have more information.

Tomorrow the weather will improve. I just heart from Markus that we will have 20kn of wind. Alright for me as I am still flying low. Have to work out better settings on the new boat.

Not Monster, but Moth Garage...

2010-08-12T13:26:00.003+02:00

Packing up for the Moth EC at syzmotheuro2010.ch Lake Silvaplana, Switzerland caused some small headache. What goes where, what does fit and how much dismantling is necessary to load the boat on the camper. Decision time. The cat is not yet out of the bag but will be soon.

Looking forward to the road trip with family. "Sind wir bald da???" and other spectacles. I am looking forward to meet with friends and other sailors Entry List from around the World and my personnel goal is to have as few alphabets as possible and to get some scoring on the sheet. Of course fighting hard but not to bumb into anyone. Sailing fair. There is some internal competition between me and my fellow Moth friends Harald and Gerold. Two others from the German fleet have practiced for two full month and we will see how they are doing. Exciting days, I can tell you. Feels a bit like going for your first date.

Talk about Wings, I couldn´t resist

2010-08-09T12:48:00.003+02:00

Admiring guys like Adam May, who are not only able to put to paper a great idea but also being able to follow it through and to handle it on the water, I could not refuse myself to put this into a blog entry. There have been drawings of wings before, there have been wing rigs long ago on Russian & German iceboats, but the three most amazing wings for me have been the ones pictured here and designed and built lately. Great times and I look forward to see Adam´s Wing at Silvaplana, CH. The Moth EC 2010 entry list reads like the who is who in Mothing and more like a WC instead of an EC. How comes? More developments to be shown?

I had to nick one or the other photo for this entry and if I have harmed anyones business, I am willing to pay. It is just that I could not discover the origin.

Some foiling and some tinkering on the boat

2010-08-04T09:54:00.002+02:00

Oh, this always feels good and brings back memories from winter work on the DN. Going into the workshop early morning before breakfast to have a look if the epoxy cured properly and if the job done is a good one or needs some more tinkering. Found out lately that I had a very sticky connection from the wand to the push rod. Maybe it was the wrong lubricant together with my home made carbon swivel which did not turn around smoothly. Gone back to the original nylon (had a spare one) swivel and had to do some alterations. New, longer wand with paddle to see if the ride height could be improved. With my weight (no way to get it under 83 kg) on the boat this should help to gain some time during the manoeuvres before sinking in and spoiling the jibe.

It already looked good last Saturday when I had two short sessions. The first one just to realise that the hiking straps were too loose and I had rigged the wrong mainsheet. (way too long) This made sailing uncomfortable and after a while I sailed back to the shore to change things. And than it felt good. Really good. I saw Rod (my regular crew on Wednesday night races) with his family out there in the blue Bull going for a holiday trip and I did two "fly by´s". Wow, showtime. Up high, crossing his wake, nearly above his stern deck, nailing, (ok, nearly) a smooth jibe and hiking my ass out as it was windy. His girlies with camera in hand. Rod was sailing with jib only, me with all controls pulled to the max. A great afternoon out on the water after re-assembling the boat.

Yes, this foiling jibe thing. I am glad for Koos and anyone else out there who are managing it after some hard times going for it. I still have to practice more to be able to nail more than 30%. During the German Championship I had the will to do it. Concentration was all right and I nailed the first one on the downwind to set an example...for me and my fellow competitors Harald and Gerold who have played in my league. But it was only one nice jibe I did. Missing the lay-line did not help me and with some frustrations working their way up into my mind I did more mistakes, like not realising that I had been lapped and going for another round before noticing that the 3 boats behind me were already finishing. Does this turn me away from going to the Europeans? No, not at all. Everyone seems so excited. Moth sailors are coming in from the USA and Australia and what else. To sail in the European Championship on a swiss lake, high in the mountains with a thermal breeze called the Maloja. The Silvaplana had been on my agenda already many, many years ago when I was sailing my FD. But is was always the skiing part which turned me off from those great ski/yachting events held in St. Moritz. Still cannot and will not go skiing. Lot´s of other things to do in winter time.

The foto above shows a group gathering of Moth sailors at the beautiful Lake Walchensee during the German Championship.

Sailing Holiday and no Mothing

2010-07-15T21:49:00.001+02:00

Changed the 36´C/R into a cruiser with sprayhood and else and have gone on a holiday with the family. It did not go smoothly though. Lot´s of trouble with the boat which had not been used for the last two years. All the small problems here and there to tackle with and nearly having a big one with an electric shortcut which could have ended in a "cable fire". Something really nasty. Now after 4 days and only a few miles it looks like everything is sorted and tomorrow we can head out into the Baltic. At present we are berthed nicely in Schleimünde and are looking into a beautiful sunset. Not very keen to take the computer out during holidays but with the build-in camera I had to give it a try. Smooth sailing everyone!

Moth Class Championship Report

2010-07-08T23:06:00.006+02:00

After some great foiling session with good ride height a weekend before the German Championship, I started to dismantle my BR for the trip and taking the wings off. The boat should go on the roof of the Passat to enable me to drive a little faster other than with a trailer behind the car. 1150 km should be done in one step. Alone. And it was´nt a problem. I arrived at the beautiful lake on the Thursday afternoon, assembled the boat and went sailing on Friday after the thermal breeze kicked in. It did not look too bad for me comparing speed and height with 3 other earlier arrivals though the MACH 2 sailors looked like playing it easy whilst I tried to give it all. My concentration was gone after an hour and so was the foiling jibe ability. Some swims later I called it a day.

Come race day one and after the skippers meeting I was out early (which was one of my goals for this event), as I do not find it "charming", coming late to the startline. And there had been no mercy, I mean three Moth sailors were´nt ready but the class, including me, did not go for an early start. Before us we had a good fleet of Finn´s and Star´s doing their starts and the race committee was right on time. I had an OK first upwind leg and my dearest competitors behind me (the back end of the midfleet) and nailed my first jibe and off to the downwind mark. I did not hit the layline and had to put in two more jibes and arrived at a crowed mark. Walls of sails flogging. Starboat sails. A wide rounding, good speed, less height and than my boat began some funny movements. Hobby horsing. It started slowly but got worse on the downwind course. And it got worse during the next races and I got lapped in race two and three by 4 sailors. Did not realize this in the last race of the day and had to turn back to the finish line after being a couple hundred meters upwind already. Have to keep a better look out. Sven being fast as usual and he was followed by the talented Swiss, Martin, followed by Frederik and newcomer Markus. I heart a few girlie squeaks out on the course and both Tanja and Nina had their moments of foiling. At the end of the day I had Harald behind me on the list and we watched the Football game and a great German team beating Argentine. Later on we came together for the annual meeting and the usual discussions about how to attract more sailors into our class ended late at night.

Come Sunday and one more race. A pity that the program was written in stone as the day was just great, the water clear and green and the thermal breeze had kicked in though all reports said it should not and we should have thunderstorms. I had a bad race, the amplitude of up (flying) and down (touching the water with the hull) nearly made me seasick and I was happy to finish the race and did not enjoy the long ride home on foils very much. My boat and I can do better but I have to find out first what made her sailing like that. Something within the system must have come sticky. From the road transport? Dirt in the rod tubing? I had played with adjustments of about 8 turns (not at once) on the ball socket joint but it made no difference. Harald beat me and revanche will be sweet.

For the next fourteen days I will be cruising with the family in the Baltic Sea. No foiling, no boat work. In the meantime I hope that my boatbuilder will be able to do some maintenance jobs on the carbon frame tubing which all looks a bit tired and thinned out at the joints. After coming back I might attend the Moth racing in Horsens to meet with the Danish Bandits. A report in German language is available under: mottenfieber.de. Photo courtesy to Toni Mangold. Me and my boat do not look like "porpoising", don´t we? Just flying a little low.

Great Sailing at Lake Walchensee

2010-07-05T18:59:00.002+02:00

We had some fun in the sun! Finn´s, Star´s and Moth´s sailed four great races on this beautiful lake. A report will follow later. Enjoy the Foto from Toni Mangold. Click it to enlarge it.

German Moth Class Championship coming soon...

2010-06-22T15:00:00.003+02:00

German Championship is around the corner. It will be sailed in the beginning of July down south in Bavaria, on Lake Walchensee. German Championship link. They say it is a beautiful lake (which Google Earth proves) with good thermal breeze. Kind of a Mini Garda. So let´s see. At present there are only 11 participants on the entry list but I know of at least a couple more who will show up. For me the questions is: Shall I put some reports into my blog about my great training days, which went well with the boat flying nice and level after upgrading the AoA, or keep a low profile, as a regatta some 1100 km away from home always puts some strain on the pilot and maybe also on the boat from the road transport. Vibration is the nr. 1 road transport problem for a DNF. Some screws, one might not have checked carefully enough when arriving late at the racing site, might come loose. This being one of the reasons, I do not want to put my own expectations too high. Especially when there are a couple of new participants at the start line. In the Moth class a lot can happen. What sticks with me since I am racing this boat is the great anticipation. Looking forward to the event. Loading up the boat (roof or trailer) and gear. Can´t wait to start the engine.

On another note, tomorrow we are sailing our fifth Wednesday night race this season with the Bull. We managed to come first into the finish all the last races and also won on elapsed time. (Only keel boats on the starting line) It is only Rod and me sailing the boat at present and we had luck with the wind, which had been light. It is also the new mainsail with a bit more roach which gives us power and the calm sailing style which Rod and I have adapted lately.

Great Moth Racing last Weekend

2010-06-03T16:25:00.004+02:00

We had nine participants in the Moth class, racing here on the Schlei last weekend. As you can see from the photo, taken on Sunday, it shows that at least 50% had been lowriding but nevertheless it was racing. If I am turning into a good lowrider, I do not know. One could get the impression. Being the most heavy sailor, I managed to come second, behind Sven our German Moth hero. Unbeatable for the rest of us. At least at present. I think with his new boat he has even gained more advantage to the rest of the fleet. He only faltered in the second race when I had a home run. First for me and 5th of Sven. Our Danish friends also enjoyed the sailing on the Schlei though they expected more breeze here in the north of Germany. Results and some German comments you can find here: Results & Comments We will meet again in Horsens, DK and at Lake Silvaplana at the European´s. I can only hope that I will be able to improve my jibing. With summer now arrived it does not look for much breeze at the next weekend.

Oh, before I forget. Here is one for the music fans. I am going to see Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood tonight. I am not sure if they perform together (didn´t they do in the group called TRAFFIC?) or if they have both single acts with their band. Clapton is not 100% my music but Winwood is a must see. And since I have missed the great concert of the Supergroup Traffic who had Spooky Tooth playing the first act, many, many moons ago, I promised myself to go and see Winwood, the next time he is around. Geeez, is this now 41 years later? Am I sitting in a time machine? Sailing and Music are tw wonderful things which one can perform for a whole lifetime, me thinks.

Moth Fest Report

2010-05-25T21:16:00.002+02:00

Saturday, 22nd of May, 10.30h, high Altitude above the clouds on my way home from the Moth Fest. Yes, flying in the Air and not flying on the foils as most of the other participants will just do in the final races at the Moth Fest in Mar Menor. What an incredible week it was. I had arrived last Sunday just in time for the briefing given by Simon Payne and Alan Hillman. I had missed the Paela but than I did not had to assemble my boat as I had chartered one of Alan´s well prepared Bladeriders. I will not be able to report day by day as the days flew by quicker than I can remember. There was sailing everyday and there were lectures and training and a mixture of fun races. The last one will stick in my memory for long. The "around the Island and than head for beach bar" event on my last day. It was blowing 15kn and it was a long distance group flight. Not sailing for first or last but staying together as a group of 12 sailors and foiling along with 15-20kn of speed on a tight reach and than after rounding the island letting it loose on the downwind to the bar. There were some very fast Brits reaching 23+ kn on their GPS´s.

After some great laughs, a good conversation and food and drinks we hit to the water again and foiled home from the Beach Bar. The waves and wind had builded up a bit and some participants reported about nose dives later on. I had a great ride but due to the speed and splash of the water into my face I lost my ML sunshade. A pity but it was the only loss on the trip. My luagage is more heavy than on the way in as adding the Sponsors give aways and prizes, I take more things home than I got on my way out to Narejo, Mar Menor.

Tuesday, 25th, after recovering from the trip: It is the one thing which strikes my mind and gave me inspiration to this blog entry (all day by day action you can read elsewhere, go to: Moth Blogger News...) I think the heart and soul of this great event had been David Hillman. Besides giving a helping hand and tools to anyone requesting he took care of so many things in the background which made us all feel like home. The ones who had not been to Alan´s PRO-VELA sailing school before could of course not have noticed the changes in and around the place to make it most comfortable for us. From the sun umbrella to the big empty space for the rigging area and the preparation for hanging up the sails over night without de-rigging, everything was well sorted. As I was not there on the Sunday for the last prize giving and usually I am the one to bring out cheers for the organizers and helpers let me do this here: To Alan, to David and to all the Gentlemen helping out on the rescue boats: You did a phantastic job. You promissed a great event and you delivered. Three cheers and a big "HIPP HIPP HURRAY" "HIPP HIPP HURRAY" "HIPP HIPP HURRAY".

Latest News from Aussieland

2010-05-22T23:45:00.003+02:00

Training in "winter mode" down under. Scott Babagge, John Harris, Dave Lister and friends are practicing for the upcoming worlds in Belmont, AUS. Have a look at: Aussie Moth practice session Great innerview and video about their sailing in front of the Sydney Opera.

Report about the great Moth Fest in Mar Menor, ESP tomorrow.

It is disgusting...

2010-05-06T09:46:00.002+02:00

Yes, I have read about it. Yes, I care but sometimes not enough. This morning I saw a big plastic sheet swirling in the wind towards the shore from the works at the new building taking place right in my neighborhood. A 5 story monster, 4 in a row only 40 metres away from the shore. The EU regulation, FFH states clearly that within towns the distance should be 50m and outside towns it should be 100m. But this is not my theme today. Before going to work I walked to the beach which is a nice "green" and picked up the huge plastic sheet before the offshore wind would blow it into the Fjord. Nothing to rant about. But the eyes from the workforce, people looking and shaking their heads was a bit disturbing.

Being at work and going through my regular SA frontpage reading I came across a link and an article which reads: Plastics-in-our-Ocean I know you know this but it had been the bullet points which cannot be brought to attention often enough.

- Use durable fabric shopping bags;
- Whenever possible, choose bio-plastics, glass or paper;
- Return broken plastic goods to the manufacturer;
- Please do not litter.;
- Pick up a piece of plastic on your way home from sailing and place it in a recycling bin;
- Support environmentally responsible companies who are recycle plastic.
- Compost and recycle everything you can;
- Sweep your sidewalk rather than hosing it;
- Buy in bulk, avoiding smaller containers that will need to be disposed of;
- When appropriate, send letters to companies about over packaging or plastic packaging;
- Buy less and when you do make a purchase, avoid excessive packaging;
- Repair whatever goods you can before considering replacing them;
- If you live near a body of water, volunteer to help clean up the trash;
- Reuse flimsy plastic bags used for bulk purchases or choose paper instead.
- Cut the rings of plastic six-pack holders, which lowers the chances of entanglement with marine animals should that holder make it out to sea.

Please think about like me, going out to your local sailing club and have a little speech about this to the junior sailors. Make it clear that they do not want to capsize due to a plastic bag in the water. They shall care about the fish in the sea, about the environment. Sometimes I think about myself having developed a bad habit of picking up glass-and plastic bottles from the beach but I think the times they are changing. People will recognize it and in future more people will adopt the same habit. Hopefully. So please, keep the shores clean.

Boah!!

2010-04-27T09:08:00.003+02:00

Reading the following letter from my Scuttlebutt News this morning, I can only agree and I am happy that my main sailing takes place in two boat classes which obviously have not much to do with most of the ISAF regulations and especially the way we are setting our courses and are managing the classes. The Moth and the DN class both are usually sailing windward leeward courses which have to be seen as a big oval due to the speed which the boats are generating once at the windward mark. 3 laps around and one is exhausted. After a break another race and another one. Grand Prix finishes in many events are preventing long periods of waiting for the lapped sailors. Read on and feel free to comment. Kudos to Terry Bischoff!

* From Terry Bischoff, 55 year member of US SAILING:
My (race committee) team was the first team ever to run a Medal Race. We did
this continuously at the Miami OCR through this January. When interviewed
early on, I expressed my doubts as to the real benefits of the race. Sell
more boats, get more people to watch sailing on TV?

How much of those goals has ISAF accomplished by sailing a silly little 25
minute race, at double points. Totally unfair when compared to our
traditional Olympic racing techniques. Anyway, apparently many must feel
this finale has great merit since it continues even with the latest negative
procedure changes from ISAF.

ISAF has a very hidden agenda: keep sailing in the Olympics or most of the
staff will have to go to work in the real world. They will continue that
goal no matter how they turn a great sport upside down. As I've said for
years, the U.S. needs to resign from two obsolete and terribly
anti-productive organizations: the UN and ISAF.

Two Boat testing on the Schlei

2010-04-25T20:38:00.002+02:00

Again it has been a Sunday out of the "picturebook" out here in the North of Germany on the Schleifjord. Like already last Sunday, I went out with the Moth and I had a wing man, necessary due to the cold water. Read about the "missing" wing man on : Doug´s Blog. Last weekend I had very good session with Andreas, who is only in his second week of mothing and as a true top notch sailor he was already pulling some foiling jibes whilst I am still stumbling. Racing with Andreas on simple windward leeward courses in flat water was great fun.

Yesterday I had to pull the boat apart to install a new mast stump. The Acetal part (white plastic) had been completely worn out. This happened due to the metal pin slowly moving into the mast foot though it has a thread. I had fixed that a little late., the thread slowly grinding itself into the black plastic foot. As usual when heavy into boat work a few more jobs appeared which I tackled until midnight. Today in beautiful sunshine, 14°C and a good breeze from the east, I have sailed with Ole from Denmark who is playing about my level. He recently bought a BR Moth from GB. We had some good racing together in our first session at around noon. After a break, some drinks and an apple, the wind had increased to a handy 4-5 Bft. with whitecaps nearly all over the place. I was not able to pull some proper maneuvers in the breeze and we both went swimming a couple times. I think it was due to fatigue. Nevertheless we rounded the marks, waited for each other and blasted downwind with abt. 20kn until we "slow jibed" or swam. Ole was able to pull a few really good jibes. I even digged my mast top into the mud once but nothing broke, just a bit of the "black stuff" on the deck after righting the boat. We packed it in after an hour and had a nice BBQ, coffee and cake and the boats, sails and drysuits dried out completely in the sun. A good and promising season start these last two Sundays.

By the way, I get loads of spam mails masked as comments to one of my older blog entries: "Two Boat testing in the Fehmarnsund". Want to see if it has to do with the wording and does also happen with this entry or if it is something else. Does anybody has an answer to these spam comments which is a bit nerve-racking? Fotos taken by Kerstin with a longs lense. Do not get fooled. This stretch of water is wider than it appears.

Fred's Mar Menor holiday blog

2010-03-26T12:59:00.003+01:00

Sorry "Fred" is unable to be with you this evening...he is recuperating!

For those of you who read about Fred's antics on ice and water you probably think of him as 30-40 year old hi speed adrenalin junkie...which he is....., except for the 30-40 year old bit. Manfred would best be described as being more senior (substantially!) then Amac.

So here he is up to 4 hours a day in the Mar Menor in Southern Spain giving it heaps every day on one of our Bladeriders. The holy grail for Manfred is the 100% foiling gybe (the same for most mortals) frankly if I get to Manfreds seniority I would be bloody grateful if 1. I make it that far and 2. Am still able to get on my moth! Manfred was out last year on his own and gave me a bit of pasting in the light stuff....fortunately I have stuck a few hours at it and obviously upgraded my technology so it wouldn't happen again! So, Manfred brings out his mate Andreas........after only 3 days the guy is now foil gybing and looking really comfortable spearing it down hill...really annoying! Fate eventually played his hand and he is now sporting a fashionable shroud stripe down his face. If he foil tacks before he goes home I am giving up...here is Manfred.
Alan Hillman
Pro-Vela

UK 0044 7917 678299
Spain 0034 609 822488
E. alan@pro-vela.com
SKYPE: alanhillman
W. www.pro-vela.com

Details for the Moth Fest are out now.

2010-03-19T11:58:00.003+01:00

Just got an e- mail form Alan, whom you can contact through his website. www.pro-vela.com
The official Moth Fest website is currently under construction. To wet your appetite here is the list of sponsors as Alan writes to me today. Looking to some great holidays, training and racing and to meet with some of you. Put it into your calendar: May 16th until May 23rd. Three days of training with the current World Campion, Simon Payne included and I guess I am getting some extra lapping from him during the races.

quote by Alan Hillman:
As we go to press the sponsors who have committed to support the event are:

Pro-Vela: My sailing school and clearly the only place to learn to fly!
CAR Infanta Cristina: The Spanish high performance sailing centre where we are based.
Roda Golf Resort: Our apartment partner
Henri Lloyd: Giving great clothing, event t-shirts and PR support.
Spinlock: Our official supplier of high quality knee pads
Marlow: Official rope partner
Harken: Official fittings partner
SP Systems: Official sponsor of Crash for cash and resin supplier
CTM: This is our German friend Manfred, (Fred on the blog!) and his company is providing some carbon kits for Crash for cash.
unquote

Looking forward to meet with you.

Last weekend of DN sailing, March 13th, 2010

2010-03-18T15:48:00.005+01:00

...at least for me or at least here in Germany. Our Swedish friends had called for their yearly Championship which normally is a top choice on the event calendar but this year we still had good sailable conditions in the North of Germany. Some Polish iceboaters started already to enquire about the location in Germany on Wednesday but than we were not able to make a final decision. They decided there and than to travel to the Swedish Championship to be held in Jönköping at the big Lake Vättern and racing to be started on the Friday. We were only able to make a decision on the Friday morning and I hit the button for the message "regatta is on" on the Internet at 12.09h. Thus we had a couple less participants but nonetheless some top sailors including the European Champion 2010, Bernd, G-107 came to race in Plön. The two photos accompanying this report are taken from the webcam at the Sailing Club in Plön from the Saturday. Nearly all sailors are far out on the race course and of course not to be seen.

We had 17 competitors on the starting line for the vent to be called, the "Internationale Goldene Osterhasen Meisterschaft". With Marek, P-107 from Poland and Dideric, H-467 from Holland participating, who gave some international flair to the event. The start had been called for 12.00h and a little after we had set the course after a necessary re-arrangement due to some competitors having found holes in the ice close to the layline. The holes weren´t measured, only eye witnessed, which normally is not enough but we had enough space on the big lake to move a little to the south. Around noon the surface got soft but still ok for our 5 or 6mm insert runners. The sort of metal being the critical choice. I took my 100° Stelith runners and my good ol´faithful Shore LD sail but was late for a trial run. The bad flu from the days before still hindered me in my activities and being the under-assistant-ice-boat-promo-man, I mean the appointed assistant from our ill-being North German secretary, Vossi, G-709, the speech and organisational duties (somehow I had to carry the leeward rounding mark with me and everyone was waiting for it to be positioned) kept me from being on the course with spare time to burn.

We did 5 races in the rather difficult conditions with strong gusty wind and "heavy" ice, as we call a soft surface, where small crumbs of ice was flying or hammering into your face like hail. This happens mostly when you have the wrong front runner mounted (short) or one of your friendly competitors is running you down on the windward side, as Holger, G-890 did with me in the last race of the day. Anyway, I had some great races and only one bad result, when I finished 11th after having had a very bad start in race nos. 2. Overall I finished this event in third position behind our champion, Bernd, G-107 and the fast Polish, Marek, P-107 (see the numbers, must be fast). Some really great competitors and sailing friends, whom we call the "A" sailors had to sort themselves out behind me in the overall standing.

The last thing to do now is to write up a summary about this great season were I had some really good results on the national circus (podium places only) but mediocre during the Worlds and European Championships. This summary might come later or maybe only in my little "to-do" booklet. The thoughts are set on the Moth now and I am planning some training and modifications to my faithful Bladerider. Stay tuned if you like to read about the foiling adventures from an old salt for whom it takes ages to do a proper foiling jibe.

DN Racing still going strong in Germany

2010-03-10T13:11:00.007+01:00

Great racing last weekend despite the German Championship had to be cancelled due to very much snow on the ice, which was coming down the night before. Most of the participants just moved on abt 60km to a different lake/venue where we found good conditions and were able to convince our former class secretary to do the starting and scoring, which she did just great. Together with her husband, Edith and Jürgen, many thanks for giving us a great time. 6 fantastic races and fun in the evening during the dinner and price giving. Full race report in German language: Race Report

Not able to read German, but interested in the fun we have, please go to the following link. German report Here you can see fotos about 2 "prices" which I had prepared for the two friends who had put the most effort into our class during this winter. The first one you will see is the Icescout 2010 price. Our German class secretary, Jörg, G-747(!) did actually search for good ice with a plane and next day checked the area with his DN. He really deserved this price for his efforts sofar.

There is only one guy who comes into most iceboaters mind when you think about the "Golden telephone" price. Yes, Wulf "Krogo", G-749, deserves this one without doubt. He is actually starting on Monday searching for sailable ice for the coming weekend by phone. He phones up everyone and pushes. Often driving out himself late afternoon if the given information seems a bit unreliable. Without these two great sailors we would not have had such a good season this year. And it is not finished yet. Temperatures are around the freezing point. The Ice is about 25cm with snow cover. If that cover melts away we will have another one or two weekends of DN racing, until the runners are dull.

Following the Moth Worlds in Dubai as many other German Moth sailors, (great job by OTWA and Justin TV) I hope that this blog changes soon into becoming a Moth blog again. Keep your runners sharpened and your foils polished!

The DN NA is on and the Moth WC is coming soon

2010-03-02T21:13:00.009+01:00

Wished to be able to attend in both events but one has to be realistic: I think that my Moth sailing is not up to speed to attend a World Championship. On top of my "mostly non foiling jibes", I haven´t been out on the water for 4 month. Instead I had sailed with the DN in various regattas since the middle of January. Some 16 days in total so far of great fun, speed and comradeship. And also looking for another weekend of sailing on hard water due to the weather turning cold again. The "old" ice has not melted away yet. To get to the States for just one regatta is very time consuming and costly. I had done it once in the past but was not happy with the days of sailing versus travelling time/moonies. (DN Worlds at Lake Geneva with an interesting visit at the Melges boatyard when they were developing the Melges 24)

I am following both events of course. For the Moth following it is very easy. One click (see my Moth linklist on the right) on the top link will present you all the latest blog entries. Smart feature Doug! With the DN North American Championship it is a bit more difficult. I can recommend the following sites:
Geoff Sobering
Kent Baker
Iceboating.net
Ken Smith

In between blog entries I am putting something together in my head which is about the similarities between the Moth sailors and the DN sailors. Good technical knowledge which is been shared quite openly. Maybe one day I will write an article about it. One thing for sure is that the Moth sailors are following the DN route these days. Many Moth sailors are not building their own boats anymore, instead they are buying themselves into the class. As I did with the Bladerider. And lately with my DN equipment from Sweden and Estonia. Whilst many years ago I was building my own hulls and planks and also tried to build one mast. But I realized that a big part of the speed comes from the preparation of the runners and it takes a lot of time to prepare them well. It was time consuming for me to learn about metal and how to work with it but I liked it. To work with wood, epoxy, carbonfibre all came much more easy. The fast Moth sailors are tinkering a lot with small upgrades, developing devices to fly higher or more stable. Prepping the foils with special coatings etc.

Going through the pictures (click on them and they extend) from the DN Worlds, I found the one on top very interesting also for sailors from both camps: Look at the bend of the 2 different masts. Both composite. One build in Sweden, the other in Poland. Very, very similar in their bend characteristic, though we do not see the fore and aft bending, which is also an important factor for speed. Some Moth sailors are actually discussing this bend characteristic but I think that with the Veal heel, the Moth has also made a quantum leap forward in speed and height. As did the DN with the unusual mast bend, possible only with the composite masts. Looking out the window today and checking temperature, the last picture might sum it up: Good bye for this season. I am the 2nd on the left.

A Great Read about the DN Worlds and European Championships

2010-03-01T10:02:00.003+01:00

Why on earth did I only find this now. This makes great reading and Ken is looking into details from a different view. An American View. Take a cup of coffee and lean back. Ken the Dad, Report about the Trip to DN Europe

Glad that the Winter Olympics are done. At the end I was pulled into watching some events (late at night) and man, they were emotional. The German girls in the team racing on the ice. The 30km ski race, the final Icehockey game. Anyone out there who enjoyed it as well?

Some intense Iceboating

2010-02-24T21:29:00.006+01:00

The DN Worlds and EURO Championship are behind me and it had been a few days of great sailing. There are already a lot of reports up on various iceboating websites. Here is just a quick and dirty summary for me to remember and maybe to be able to tell my grandchildren.

Left with 3 sailors in the Volkswagen Van (Bully) for Hungary. Krogo and Henning. Arrived in good shape, travelling through four different countries were we had to pay road tax (to purchase a windscreen sticker). After the flag ceremony on Lake Balaton, it started to snow and did not finish the next day. The whole circus packed up and drove into Austria to the famous Neusiedler See. (Lake Neusiedel) A small village, Mörbisch had been woken up and the 200+ sailors and PRC occupied two hotels which first had to be heated up from zero. Some sailors slept in their warmest clothes available. 2 days of sailing in three groups with 7 races for Gold, Silver and Bronze fleet. I had to qualify from Silver to Goldfleet, managed an eigth in the qualifier (the first 12 sailors are qualified) and finished 37th in the final A-fleet races. Ice conditions were very good and fast and some people said that the first 20 sailors each had a chance to win the title. I would cut this down to 12 or 15. The speed of the top sailors was in a different league to me and the sailors hanging around midfleet. Though I think that I would not have managed the top twenty, I think that my good old SHORE LD sail from the early 90´s did not help my speed in the strong wind. If it would not have full length battens it could be folded neatly. The HT "finish" has left the 6.5oz H&B cloth. I have to say good bye to it. Better sooner than later.

Same applies to my plate runners which are from Siberia and very light. They say that the material is a mixture from Titanium and Magnesium. Not very fast in the snow conditions which we faced during the last day, sailing the EC. The Qualifier races had been split into 4 groups due to the danger of way too many boats speeding around the course and bunching up at the marks. Due to my international ranking I had to start from the "C" fleet, qualified into the "B" and again qualified into the Goldfleet. First day of the EC my speed was very good. No problems getting to the front of the fleet even if my starts were medium. All the youngsters from Poland, Estonia or Lithuania just running away from me after the flag goes down. We faced light wind and very little snow on the ice during this first EC day. I used my faithful ´96 UK Power sail and managed an 11th place in the first Goldfleet EC race. Right there with the top boats. Next day a lot of snow and wind up to 10m/sec, increasing later through the day, left me with my only plate runners which I had taken with me. I managed some places in the 30´s and finished 24th over all. Thus I must play the elevator game again next year. Only about the top 21st from the international ranking are usually pre-qualified for the Goldfleet. I have to go through the stress of qualifying again. And it becomes more and more difficult due to many new and young sailors in the class who start understanding the game. They have well prepared boats and equipment and are only using the latest sails. If I would start a more competitive campaign next year, I could either go for a podium place in the Silver Fleet (won it in Poland a decade or two ago) or for the price given to the best sailor over 60. A whole summer to think about it.

Last weekend we had a 5 series race on Saturday in Plön, some 90km away from here. Strong wind. Of the 20 sailors, who showed up, we were only 7 making it to the start. One sailor had a bad accident. Broken arm and ego. He capsized on the downwind at abt. 90km/h and slided across the very rough surface for a while. He was back from hospital in the evening more or less in good spirit. I finished this series in 3rd place only because I did finish all my races without spinning or crashing into a mark as the much faster Krogo did in front of me. I was sailing with less speed and more respect. One of the toughest series ever sailed in the last years. Not the best conditions for our newcomers to warm up to this fantastic sport.

We still have a lot of snow in the North of Germany. Difficult to find a good spot for DN racing on the weekend. I do not fancy long road trips at present. There is a chance that I will go straight from DN sailing into mothing this year. In four weeks time I will be foiling at the www.pro-vela.com. All bookings confirmed today. Come ice or snow, the Mar Menor and Alan´s Bladeriders are waiting.

The Flag is up!

2010-02-06T22:52:00.002+01:00

DN World Championship 2010 in Hungary at Lake Balaton. We drove down to Hungary in 13 hours non-stop. 3-Man in a van. The opening ceremony, participants from 18 nations had been greeted with their flag and national anthym, had been held today on the ice, whilst it had been snowing. Snowing nearly all day. Very bad for out sport. Looks like we will not be able to sail here tomorrow and we epect the race committee to start their plan B tomorrow. Could be that the "camp" (200 participants) has to move to Austria, Lake Neusiedel. Wait and see.

More DN sailing, some authentic shots, Mothing and the 33rd AC

2010-02-04T13:57:00.005+01:00

Whilst I had to put some older fotos into my blog entries recently, I discovered on the homepage of our local Sailing Club some great shots from the two weekends action on the the ice here in Schleswig. If you are interested, please go to: ssc-online.de for the homepage, where you also find fotos and later a report from the I14 World Championship recently held in Sydney, where my regular crew, Jan and Sören took part. They did qualify for the Gold Group which is a great achievement for them and I think that there is more to come from this team. More icesailing shots are to be found under: DN Racing, Schlei

This is about the area where we live and it is the first time, after I had moved from Hamburg to Schleswig, 12 years ago, that it is possible to sail on ice in front of my home. It never frooze over before. Normally my DN sailing is about travelling to the locations. Like we have to do for the World Championship this year. We will start moving to Lake Balaton, Hungary tomorrow morning at 05.00h. It is abt. 1700km and we are driving with three guys in a VW bus. Everywhere else there is way too much snow to have good racing. There are 220 sailors registered. Some as far away like the USA. Those sailors keep one boat here in Europe. Normally with German friends.

Last Thursday we had a very good afternoon with good conditions on the ice and it was the first day when K. was able to sail her new boat. Everything went well and she had some great fun with four other friends right in front of the house. The last foto shows the view from the window and her boat is the G-990.

As this is a blog also about Mothing, I am looking forward for some practice time on the Bladerider at Mar Menor again in March. Yesterday evening I had a look at the German ranking list and I was surprised to find myself in the top ten. This is a good reason to try to improve the results this year and to see if it is not possible to beat some of the guys in front of me. Especially my dear friend and enthusiastic competitor, Harald from Lake Constance. He has built himself a very light and good looking new Foiler Moth and it will be interesting to see how he is going. Pictures had been shown on Doug´s homepage.

Something is troubling me. The 33rd AC in Valencia 33rd America´s Cup will start on Monday with a best of three series for the most interesting monster racing yachts every build. I do hope that we have some Internet access in Hungary because I really want to know what is going on. Who is fast and if there are more protests and such. The Worlds biggest pi..ing contest between two enthusiastic Billionaires. Wishing everyone down there at Valencia a great time and some exciting races and after show parties.

Two More Succesful Days for the DN G-99

2010-01-24T19:49:00.005+01:00

We have had fantastic wheather over the weekend with temperatures on the Sunday of abt. -9°C. Sailing close to home and 2 race series. On Saturday we had 6 races in Bft 3-4 and I got tired and lost concentration at the end but just managed a one point lead to win the "Stadtmeisterschaft"

The wind had increased to 5 Bft and shifted to the east on Sunday morning, which allowed a very long course. The left side was favoured due to less snow patches. With my first places only I always had a tricky first part of the race, normally being 2nd or 3rd on the weather mark but than was able to run down Sven and Mike with a lot of Chock to Chock sailing with Sven. Both upwind and downwind. He is a very experienced land yacht sailor and did not give an inch. I think it did not happen often to me in racing that a first place was to be dropped from my result sheet. LiveSailDie thanks for the sticker! Wish I could skip work tomorrow and go sailing.

Another Weekend, another DN Regatta

2010-01-22T23:00:00.005+01:00

Second weekend in a row, where we are sailing a DN regatta very close to home. This time the Stadtmeisterschaft Schleswig. As it is a very cold winter in Germany this year, it is possible to sail on various lakes from the North to the South. I am not very much in the mood to travel much and prefer to sail here on the Schlei. The same stretch of water where we are doing our Wednesday night beer can races during the liquid season. Same location as we did our Moth regatta in the cold October last year. And we will have 3 Moth meetings here this year.

In total I had already 6 great days practising or racing on the ice in 2010. 2 days with Henning, G-499 and other friends in Denmark with no report written and the other days sailing at home.

I am part of the organizing committee, doing the notice of race (NOR), participants list and trying to find a scoring team for tomorrow. Also responsible for the beverage, eehm, made myself responsible and just did the shopping. I really hope that K. will be able again to help with the food as she did great last weekend. This weekend she will try her new DN iceboat for the first time. We will see.

Last weekend our former class president, Rainer H. came to help with the racing and he decided that we should sail the much admired "Jungfrau von der Schlei" price. I started badly, as I had no time to sort out the runners for the conditions before the first start. In the second start my parking break came into the bobstay and I had to fully stop the boat and to fix it. Was able to claw back into 6th place after that. From that moment on it went well with a couple first places and in the last race, being second on the last leg, Henning, G-499 made a big mistake overstanding the finish mark in the very strong breeze (it had built up to 20kn/h in the gusts) and than he was not able to luv up, instead he did one or two 360 degree full spins. I finished first. On countback this helped me to win the series and the beautiful price, which a former winner still keeps on his cupboard. Have to back off now, doing some packing up of our boats G-99 and G-990 and organizing things for tomorrow.

Note for myself: 64/2008, 68/2009

A few days on the Moth

2009-11-16T16:49:00.004+01:00

PRO-Vela in Murcia, Spain. A great place. Boats in pristine conditions. Very nice people. You better hurry up and find out yourself. The only drawback had been a nasty cold which stayed with me all week long. Nevertheless the sailing was great and I am planning to come back. To find out more just take the Internet address from the boat or sail on which I am flying on (look Ma!) Click the photo to enlarge it.

Group Writing Project: "Less is more"

2009-10-21T11:22:00.006+02:00

What a coincident. On Sunday night I thought about the positives sides of having only few competitors in a regatta. On Monday I read about Tillermans latest group writing project theme, which was matching with my thoughts. Here it goes:

Less is more struck me this past weekend. No, not less strings on a Moth, not that. I did organize a Moth regatta on my homewaters and at first there were 8 participants who committed to take part. One could say this is less than the regular Laser frost biting fleet but it came even better. At the end only 4 sailors attended. We had sailed 5 great races and what was the positive side of the event: Only 4 participants plus the race committee, the wife, the baby and a dog and all having a nice evening together with various themes to discuss, new friendships being born and all in all a good atmosphere. You do not have this with "more than less" participants.

At least thats what I found out over the years in sailing. With too many people everybody is going their own way. Nobody cares about you trying to organize something, other than if it is free beer or free food or pole dancers, paid by a generous sponsor.

PS: Only for my windsurf & sailing buddies and KAFC friends:
Das Tillermeister Projekt hat mich auf den Gedanken gebracht, unsere Vergangenheit ein bißchen auf Vordermann zu bringen. Mit einem Gruppen-Schreib-Projekt. Ich würde es gerne beginnen mit einem kleinen Artikel mit folgender Überschrift: "Der Tag, als Eugen Dunkerbeck uns bat, seinen Steppke, Björn, von Pozo aus sicher nach Hause zu bringen". Das macht vielleicht mehr Sinn, als im Winter diese unglaublich umfangreichen und amüsanten Rundschreiben abzutippen... See you at the hanseboot!

A Moth Weekend on the Schlei

2009-10-18T23:24:00.001+02:00

Mid October in the North of Germany. Could be nice and warm or daring cold. We had planned a last weekend of racing before mothballing our boats. The week before the regatta date a High from Norway brought the first minus Celcius temperatures. Very chilly. The good thing with the wind from the North had been the high water in the Schlei Fjord, which lasted here a couple days. Very high, nearly 1,50m above normal and beautiful to look at. Friday morning it was pretty cold and I had put a big question mark into my diary. But there had been some pressure to go for it. We should be able to withstand a bit of cold. Maybe the sun would come out on Saturday. Hotels, the restaurant and most important the race committee, Michael and Johan from the HSVS, all had been booked and organized. Sven and Sören already in the starting blocks. No way back.

Sven (photo) arrived Friday evening and the rest of the Mothies on Saturday morning. Hans was a bit late and after we all helped him to rig his boat, we were able to hit the first race at 12.30h. The wind from the North was gusty, usually in the 4-5 Bft range with some gusts going for a six. We, the racers had no time to measure it, but Johan told us these facts at the price giving. The rigging area had been in the wind shadow and it was not only me who underestimated the wind and waves out on the race course around the corner. We sailed a test race, only one round which at the end counted for the total score as per decision from the race committee. For Hans and myself it was a DNF, we were fighting with the elements and not with our fellow competitors. Tough.

I had the great idea to start on port tack (even behind the fleet) because this would lead me to a one tack only and should give me a little advantage over the other competitors. Tacking in the waves was not easy. But I messed it up a minute before the start going into a jibe to position myself and I capzised and did not manage to come back within the last minute. It took a couple of minutes instead. Autsch. It seemed that I did not recover from this bad mistake over the next races. All my starts afterwards were bad ones except the last one when I was first and fast across the line. Holding a good lane and when Sören tried to pass from behind on my windward side, I took a little bite and Sören sank in with his foils and had to tack away. I wasn´ t really fast because before the third race I had lost my rudder foil. Sven picked it up and saved it. Thank you. But I had to sail back to the shore to attach my spare rudder. Missed one race and realized that the spare rudder did not have enough AOA, thus not allowing me to fly high enough to avoid the waves under the body or tramp on the windward side. Anyway, back to this last race. I looked good on the left side, The wind had dropped on the right side first, Sören was fighting to foil and Sven was hit by a shift on the head which should catch Sören a bit later as well. Than the wind backed for me, Sven passed me, just before reaching the mark but Sören was still behind. Hans had sailed home already due to being daring cold (and a hole in his drysuit). Happy to be on foils around the mark I kept going after the mark on starboard tack without thinking about the windshift. Jibing (oh, so bad!) after a few hundred metres, I saw that Sören had jibed straight after the mark and had nearly passed me, going low. I was now going high and fast. Scaringly fast and I went into the drink before the mark.

Sören (photo) passed, I had trouble to upright the boat. I was getting cold and had a lack of energy from the exhausting day. The next beat I did not sail at my best anymore. I zig-zagged a lot on the next downwind, wanted to be lapped by Sven to be able to sail home with the last bit of energy. Sven was not sailing at his best either. It took a long while until he lapped me. Grand Prix finishes in the Moth class do allow to finish after being lapped. A bit harder for the race committee to score but it keeps waiting times short. Sven´s boat had a problem which we later saw. The rigging was slack. He nursed it around the course, he did not want to give in though he was already the winner of the regatta. What a great sportsman he is. 20 years in the Moth and if you call a good regatta, he is there. We had a great get-together with hot drinks and beverage after the race. Well prepared by Kerstin. Again a big thank you. Well appreciated.

The next day started with white car roofs, frozen windows and boat covers, but the sun was out. Blue sky but no wind at all. We decided at around 11 o´clock to call it a day and did the price giving and usual speeches. The top four competitors (truly international with competitors from Germany and Denmark) went away with shirts or carbon cloth and epoxy adhesive from www.CTMat.de, the sponsor of this event. Everyone wants to come back to sail on the Schleifjord for another regatta. This Moth blog now hopefully rolls into a DN ice sailing blog. Winter is coming soon.
Photo credit: Michael von Forstner

Moth Regatta "Hoch im Norden" coming soon

2009-10-12T21:54:00.004+02:00

Boatshow season and wintertime is around the corner. The first nights with a minus in front of the celcius temperatur are supposed to happen over the next 2 nights here in the North of Germany. After that it is getting warmer. Before going to mothball our Moths we are going to have a regatta on my hometurf. We will get some help from our small Sailing Club and I do hope for some more attendees other than the usual suspects. I had given the turf another good look the other day. Sailing from West to East and from North to South. We will be able to lay a good course. Not many rescue boats on hand but one from the DGZRs (German Cost Guard) is stationed here in Schleswig and the next shore is never far for those lazy maintained boats with major break downs. The Danes are coming as well as the German top Foilerman, Sven. My money would be on Burkh, if he has got his Mach 2 by now and had the time to put in some hours of practising with the new boat ...errg, the well developed boat, coming in directly from the World Championship two months ago. A clever purchase one must say.

Anyway before speculating too much into our event, let´s speculate about the weather. Nice and sunny and wind around 14kn for the Saturday. On Sunday a little foggy (only onshore of course) with the wind around the 10kn mark. Good foiling conditions. Hope to see you on my home turf at OCt. 17th and 18th. Send me a mail if you want to know the address of the HSVS in Schleswig and how to get your boat on to the Netzetrockenplatz, from where we will launch. See ya!

More Racing in September

2009-10-02T10:05:00.006+02:00

The last weekend in September we are always racing for the Blue Ribbon on our homewater. I had a quick thought about taking the Moth but with K. and Rod keen to sail on the Bull it was easy to make the right choice. K. kind of begged us to helm the boat and Rod and I agreed. She placed the boat very well on the starting line but it was me who had not put the sheet on the clew of the gennaker thus messing up the start. The two Melges 24 and the J-100, as well as a Banner Sports were up and away. When we actually got the breeze into our 60 msq gennaker we started the hunt. We were able to grind down the Banner but could not pass the the J -100 sailed by our local hero and sailmaker Ger. The Schlei Fjord is meandering through the country side and at the first real corner the crew decided against K. that we should try and carry the g-sail. We were right on the heels of the J who carried a large top spinnaker. We both got hit by a strong gust, which also headed us. Scrambling down the big headsails, both boats struggled. They did better as we did, rounding up one time during the maneuver. We lost more ground through the narrow pass, maybe because of the shorter rig and some inability to handle to "sailing low for better vmg" with the g-sail but the Melges in front were flying through. Nothing spectacular happened on the run, we caught up a bit on the X-34 which before had passed us in the narrow and a H-Jolle (national dinghy like an FD) also passed us. Upwind we lost some ground on the Comfortina 39 and the H-Jolle who both had a battle of titans. Always crossing tacks. The little dinghy taking their right of way and trying to throw their bad air into the towering C-39 rig.

Two thirds up the beat the J-100 grounded badly and we passed them. After that, both the Melges grounded but could free themselves within minutes ("Rattie" did not strap the keel down and therefore freed themselves quicker when the keel came up a little bit) It did not help us as we got caught a couple times on the wrong side of the shifts. I could not help but my mood was a bit down and I could not get us out there. I tangled the sheet once around my ankle, could not execute a good tack and one time I grabbed the spinnaker sheet instead of the jib and messed up another important tack. This shit happens when you put a "natural born helmsman" on the foredeck. Our finish was not too bad though. Sixth on corrected time with a Yardstick of 96 and sixth over the line. There is room for improvement. Number one: Clean the hull before such an "important" race, than the boat would be more slippery and the mood would be better. We hauled the boat after the regatta to put it away and there were some barnacles. My bad.

On Sunday we sailed our annual Laser Championship. I sailed again with Laser 84084 and somehow I asked myself sometimes during the regatta: "Where is Tillerman when you need him most". OK, you can see that this leads to a story with a result which could have been improved but that is another story. Maybe after I get some pictures from this event. The pictures above are showing our Bull with the blue g-sail. Shot at the Blue Ribbon. First photo courtesy to Achim. Thank you. Also Courtesy to Elke Kiupel who did hundreds of good shots from the regatta. Thanks Elke.

Pictures are worth a thousand words

2009-09-22T10:11:00.004+02:00

Great sailing at Goldberger See. And what a nice video on youTube: Goldberg Cup. Me thinks that this was the last summer weekend with 25°C and a nice breeze. Excellent foiling conditions in the first two races and marginal foiling, but nevertheless fun to fight the IC`s in the third race. Very sunny on the Sunday and no sailing. Video: Courtesy, Henrik Rath

Caption Contest...

2009-09-18T07:41:00.004+02:00

The above headline is borrowed from SA, whom I like to thank for the idea. Another thanks to Simon Payne who directed me as well as other readers of his excellent blog to an entry from "a" Simon Propper, who wrote about putting the "mojo back into Mothing" at: http://www.int-moth.org.uk/NewPages/Editorial.htm (does not open as per this morning).

Anyway coming back from that "not so nice" experience at the Moth German Championship with more swimming and less speed foiling than expected, the boat broken and the ego bruised, I was greeted by my little one and of course as a father coming home I immediately had to do my duties of taking care to give the best of all wives a bit of free time. Now I am not the guy crawling on the floor and speaking terrible bababa sentences, I took her, placed her on the tramp of my Moth and started to pull the broken parts apart. When I looked at my daughter I realized that she had some fun. I took the mobile camera and at the next day I realized after running the 4 pictures one after the other that she had a great story to tell. That she was in the middle of a race, going for the downwind mark where she was fighting for room.

1. Looking back for an overlap and adjusting her course.

2. Looking upfront and hey, there is this guy trying to squeeze in. No way.

3. Adjusting course, bearing away hard to avoid a collision

4. Stay out, told you so!"

This little story brought back the mojo into my Moth sailing and I am sure I will enjoy the upcoming weekend where K. and I go sailing with two dinghies, the Moth and she goes on her much loved Seggerling (after two years of absence) at Goldberger See. There will not be much wind (due to windfinder) but the idea is to meet DN friends in soft water mode and to bring whatever boat you might get hold of. We will see who brings what this year. The event takes place for the sixth time and it is mostly a self organized regatta. Of course with the help from Dietmar, owner of the camping site.

Update

2009-09-17T16:34:00.003+02:00

Being a bit unable to cope with updates I thought the quickest thing to do is to put a new picture into my "....days of sailing". Searched for fifty six + sailing and look what came up. I do not know how one should come to the conclusion of fifty six through this picture. Google must know something about "sailing on the Cogh" (wherever that is) and how to find the 56 boats or trees or such. Anyway, I thought this is a nice one and the explanation helps. The foto on the left only shows 2 boats. The Bull and the A-Cat on their way to the startline. I should receive more pictures with a lot of spray later.

What happened between the last blog entry and now. Six more racing days are laying behind me. And the best to come. September being a busy month and the newly found sailracing Team did some great jobs sailing the Bull. The last two Wednesday night races we were able to do horizon jobs on the competition. Rod S. my crew who had sailed 12 foot dinghies at home in NZ and came to Germany for some I14 regattas and stayed since than in Germany (you guessed it, the women) likes to be on a boat built at his motherland, likes the ideas which Greg Young had put into the boat some 14 years ago and is an expert gennaker-man. Though the deep running in the light wind, with the pole squared, needs some optimisation. Also more assistance from my other crew, Lea. A young girl from the locals sailing clubs youth squad. Communication on the boat is kiwi-english, like e.g." ged_de_koit_up". Gotit? Hoist the gennaker sounds more familiar.

Day fiftyone and fiftytwo had been the much awaited Moth German Championship. But the sailing did not match my expectations., so to speak. It seemed that most everyone got a jump on me, sailing again faster, higher, downwind lower with perfect jibes. I was stuck in middle field or back after getting totally exhausted in the shifty and strong wind conditions. The boat did not fly easy on the Saturday and I was as unhappy, about my own abilities and understanding of the mechanics to make it working and flying high, as can be. Also in the first race I did sail the wrong course. Bloody me. On the Sunday the race course had been moved down the Kiel City Fjord into an area with more stable wind direction and strength. A long way to the race area allowed me to play with settings and at the end I got it about right. Arrived just 5 minutes to the start. Got flying, had a good upwind leg, second at the mark behind Leo and we reached to the most outer mark, which appeared to be the wrong one. NO, not again. My jibing definitely not on top of the game let me fall back behind the top 6 boats. Upwind I had good battles with Hans from Holland but the other guys whom I thought I could match were way ahead. After the first race my mast got stuck and destroyed the mast stump. A self inflicted problem due to bad preparation. I had to hit the shore. Two other Mothies joined me later. Both had broken gear due to contact with other boats. Fremdverschulden. Not their own fault. Everything is repaired by now and I look forward to this weekends Moth racing on the Lake Goldberg.

The other days had been spend sailing local races with the Bull and the crew as mentioned above. Great fun for everyone. The last weekend it had been very windy. 1. Reef and still overpowered but blasting down the runs and reaches. There had been abt. 40 competitors and we tried to be fastest boat around the course but with an A-Cat and a Fanatic Raceboard in the fleet it was not possible. On calculated time (Yardstick) we finished 3rd. First had been a H-35 (Design Hans Groop) and second an H-Boat from the same Designer. These boats with their long waterlines are being sailed very well here and have enough competition to work themselves up due to the OD mode of their respective fleets.

This year I was only participating in the Wednesday night races in September. We did the last three "beer cans" starting with a second and putting in two firsts. Yesterday evening it went like clockwork and after rounding the weather mark in second position behind an H-Boat, we never looked back and did a horizon job on the fleet. Sailing into the September sunset was an extra bonus. A pity that the days are already getting shorter. There will be more racing in the Bull after the next Moth weekend. The Blue ribbon race starts on September 27th and on the Sunday after we have our Laser City Championship. Must get organized with the Laser 84084 which is owned by an old gentleman from the club. Father of the ever winning H-35 champion Roger. The only guy who could ever beat him was his father. More to come soon.

Fifty days and more to come...

2009-09-04T09:17:00.002+02:00

Yeah, I managed fifty days of sailing despite the trouble which life sometimes throws at you. The weekend before last we had a great Moth regatta at Kuehlungsborn at the Baltic Sea. Very near were Mr. George Bush kissed our Chancelorette, Angela Merkel at a G8 meeting. I mean, I do not want to go political here. Enuf said. The regatta was suffereing a bit under the light wind. We had marginal foiling conditions in the first race and after that only small bubbles of enough wind to get up and going for a minute or so. It paid when one was looking out for the breeze and going into the right direction. I managed this sometimes and at the end was able to score a second overall like in the light wind regatta at Bad Zwischenahn before. A pity that not more Moth sailors, other than the usual five were attending. Thanks again to Alex from Dubai who managed to spend the summer in Germany and to sail two series with us. Hope you get your boat repaired and organized before your season in Dubai starts. Young Alex has style but sometimes a lack of direction. He is not short of enthusiasm for the Moth as myself and next time we will meet, I am sure he will beat me. I figured out that I am abt. 3,6 times older. Something which will pay in the long term for the young guy. Anyway, last Wednesday I took the Bull out for the Wednesday-night-race. And night it was, when we arrived back at the club. A drifter. Barely managing 3.9kn. The boat felt so slow that I thought it must have grown a beard. Leaning over the side it did not feel like there was something. And the speed compared to the other boats had been good. The Kiwi, Rod Simpson, pulling the strings, managed to fly the gennaker even in the lightest of air and we came second behind the X-34. Actually the X-34 was in sight but we did a horizon job on the fleet. (Also on the X-332 which nearly rolled us as you can see in the picture). The results (Yardstick) are not out yet. I guess it will be first or second, but with only one race sofar this season we will end up last overall.

Coming weekend we will have a great Moth regatta in Kiel. Kind á German Championship. The fleet, which had 2 years ago been about thirty boats has shrinked to 15 participants this year. My guess is that only the Foilers will attend in the races. Promising are the many orders for new Foilers which for example Felix (Assasin) and Christian (Bladerider) have in their books. And their might be a third one going for the Mach 2. Rumors are there, but I will not spread it before the news being put out officially. There will be a good breeze on Saturday and I promised myself to hang the butt out hard over the carbon tube (stole that from Bora). At least the first two races before the muscles get sore.

First results from Cascade Locks

2009-08-10T20:55:00.002+02:00

The first race has been finished. Follow the action here on the events twitter page: Twitter

Less Moth blogging, more Moth sailing

2009-08-10T14:05:00.004+02:00

Two days of practicing with the Moth against my friends in their Fourteen (14)last week might have helped me to nail a second at our Moth weekend regatta in Bad Zwischenahn past weekend. The practice on the Schlei provided me with marginal foiling conditions on the first day and with conditions, which saw both of us being overpowered in the strong easterly gusts. On the first day the Fourteen had a clear upperhand on me when I sank into non-foiling mode. The speed dramatically going down to 3-4kn (I used the Velocitek on both days) and the two boys were still able to hang low on their trapezes and to glide away from me upwind. (see photo) I had "learned" at our training session in Horsens with the Danish friends, that the boat (s) behind should take a shortcut and not go round the mark. This brings the boats back together and the energy and fighting spirit rises immediately instead of dropping when much behind after the mark rounding. This was not build in my mind and at first a bit difficult to adapt. As a racing sailor I am so used to go around the marks that a short cut is a no-go at all means. Flying downwind it was´nt too bad on the Moth whilst foiling but during the maneuvers the Fourtenn gained. Must say: Jan and Sönke sailed like experts. Always on the better side of the course. Gybing on the gusts and beating me regularly. They will be a team to be recognized in their class regattas. A pity that Jan is so busy, working as a sailmaker that he cannot manage to make his own new mainsail for his boat.

Thursday was a different day out on the water. Whitecaps all over the place. Starting with 4 Bft, later 5 Bft gusting a bit higher. Time to pull out the stops on my Moth. And so I did. I could beat them big time upwind, though their speed showed an impressive 12 -12.5kn and same height as myself. My speed clocked upwind between 13.5 and 14.2kn, of course also showing some lower speeds. The weather mark (cardinal mark) which we choose had been in a difficult spot. Traffic and shallow water close by. I did not want to ruin my foils, therefore mostly approached the weather mark in low riding, pointing high mode. Thus we did round this mark not far apart most of the times. Downwind I had a speed burst of course when pulling hard on the rudder and bearing away but once the 14 had set their gennaker they were often able to go lower with the same speed. Thus the results depended on the gusts. Who jibed first and who handled the jibe best. The 14 went into the brink one time, I stuck the mast into the mud once, doing a hectic leeward mark rounding. But it had been the best evening sailing this year. Smiles all over our faces and still smiling when we had a chat about our session the next day at the sailmakers loft. We will do it again for sure.

The regatta in Bad Zwischenahn is not worse much mentioning as all eyes are glued to the Moth worlds. Anyone interested can read about our regatta at Felix Blog entry (english). For the folks who are interested in the Moth Worlds, there are some useful links here on the right side. Read Scott´s blog, Rohan´s or Simon Payne´s or go to the official site. All just a mouseclick away as they say. Sailing Anarchy in their Dinghy Forum section also puts up all the latest info and has some interesting discussions running. Next racing here for the North German Moth fleet (maybe some Danes are also coming???) will be in a fortnight (22/23.8.) in Kühlungsborn Anmeldeformular on the Baltic Sea.

Wish I had more time (like most everyone else...)

2009-08-02T21:03:00.002+02:00

Though sailing does not have high priority in these stressful days, I was able to do some Mothing and a week of cruising with my family and the little Bull7000. This brought my sailing days counter up from 33 to 44 days within one and a half month. In my head, during this time, there were a few posts taking shape but at the end other things became more important. Thus, before rambling about the OCS and DNF point system at an international regatta, I thought that I have to have a deeper look into the current ISAF rules and subsequent SI´s from the event organizers. The funny thing is the head game. Driving to a regatta e.g. there are always a couple of headlines coming into my mind. Difficult to stop them when you are cruising along on the motorway, cruise control set and just looking ahead to a sailing event. Same on the way home. Even when it was frustrating like in the Moth EC in Horsens, DK, with too much wind and waves to handle for me. OK, I did sail two days but was only able to put in one result. In hindsight, I should have been able to let myself get lapped two times and then sail through the finish but those are thoughts which only come in hindsight. Once you are out there, mental and physical strength "broken" from tumbling with the boat on the downwind and unable to sail (fly) for longer than a few hundred meters, all I wanted to do, was to bring the boat save home without major damage. And that is what I did. Only more practice and a better fitness regime can help me to better my results in those conditions.

After the Moths EC we decided to cruise with our little one on the Schlei Fjord and that was a very nice experience. So close with the family on this 7,50m boat, going to nice, cozy places with the ability to lift the keel, we certainly will do more... when there is no racing in the way. I should mention here that we even did 3 days of sailing with the jib alone. Downwind of course. There is so much more to see when only going 4-5kn instead of the fast and often two digit 3 sail runs we would normally do with our sportsboat.

On the last July weekend I had committed myself to go to Horsens, DK again, to practice with Søren and friends with our Moths. This time the wind was offshore with less waves, still white caps but nice sailable conditions. Only the water felt much colder than 3 weeks before and I had do give in after 3 hours because I was freezing and feeling uncomfortable. On Sunday morning Sven did some dry training for the foiling jibe with me, more or less asking, how I am approaching the maneuver and one of my biggest mistakes during the jibe had been discovered. Thanks to Sven there is an improvement now and I only hope for more practice time. The past weekend had light wind and only some foiling time on Saturday. Having learned much about the set-up´s and subsequently having done some work on my foils the boat flew early and high. If it was fast and high only the next racing with tell. Therefore I do hope for some wind on the coming weekend at Zwahn. And of course competition. Do not let me sail alone with Sven. He will take revanche for last years regatta, I am sure. Oh, and I am trying to read those blogs about the Moth Worlds at Hood River, Cascade Locks, USA taking place in 8 days. This will be one exciting event with all those ex-Olympian sailors, with the much trained Swiss squad as well as Rohan Veal and Aussie friends coming to the event and some people who think they may have a technology advantage. Many Moth links on my page here. Stay tuned.

Battered and Bruised...

2009-06-29T11:14:00.005+02:00

The Moth racing in Denmark had finished last Saturday with a four race day which only saw me finishing one race and starting the second one, but not finishing. It had been a tough week for this competitor and though I tried to give my all, I ended up with mostly "Alphabets" but not numbers.(DNC by the way does not mean that you have not started ((DNF)) these days) It has not been the strong wind which teared me down, it had been the waves and my inexperience in such conditions, as well as the frugal stage of the body condition. Maybe I will write a more personnel note about the event later. The following report has been written on request for an online sailing publication. Here it goes and I did have avoided to write about any of the new Moth brands which are trying to conquer the world.

The Moth World has changed
Horsens, Denmark had been the venue for the European Moth Championship held between 24th and 28th of June. The week had been dominated by strong easterly winds which never dropped below 15kn/h usually blowing in the higher wind range, gusting up to 25kn on the race course and even more. As the local Horsens Sejlklub had been the organisers for Euro and World Championships for the Moth Class before, they were prepared with all the necessities required by such a sportive and challenging class like the Moth. This year the event saw only Foiler Moths racing and it had been very exciting to see around 40 Moths flying across the startline nearly at once and going uphill in a battle for height and speed. Not all competitors managed the very challenging downwind leg (3 laps around) in the steep waves and only abt. 20 - 26 boats finished the races. But the once surviving, finished most of the races in style. Flying very high, going dramatically fast with a downwind speed clocked at more than 25kn, recorded for over 10 sec. The early races had been dominated by no lesser than the Brit, Simon Payne, a former Champion in the class. He came well prepared and looked unbeatable through the first races. We had witnessed the second race of the first day with a timer and found Arnaud Psarofaghis from Switzerland leading at the weather mark with 10sec which were wiped out to a 17sec lead by Payne at the downwind mark. The racing was tense between these two competitors and it must have been the last day where the race committee opted for four races on the day instead of the three which were written in the sailing instructions. This would allow two drop outs for the competitors. Arnaud Psarofaghis was already able to drop his 43 points from the first race when he did not finish and thus both competitors where on equal points going into the last day. Though everyone had his own fight within the strong competiton and the tough conditions on the Horsens Fjord, all eyes were on the two competitors fighting for the 2009 title. Arnaud P. started the day with a first which Simon Payne answered with two firsts in the next two races. The finish in the third race was reported to be 1 feet apart. The fourth and most tiring race of the day should be the decider and all eyes of many of the shorebound competitors were glued on this epic battle. Everyone hoped for the Master sailor Simon Payne, who did not have the luxury all week of a fully equipped service team like the Swiss brought to Denmark but at the end of the battle, it was the young Swiss sailor Arnaud Psarofaghis who had the nose in front and won the 2009 European Championship. The newcomer from the Netherlands, Eelco Boers came third with 3 more Brits filling up the ranks.

It was visible during the week that the Moth class is attracting many top sailors from other classes and that the days of the DIY low rider Moths are gone. At least when it comes to European Championships held in open water. During the price giving ceremony the competitors were full of praise for the Horsens Sejlklub organisers and their race committee which was well prepared not only ashore but also for rescuing many of the fragile Moths which were not able to limp home alone after some damage, mostly caused by user errors due to over exhausted riders. Full result list to be found under: http://www.horsens-sejlklub.dk/app/doc/doc_17510622.pdf

PS: A very good day by day report you can find on Eelco´s blog: http://ejbmoth.blogspot.com/
PPS: The picture shows Simon (in the foreground) and Arnaud after the second day of racing on the Horsens SK´s slipway. As usual you can extend it by clicking on it.

Moth Euro - Practise Race Opening Ceremony

2009-06-24T23:23:00.004+02:00

Horsens, DK welcomed abt 40 Moth sailors with beautiful sunshine and a seebreeze for the practice race. 3 laps around. Up-and down. The Swiss brothers are bloody fast as is Simon Payne. Things have moved on in the Moth class ans the top guys are not only flying very high but they are also fast. Faster than even the fastest German had expected. I am meeting most of the friendly bunch for the first time and got the feeling that many sailors are taking the Moth sailing quite serious. Most people went to bed at around 22.20h. The foto shows part of the "Pit" (Fahrerlager) here in Horsens. Everyone is excited about the first races to happen tomorrow. Catch up with you later.

Low Water and some Damage

2009-06-17T15:38:00.003+02:00

On Wednesday my Sportsboat Crew Jan and I decided again that we will not take the Bull out. Instead, Jan will do some work at his job in the sailmaker loft and I decided to take the Moth out for more training. It was windy, abt. 17-20kn on my anemometer and chilly but I had to go. Had to try the small changes and maintenance work which I had done to the boat recently. But I seemed to start the "day" on the wrong foot. We had very low water, see the photo of my usual boat launch. I walked the boat far out but maybe not far enough or there is another bank behind the deeper water, where I righted the Moth. I touched the ground, jumped off the boat, pushed it out on it´s side some more and climbed on to the site again for another go. Time was slipping by and the mixed keel boat fleet had already started. This time with a 29er as the only dinghy in the fleet. I thought to have fun sailing against them. 2 - 3 capsizes on my way out in the strong gusts and I did not even make the startline. within 5 minutes the fleet had sailed away to windward. When I had passed the last boat, which was already on the downwind leg, I pulled the tiller for a bear-away and blasted downwind. Fast and a bit out of control. The 29er was already far ahead but did not manage deep angles. I thought that with the long downwind leg I might be in for a chance to catch them. Coming close to the narrow channel, I realized that I would have struggled in the middle of the fleet. All the wind shadows of the bigger boats, pointing straight downwind without foiling was no option for me. I turned around and sailed some shorter up-and downwind. Looking out for the 29er to come back for the last bit of windward leg to see how we would match together. Always good to have a benchmark. Just when I was setting up to meet them I was pushed over by a heavy gust and when climbing the centerboard I recognized that the centerboard foil held on at a 70° angle instead of the 90°, which it should. I unclipped the ball crank and limped home. Getting the boat out of the water, I realized that the rudderfoil had broken in the top. Middle of the left side. As it is hollow, it was possible to shockbend it upwards to abt 40°. Arrgh, and did I report that I had broken off the last 20cm of the tiller extension? And lost it out there? Not a good day indeed. And so close already to the EURO in Denmark.

Next outing came on Sunday with my spare foils, using all small parts including screws from the "broken ones" as somehow my spareparts toolbox got lost, the ride was not really as it should be. Sitting far back was the only way to sail the boat. I took it out to the wider waters of the Schlei to avoid hidden banks. Than the boomvang broke. A metal part was flying through the boat. Good luck, as it had only been the shackle fitted to the permanent "padeye" on the bulkhead. But the shackle had broken, not loosened. Back to the workshop again. Today we have repaired the old foils (carbonized and epoxied) and the vang shall work with a loop shackle. I could go sailing again and have already been asked to take up the A-Cat as a competitor. Trouble is, I have tickets for "Simple Minds", who are having a gig in Hamburg. Open Air. I am sure they will also present some of my favorite songs like "Belfast Child", "Mandela Day", "Dont you", besides their new album which I must say, I have not heart any of the songs yet.

Will I be last in the upcoming Moth EC?

2009-06-09T16:26:00.007+02:00

it is a rainy day today in Schleswig, Germany and I gathered through the list of the 45 participants for the Moth EURO coming up soon in Horsens DK. see also: Moth Euro Entry List. Going through this list of famous, fast and furious competitors my mind is wandering to the slower end of participants, making up a list of the "not so fast" sailors. In stark contrast to Scott B´s list about "would be" World Championship results. He starts from the top and is also able through personnel knowledge of competitors and by reading their websites, to analyze the results. I do mostly know the sailors via reports, their websites or because they have past me in nano seconds during Kiel Week last year. Some had lapped me. I was fighting for speed and height and tacking and jibing without capsizing. Some things have changed a bit. I felt comfortable on the boat with speed until last Sunday, when the bloody centerboard rod broke. I am installing a new one of course but my spare parts box got lost and some of the tiny little things, which make the difference do not fit well at present. I have a gap! At the bottom of the centerboard when in high speed mode. And the weather is not cooperating to give it a try and trying for adjustments when necessary.

Anyway the theme here is a list of finishers from the bottom up. There are a small bunch of guys whom I think I can beat. So, to become last is no option. I guess Felix will be last due to less time in the boat much time on the plane, than comes Gerold, who lives too far from the water. (sorry guys!) and the fight will be for them with maybe one or two Dutch guys. Depends on the number of break downs. Frederik and Michael might be beatable and if Burkh is not sorting his yellow raptor out, he will end up there too. If he gets good help from Adam, he is up in the top 20 and I will not see him other than on the startline. Hey, this starts to become some fun. Ole might be beatable and than I will have a good fight with Harald and Soeren as usual through our last regattas. Guess we will end up in the mid thirties if all signed competitors are showing up on the startline. What do you guys think? Hope nobody gets offended. This is all for fun and we are all sailing the Moth because we just like it. Looking forward to meet with some new Mothies. Smooth sailing!

A bad sailing day

2009-06-08T12:29:00.004+02:00

SA called for a report about a bad sailing day. Mine had been on Saturday past weekend: First a nice back roll after the footstraps lashing broke (than swimming after the boat!) and after repairing it ashore and out again, the centerboard push rod broke at the bottom. The wind was very strong (5-6 Bft) and gusty but I think I might have hit something. Now awaiting some spares to arrive. Nothing left in my BR spareparts toolbox. As I had only been out for a couple of runs between repair and another trouble it will not effect my sailing meter. The only good thing had been that I went out late, almost at 19.30h and it felt totally OK, though there had only been one lonesome windsurfer on the water. And Yes, I wanted to do a speed test against him but the back loop did not allow me to catch up with him. After finishing my repair and being out again he had left. The sailor on the photo is me on the lake Stienitzsee in Berlin. Very tricky this lake, surrounded by hills or woods. Felix will not find much difference to his usual water reservoir sailing.

First Ship Home

2009-06-04T23:15:00.004+02:00

After fighting some back pain during the last days it was a relief to be out sailing past weekend with the little Bull. K. and I had put a reef in, the small jib hanked on and off we went for a pleasurable sailing afternoon. There were moments when the wind got a bit light for the reef but as this had been our first sunday sail together since we have the little one, I was able to resist. A long beat up the Schlei until we turned the boat around to sail back home with the wind from behind. Shook out the reef, kite up and a couple jibes with the gennaker brought some smiles. We even managed 12kn for a long moment and came right back home for a marvelous asparagus dinner, prepared by the grand parents who had taken care of little E.

Last Monday had been a holiday in Germany (Pfingsten) and what a weather we had. Great summer sunshine and a warm breeze from the north/east. In the afternoon I rigged the Moth and both K. and I had some good rides. It was her first ride again after the initial 3 days two years ago. And yes, it looked good, just one capsize, good airtime, holding a straight course and downwind some course alignment to the gusts. One day she will start racing the Moth, I am sure. Her Seggerling Skiff Dinghy is still up for sale.

Now coming to the headline of this post. Yesterday I started in the Wednesday night race with the Moth together with the "big" boats from a Minitonner to X-79 and up to the fast X-34. A crowded startline and I decided to start behind the fleet which was fighting for slot on the right side. It was very gusty, wind from the north west, which is not the best direction in a narrow water running east/west. The guys on the keelyachts measured abt 5 Bft gusting stronger. I started from behind and besides capsizing two times during bad tacks I managed to round together with the first boat. Me on the outside. Immediately I pulled away whilst the keel yachts were putting up spinnakers and running straight down. All was good until after a few jibes I ended up too far on the north side of the course. Low riding through the narrow pass opposite Fahrdorf did not help my position, some yachts passed me. When the water was again deep enough I put the nose more into the wind, accelerated onto the foils, bearing away and trying to run deeper this time I managed speeds above 20kn most of the time. My Velocitek showed me 21.9 after the race as best 10sec. score. I passed all the boats and the front runner just before the downwind mark. I did not get all the shifts right and at the weather mark we rounded nearly together, me again on the outside. Now a fast reach which took me away from the fleet in no time. Next jibe ended in a good swim but the last downwind was a real blast. I even managed to round the mark on foils easy, put the nose upwind and hiked hard. A long beat home with two or three bad tacks which saw me swimming, but I managed to be first ship home by a couple of minutes. A very good feeling as I was sailing the full course, had to turn at marks and not at the best possible moments, as I normally do in training. This had been my best evening sail so far. A good practice for the EC in Horsens where we already have more than 40 entries and from the participants names mostly really good Mothies. Former champions, etc. I just do not want to become last. The photo, taken with a mobile, is a view from the north shore (no wind) taken on Wednesday. The fleet is just coming together and the little sail in the middle is me. Don´t know where the white dots are coming from. The Bladerider Moth is mostly black.

Jump of the sailing meter

2009-05-26T09:51:00.002+02:00

5 more days of sailing and not much time to report. Therefore just for the records. Day 21 past by uneventful with some good Moth sailing on a Saturday. 4 hours on the water killed all my energy and on Sunday I was exhausted and did not move much, besides driving the Sportsboat down to the marina, rigging it and going for a nice quiet sail together with K. Pure luck that I had forgotten to load up the gennaker, therefore I did not have to fiddle too much with sheets whilst K. was helming. Day 23 had been the Wednesday last week when I took the DIV II board from the depth of my windsurfing gear garage. The long carbon mast to be used for the big sail had been used as a flag pole lately and I had to recover it from the roof. A couple of boats lined up for an unofficial beer can race and I took the chance to see how it goes. Managed to be first on the weather mark and than got passed by everyone on the long downwind when the wind decreased. One strong gust took me by surprise and I was not able to steer the thing straight downwind, instead of reaching 90° away from the mark. The upwind leg was uneventful as I was all alone at the back of the fleet. But it was fun and I do hope that it was not the only day out on the DIV II this year.

Day 24 had been some Moth training in Berlin before the regatta started the next day on the Stienitzsee. Training is a bit over expressing the hour of sailing up and down and trying to foil. There was just not enough wind for me and after I had de-rigged the boat, the wind turned up a couple of knots and some other Mothies had a good evening, getting on foils from gust to gust. Saturday turned out to be a good day on this lake. The sun was out the wind allowed for some good airtime. The usual suspects at the front of the fleet of 10 Mothies. Some breakdowns as usual, this time also a broken finger. I completely spoiled my first race due to not having an idea about the start line and the course laid out. I completely misinterpreted what had been said during the skippers meeting. Some twist in my head? Everyone was long gone before I figured out how to get around this course with the very short upwind leg and the long reaches. Race 2 went better for me and in race 3 I managed to be first boat to weather and able to hold this position a long way down the course until sinking in and Sven passing me on foils. A bad jibe later and I was back in third. This had also been my final result after 5 races. The regatta was finished on the saturday and after a good barbeque we left the Stienitzsee with some good memories. Now a little more training and than see you all back in Horsens, DK at the Moth Europeans. The unofficial entry list with pics and other information assembled by Doug Culnane you can find here: http://www.moth-sailing.org/europeans/2009_dk.xml

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

2009-04-30T15:40:00.003+02:00

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...

2 Days of sailing the Moth

2009-04-20T10:13:00.004+02:00

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.

Updating the Blog...

2009-04-05T20:37:00.001+02:00

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.

America´s Cup. Court Decision

2009-04-02T16:02:00.000+02:00

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

DN Racing Again Near Berlin at February 14/15th

2009-02-16T16:12:00.002+01:00

Before I forget and spring break fever takes over, I have a short report about one of the best DN regattas of the short but extensive season. Wait a minute, I have to scramble for the date... Berlin, Lake Wolzig at February 15th and 16th. This is what the official report reads: Ice thickness: 20cm, hard surface, night temperature: -4°C, small snow drizzle 0,1cm, Wind 4 Bft. I had hit the road already Friday night to be fit on the saturday morning as the weather report was promissing. And so it happened. 28 racers arrived by midday and we decided to sail in 2 fleets. One for the more beginners or people with older equipment who did not feel comfortable with all the fast "carbon tuned" DN racers. This is a very good rule found by our friends from the Berlin DN fleet. 16 boats in the A fleet were called to the blocks. I had received block 17, the outer right starting position. A captivating race with position changes in the front. Going from 2nd on the weather mark to third after one round they spit me out at 5th place at the finish. There had been enough speed in the boat, just the shifts on the lake were not in my favour, or better, I did not read them right. Another fifth followed by a first and a third place. The first two spots were already occupied by G-624 and G-890. Close racing with both of them but at the end their nose was in front. Two more races for the day which saw me in 6th place and my friend "Vossi", G-709, found some more speed and stamina. He came 2nd and third now and made some valuable points. In the evening we found a great thermal pool with different saunas and outdoor pool with 28°C water.

Next day same conditions and our friend "Radlhuber", G-8 from Bavaria had his moments. 2, 1, 5 his scores for the three races whilst I scored 5, 5, 4. It was always close, the front 6 stayed together for most of the racing, only on the the last downwind the winner broke free or somebody got a real good shift on one of the windward legs. Holger, G-890 won with a 4th place as his discard. Well done. I finished in fourth positions overall. Not as good as my win the weekend before but than, the competition was a bit stronger. In one of the photos you can see the race committee with some of the racers. The left person, in the picture below, Dirk, showing the "Berliner" (pancakes with the name "Berliner" only outside of Berlin) had taken part in two Olympic games in the windsurfing division. Namely the DIV II boards 1972 and 1976. I was never able to beat him in that windsurfing class but on the ice I still have the nose in front. Dirk came 9th in the "A" fleet.The "B" fleet was won by Dietrich, G-532, an old salt whom I also met in my good old FD days in the early seventies. The "B" fleet showed good stunts on the downwind mark with 360°s and all. No accidents, only some scary moments. Driving home in the late afternoon there was still some winter in the air and I did not think about the end of season. The week after it snowed very heavy and racing had to be cancelled for the weekend 21/22nd of Feb. The Polish Championship held the weekend after was a bit far away for me. No co-driver available.

Last weekend the hardcore DN racers met in Goldberg again only to decide that the racing would have been too dangerous. The ice in general was safe but there were some holes spread over the lake. All bigger in size than our runners. Nobody wanted to destroy the equipment just for some fun races. Now it is maybe up to the Swedish Championship in the middle of March. Waiting for their ice report. I am already on the preliminary starter list. For the record. This report has been written at March 4th but I will date it back to the Monday after the racing. My blogging is supposed to be a diary of events for me.

Now, this is the real thing.

2009-02-12T16:47:00.002+01:00

Photo: Courtesy US CoastGuard
Today the North American Championship will be started. Wishing all my DN friends, expecially the Team Germany: "smooth sailing, sail safe and fast!". I am in the mood for another weekend of DN racing. Tonight the fleet chiefs will get together on the phone and decide where we shall meet. See you on the Ice!

Wet, wet, wet

2009-02-09T17:57:00.006+01:00

Another day of DN sailing happened on Sunday on a very wet surface. There had only been 12 sailors plus a few non racing DNér s showing up which could be a sign that people get tired after 5 weekends of sailing. Maybe their equipment is getting worn out, or that their wifes do not allow them to get free from the family every weekend from the beginning of January or that they are in the States to start in the DN Worlds at Torch Lake, Michigan. Anyone with a better excuses, please comment here or mail to me. The sailors from Berlin called for the Wolzig Cup to be sailed only on Sunday, when the weather forecast showed promissing 3-4 Bft. This allowed me to take part Friday evening at a big reception from the German Offshore Owners Assc. (no I did not take part in any offshore racing last year, but I think about it...stay tuned here) There had been a good film session, music session, awards for the 10 most successful German teams plus mentioning the race winners of the Baltic Sprint Cup, 1st. place went to Mr. Mike Castania with his Rogers 46, "DANEBURY" and second place to Mr. David Aisher, also on a Rogers 46, "YEOMAN XXXII". Both took part during this remarkable evening in the impressive Hamburg Rathaus. (House of lords, so to speak) and got some presents from the organising committee.

Anyway, back to the DN Sailing in Berlin. Left home with the van on Saturday evening to be fit and ready next morning. Wanted to unload the boat at 23.00h when I arrived, but the place was closed. High fences. Being the only car in the carpark, I felt a bit strange. "do they really show up tomorrow morning for racing?" I asked myself. I had faith in the Berlin race management and of course, Dieter S. , G-368, greeted me in the morning, being happy that some "foreigners" wanted to take part in the racing. Lot´s of action as one has to carry his equipment a good 100m to the ice. Ready to sail at around 11.00h. Wet and cold feet at around 11.20h after walking through water to collect my starting position number. "Where are my Goretex socks??". First race from block 2. Right side, first inside the middle mark. My testing had showed that the left side was favored. After a good running through the wet I had enough height to bear away and blast across the next boat to leeward. Than tacked, tacked back in the middle of the course, crossed with G-709 but had built a good lead at the weather mark. Extending the lead and crossing the finish first. Next race I had block Nr. 1. First boat on the left inside. Easy. Start, run, jump in the boat and blasting away. Maybe the smoothing of the runners helped in the slush ice under the water. The boat was exhilarating, the new mast did bend nicely and I reached nearly warp speed. A pity, all the top guys this season did not take part except of G-709, 896 and 136. The third race was more interesting. I only managed to be third at the weather mark, was not able to shorten the distance to the two leading boats, neither downwind, nor upwind and had to fight on the last downwind run to secure third place against an impressive G-542 who used older equipment than even mine. Something had to be done. The wind had increased a lot. New sharper runners and the sail a little lower. The left side was not favored any more. G-709 went early for the right and he crossed me just after I had tacked on to the layline on port tack. He went too high and I was able to leave him in my wind shadow. Right in front was the blue boat. Knut, G-896, who was lying very low in the boat just in front of me. He was fast and I could almost match his speed to the first weather mark. We rounded very close and he extended the lead on the run. I had a better mark rounding in the gusty and strong wind and gained already 30-50m on him. Now bending the mast, crawling into the boat and of we went for a real dogfight upwind. Both tacking on to the layline, he a little higher than me, investing his lead. I had a bit of luck, tacked on a hard spot, accelerated a little quicker and started to point high into him. Catched the wind from the front, giving him a little backwind and rounded the mark first. From here on it seemed easy. Finished with a good lead. Knut reported later to me that he had spinned a 360° on the last downwind leg. Mmmh, the sharp runners, which I had mounted, felt good. The race committee called it a day and the Wolzig Cup was finished. Everybody went for the shore where we got our feet dry and packed up the gear. Price giving, the typical "Berliner" pancake and hot drinks for all. Short speeches, hipp-hipp-hurray and off we drove. You cannot have a good day of DN racing when you don´t leave your cozy home. Hope some more racers will show up next weekend. The show must go on as long as we have some sailable ice in Germany this winter.

Blizzard in Steinhude

2009-02-06T17:08:00.000+01:00

We had some excellent DN racing on the ice last weekend in Steinhude, near Hannover, though the lake had already opened up big enough in the middle to hold a regatta with optimist dinghies on liquid water. Nevertheless the race committee had laid a course with about 1,2km upwind and totally safe on the eastern side of the "Steinhuder Meer". Safe from going through the ice but not safe against accidents. (Actually it never is...) There were 35 DN´s on the startline, which is a lot on a fast and short course. The port tackers have to get around the windward mark and there is normally half the fleet approaching the mark on starboard. Average speed on the day had been abt. 50km/h to windward. And it was me who caused the biggest crash of the day and the only one. Really bad and totally my fault. Glad that no person had been injured. The other boat, G-390 was mostly destroyed. A. was absolutely right to be angry with me, to shout and stomp her feets. When she calmed down and I had a chance to apologize (to fall on my knees...) we got into action and took away from the ice every little peace of wood and steel which we could find. Just in time for the fleet to approach the weather mark for the second time. We collected all the bits and pieces left from her equipment, put it in my boat and headed for the shore. I was able to collect my nerves and headed back out with my boat which had only be scarfed on one runner. I tried some tacks and jibes and the boat did well. Nothing loose, steering worked fine. I was able to race again and to free my head from the bad accident. In hindsight it had happened because I lost control on the steering. I tacked into a hole at the starboard line of boats and thought to be safe. The tack had been unsuccessful, no grip on the steering, the boat just slipped sideways instead to tack. I can still imagine the moment when I knew that "NOW" someone will hít me from behind. Bad. My responsibility. The boat had been trimmed in such a way that there was not much weight on the front runner. Should have put more body weight into the front of the boat. Or trimmed differently. That´s what I did for the next races. The runnerplank one more back. The maststep one more to the front. A safer and more comfortable set-up. Maybe a little slower. Definitely in the next race, I was able to take part. 20th place. Tightening the shrouds and hoisting the sail one knot brought back some power into the boat. I managed a ninth and a fourth and and things started to look better.

Sunday we did sail out to the course with four sailors and tried to lay the startline. It was really windy and it snowed. Kind of blizzard conditions. The gap in the ice had opened. It looked great to see the open water with wind waves in the "not" far distance. Most DN´ers stayed ashore and when we measured the wind at around 11.00h it had increased to 12-14m/sec and the race committee called it a day. No more racing. Hitting the road for home. Need to mention for my diary that this had been the first weekend ever when I took my brother iceboating. He had never before sailed on the ice but he likes iceskating. He has not done it for many, many years as he had lived in the south Pacific. Va´vau to be specific. He cruised around on saturday with the DN and he much enjoyed it. He told me that he got an idea about it and he started to understand why I am so hooked at this particular sport.

Now off to a big reception tonight in the Hamburg Rathaus with the German Offshore Owners Assc. and than going racing the DN again on Sunday near Berlin. That´s the plan at least. Have to check the weather on Saturday morning, when waking up in Hamburg.