Battered and Bruised...

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.

Deutschland Cup X-79

The first real regatta this year. Kind of a German Championship for this "old" class of boats. The first one from the now famous X-Yachts of Denmark. A very sportive boat at it´s time, now sailed by a lot of racing enthusiasts both in North Germany and Denmark. The yearly championship regatta is being sailed (I am writing this on the 2nd days evening) on the Schlei this year. Not far away from home. Our boatowner, Chris, is working in Munich and he had planned his holiday around this regatta. We are sailing the boat with five people. Just under the max crew-weight. Kerstin is doing the bow and I am helming the boat. Chris is doing the pit and Sönke and Kristin are working the ropes. Not easy to coordinate when you have not done it together before. This boat is equipped with working backstays and lots of ropes. Counting in our favor are the new sails and the short introduction into the special settings (Check stays to be pulled hard on the leeward side) from class president Bernd, but it did not help much in the beginning. My first two starts where not at the front row and we managed a 9th and a 6th. We got to grips with things and put in another 6th place and a 4th. I fouled two times (starboard ./. port) at the weather mark and did my turns and everything was programmed for a better next day. No port-tack lane into the weather mark again. The boats are too close together and the other guys are sailing smart. On Saturday we did better on the course, no incidents but got black flagged in the third race. We also had some technical problems, like slipping halyards and problems with the rigging but tomorrow is another day with a better prepared boat. We are sitting in 7th place right now. The party is on and I will finish this report tomorrow or Monday. One thing for sure: This is sailracing at it´s best.

Final Report from the Sunday racing written Monday night.
It was blowing cats and dogs as we used to say here in Germany. 23kn and gusting. Every owner choose to take the No.3 jib (Blade jib) The start was perfect for us and we had good speed to windward. Maybe the tweaking of the rig and other parts last night helped with this. Coming into the weather mark very close as second boat with lots of room to the third placed X-79 we saw another OCS on the RIB. We could not believe this as we were low on the line and in middle were you have some line sag. Anyway it is a decision by the race committee and no reason for us to complain. This ought to be fun but me and the crew felt a bit depressed about it. The spinnaker hoist had to be called off though we were keen to try it out in the very strong breeze. But as we had to give room to all other boats and we had to get to grips with the situation we stowed the spinnaker away and sailed forth an back for an hour and a half to wait for the next start. Definitely no fun. The wind howling, the mainsail making noise and the mood down. I tried to cheer my crew up for the last race of the day. An even more conservative start at the leeward end saw us coming into the weather mark as close second again. During the hoist we lost 2 boats and on the run another one. Fourth boat around the leeward gate with a very good and tight manouver we tried to work into a better position but the competition showed us the way around on our homewater. A fourth place left us with no way of improving from our first days result. We left the championship with a seventh place which, with two OCS was OK for the morale. We promised ourselves to put in some practice for next years championship, have the boat a little better prepared and to start with fun and enthusiasm. Maybe in Warnemünde next year. The boat will be put back into the shed until than. Chris has to go back to work in Munich and he will sail an UFO22 in Italy over the winter. The picture is showing us on the X-79 "Intermezzo" with the CTM logo in the spinnaker during race 3. Thanks to Flix for this shot.