What is coming next after the great MOTH Euro?

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.

Advise for Alan

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 Racing in Denmark

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:

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

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.

Moth Regatta "Hoch im Norden" coming soon

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!

Update

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.

Sunday was great!

The Sunday of last weekend was great. We had our annual club regatta over the weekend. The local sailing clubs, who are all suffering from participations in their own regattas had combined their efforts and organized one great event. About 50 boats participating from the OD classes, H-35, and X-79 to a field of 38 Yardstick boats varying from the fast Melges 24 (2) to Folkboats, H-Boats and the bigger X-34´s. It was supposed to be a family regatta, which for some racers meant that the families take part in the BBQ and dance festivities in the evening only. We participated with our little Bull 7000, shown here in the picture, during a reach on the Sunday.

Where have I been… oh yes, Sunday and "Heyitwasgreat.", the Tillerman group writing project. I will only touch Saturdays race lightly. To begin with, I had promised K. who is pregnant in her 7th month a light wind and some fun in the club. My regular crew must prepare their boat for the International14´s WC in Warnemünde and we did not want to miss the chance to sail with the local fleet and to see how we are going alone. We had decided early on that K. would take the helm and I do the crewwork. Fiddling with ropes and the gennaker is not easy with the big belly. There were a couple of events, mainly me reefing in and out as the wind had not stayed at the 10knots which I had promised but increased to abt. 20kn in periods. And always when we had to go upwind according to my feeling. I had to reef in and shake it out later. No gloves and fingers burning. I had rigged the gennaker sheet the wrong way and it was all my fault that we lost precious time. We finished the race corrected in 8th position.

The “Heyitwasgreat” Day.
Come Sunday and the Schleifjord looked very calm in the morning. We got towed out. People started to throw waterbombs during the waiting period and it looked like a great summer day. At around 12.00h the wind came up and PRO G.N. immediately laid the marks and gave the 5min signal. K. did a great start and we were holding our position between the 2 Melges up to the weather mark. She got the shifts right and seemed to be “in the zone”. Around the weather mark, the “kite up” and we were able to sail lower than the Melges with our articulating bowsprit. We did great through the narrow passage (Palörde), though the M24´s had catched a gust just in front of us which we were not able to hook in. It gave them a little advantage. The two of us now slightly overpowered in the gusts but able to hang in with the gennaker up. On the next upwind leg, I hiked like hell and K. kept the speedo permanently around the 6kn mark. It was our day. The big boats already far in the distance behind us. We had another great beat though the Melges were slowly walking away from us but not like Saturday. They had all their 4-5 crew hiking out hard. We lost about 3 min to the first M24, whilst on the Saturday it had been about 15min. Difficult to describe the smooth sailing, which we had on the day. Hopefully the little one, the unborn, got an idea of the great harmony which we had and which brought the best of sailing out of both of us. It only sunk in later that we might have won this race on corrected time as our Melges friends had reported to us after the finish. Yes, the price giving gave us the recognition. 1st place of the day and third overall. We went home tired but happy and… “heyitwasgreat”. If you want to see the results, here is the link: Result list

A Must See for Sailracing Enthusiasts

This should not be all about Moths. There is other racing going on at the level I am interested in. Farah Hall pointed me into the direction of Racing in Hyeres through her blog, which you find at Windsurfing towards Beijing on my first link list on the right.

High Quality sailing on film, which has taken place in Hyeres mostly with strong Mistral winds. The reason I had to abandon most of my Moth training in Le Levando, the place being close to Hyeres and staying there during the same time. Watch the day 2 of the RS men or women. Great Sailing!
On the home front today: Getting the boat trailers through the MOT with the help of my brother. Rigging up the Bull for the wednesday night races which are starting this week. New EasyRigging to put on the mast. Hope we can make the first race.