Two Boat testing on the Schlei

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

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.

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

...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

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

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

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

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!

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

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

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

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

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"

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

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

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

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

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...

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

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...

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

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

Less Moth blogging, more Moth sailing

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...)

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...

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

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

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?

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

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

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.