Two nights on anchor... just about

Time is passing by so quickly for an Americas Cup junkie that it is difficult to cope with updating this blog about my own sailing experiences. The time is lost in the workshop, preparing the new rig for the Bull but I want my weekend to go out into the Baltic Sea to get back some sea legs on the 36 footer, "Samantha". And difficult it was. No, not to get free from work, it was difficult to cope with the grey Saturday and the chop and waves, created by the eastern wind, once out there. I did not feel good and asked myself: Why am I not using the dinghy inside on the "pond" instead. But this was a cruising weekend. Therefore let's start at the beginning: It was our first weekend with "SAM" this year. In May I had chartered it out to a couple to let the boat make some Moonies.

So, on the first weekend in June, we were greeted with a marvellous sunset in the big marina in Maasholm. This is a 40 min drive from home. Too many boats, too close together, narrow passages. All things which I do not like, so normally we cut lines immediately after having stowed the goodies and filled the tank with fresh water and sail "out of this place". (Eric Burdon's song jumps into my mind) Around the corner there is a nice bay where we dropped anchor for the night. Cosy to say the least. I had admired German Circumnavigator-against-the-wind, Wilfried Erdmann, who once dropped anchor in this bay (the only boat at that night) after a hectic schedule which he must have had in Kiel during the Volvo Ocean stop over, where he had a promotion job with his 11m aluminium sloop. Some readers might remember the thousands and thousands visitors and Erdmann's boat was cramped with people. People who could familiarize more with this boat instead of the "Illbruck" or the other V60´s. Me, coming back from the Volvo Ocean flotilla, my guests being unloaded in Kiel-Schilksee, who had greeted the boats at the Kiel Lighthouse and putting the boat straight into the marina berth, driving home, had to stop on the road and look at the lonesome boat "Kathena" on anchor in the bay with the sun setting nicely. I put in thoughts if I am doing it right here. Not staying on board for another night. On anchor. And going to work early next morning after putting the boat away. He seemed to do it right. You do not need to have an anchorage far away, in the Caribbean or the South Pacific, it can be here. Right at home. And I know from the books Wilfried Erdmann had written, he had been there, seen most of it, living an ocean cruiser live and I haven't been there. Just dreaming about, following the routes of my brother, of Moitessier, Erdmann and many others in my reading. But, I had developed into a sailboat racer early on, not a cruiser and I am now slowly enjoying the cruising part of sailing.

This story got an awful bend I just realize. But those are the thoughts. Nevertheless, it was good to drop anchor last Friday night. The next day, we sailed some 25 miles in a grey and lumpy sea and dropped anchor again in Denmark's nice Horuphav bay. The wind started to shift away from land at around 23.ooh and I decided to lift anchor and to move into the crowded marina. We were greeted by a couple at the entrance who were taking a "night stroll". They gave us a tip to berth the boat at the rigging crane which we did. The boat just squeezed in there and I felt relaxed for the night. Next day the sun greeted us and we had a marvellous sailing day with some messy manoeuvres using the spinnaker and the code zero. But that is something we could improve. We must improve for the upcoming double-hand-challenge end of this month.

Wednesday (yesterday) night again sailing Jürgen´s Melges24. Being first ship home (just about) but not on corrected time, I see my windspotting and crew-handling a bit weak at present. No wonder with so few sailing time only. One does not get better from watching it on the computer or TV. One has to go out there and to do it!

Wednesday Night (beer can) Race in a Melges 24 and "updates"

Only yesterday, did I sail my second beer can race on the home water this season. Due to changes in life and other responsibilities I do not have my Bull 7000 ready for sailing. But this season, we have two Melges 24 in the fleet. Jan has purchased his boat "Bostik Bad Boys" in late autumn and he did practise all through the winter. Every Saturday going out with his team. I could see them sometimes passing by and got a bit nervous about the hours, they were spending in their new boat. They had asked me sometimes to come out and play but I am changing things on the rig and the Bull is not yet ready for sailing. Until yesterday I was even hopeful that I would be able to beat the Melges on the line but I fear that this is not possible. I had to change my mind which was built on last years results against Melges 24´s which might not have been sailed to even 80% of their potential. Anyway, I got my hand on the tiller of "Henri LLOYD" yesterday and I did crew for Jan on his boat last week. They were keen to learn and practise the Kiwi drop, which I had learned from the designer Greg Young during a Bull´s training session. It is a very common maneuver with A-sail boats but mostly unknown to regular spinnaker users. The main thing is to douse the A-Sail on the windward side whilst rounding the mark. NOT before. All the cloth drops nicely into the rig and you have your crew on the windward side to stow it away. Mostly this is the side to hoist it from leeward on the up-wind-mark.

The M24 "Henri LLOYD" came to Germany recently from England. There are not many used boats on the market at present and with a little communication assistance by myself, the boat ended up on the Harwich (GB)/Esbjerg (DK) ferry, where the new owner, Jürgen, collected it, using my German number plate on the English trailer. You just drive on the ferry, tow it on and off you go. Easy. Did that many, many years ago with a Flying Dutchman, coming in on a Roll on/Roll off Vessel from Australia. But this boat belonged to FD friends from down under to be used on their EURO tour. Customs office wanted to know about. Off course, and I told them to treat the Aussie boat like a football which you need for playing. Got away with it after much discussions. Otherwise you need to pay customs duty and VAT. Have to fill in many documents and be able to claim the money later when the boat goes back home.

So, "Henri LLOYD" was offered to me yesterday and I collected crew and off we went. A pity that the "Bostik Bad Boys" did not come out to play. They had work to do. New Boats to prepare for collection. That is their trade and it is busy time at present. We managed a good start, came first to the weather mark and did some nice downwind work with my experienced 14ft sailor in the crew. The wind nearly died. It died totally for us. At least that is what we thought. We came to a standstill, long way in front of the fleet of X-79, X-99´s and other boats. We sat there, waiting for the wind to pick up again but the only thing which happened, was the fleet to catch up with us. Deep inside I had thought we were caught in the soft mud but my crew, who knows this water from swimming and windsurfing all over the place, denied this until I asked why a goose feather on the water would now start passing us from behind. OK, heel and rock the boat free. We rounded the weather mark in third place, first happened to be old Windsurf buddy, Klaus on his Mistral Raceboard with a huge sail. Well done Klaus! We managed to get back into the front in this zephyr wind. We were in good mood due to being out there and our result does not turn Jan away from racing against us. Stay tuned. We will take the Melges out again next Wednesday. By the way, the photo at the top shows the committee boat on the way home, towing two tailenders. (click on it to enlarge) K. took it from the roof of our new house which is under construction. This being one of the reasons, the racing comes a bit short this summer season. My goal is to get the new in-house workshop ready by November and start into a full DN season next winter. Any by the way, for anyone interested: the Bladerider has delayed the delivery again until 10th of June. Clever guys, they are sending out regular status reports, which stops nervous clients from calling in. I understand that they want to see a fleet of their boats at the Worlds in Lake Garda later this month and me and my friends are far from being able to even reach a starting line in this nice little craft. So, let us patiently wait for the Flying Moth to arrive in June.

Taken the Singlehand-Dinghies for a ride...

All of a sudden there was time left in the evening after the LV Semi Finals came to an end and work in the company had been done. A sunny evening which allowed to sail in shorts and T-shirt. First we sailed across to the SSC sailing club youth training to take part, but the young sailors did some playing and mocking around with boats. No marks laid, just playing cat and mouse. Not bad and maybe fun in a fleet that varies from 29er, Laser, Pirat, Europe and others. We decided to do a long downwind stretch, some 5km as this is my weakness against the girl. Much wind reading and anticipation for the next shift required to stay close but once she catches a gust, she is off and I am left behind in a different wind system.

Anyway, we met our friends Roger and Jörg doing some Laser training. We did some upwind work with them, Roger as fast as ever but Kerstin able to stay in front. I had some problems shifting into "competition mode", which normally is not a problem for me but once in the back of the 4 boat fleet, I only did the wrong things. Tacked into a hole etc. When a big black cloud appeared over the town which Roger analysed as a wind sucker we departed to either ends of the Schlei Fjord to reach our berths before the wind would die. A nice evening of sailing was finished with a round of strawberries from the nearby fields, purchased earlier in the day.

Great Reading about the Americas Cup

There are some Journos out there who´s AM Cup articles your fellow blogger is reading with interest and enviousness. Great stories about a great event. There is nothing like that happening around my life, though it is not boring, but how can I interest someone with a story about me putting the DIV II board out on the water to try to beat my lady in her dinghy. Just for the records, it happened last weekend and I put in an extra hour of boardsailing after the exciting races yesterday, when BMWO beat Luna Rossa across the line in a tough race. Tough to watch. That is why I needed some relief. You will guess by now that I am cheering more the Italian boys, the Brazilian magican, the Italien Gentleman and the Aussie boy other than the slick and self-appointed challenger team, Oracle. At least, this is the image they have built around them. Now the wall of self confidence must be dented. I am not a believer in the sand-bagging theories appearing in some sailing forums.

On another note, I read today one of the best sentences about sailing with a crew. Confidence in your crew. Something which gave me shivers. James Spithill, Helmsman, Luna Rossa Challenge, about his crew: "The guys have pretty much said to me ‘put the boat wherever you need to and the sails will be there’ and they have delivered. So it’s full credit to those guys.”

Thank you James and keep up the good work. I don´t mind to be glued to the screen during racetime and hope to see you in Valencia in the final, when I am paying a visit.

Worst Mistcake...

Tillerman on Propercourse writes today: "Write a post on your blog about the worst mistake or most embarrassing moment you had while sailing". mmmh, he wants this "to serve as terrible warnings" - a very good idea, indeed. A pity, nobody had warned me about what happened to me in the following story, but would this have been possible for the incident which I had ran into?

Some years ago, being on a cruise with my 36 footer in the Baltic Sea with girlfriend, the 5 year old boy and the dog, sun is shining, just a light breeze from the back and only the main up. There is a shallow marker at a corner of an island which we want to round, 1,5 miles outside. Girlfriend reading the map and pointing towards the marker. Some Danes take an inside route, which I also did during a regatta some years ago. "Well, you know, I know this area..."
We are not heeling at all. Suddenly we are running aground. The boat shakes, the boy (his first trip) feels the boat bumbing on the ground. The dog barks. Boy starts crying, dog goes crazy. Girlfriend ash white. We have to take the main down. Immediately. I push the dog down below, girl holds son and the main drops down on the 5,20m long boom. Dog is bleeding on his paw and wants out. Starting the engine, reverse. No reaction. Waving with rope to boats passing close. No reaction. Someone yells: "Heel that thing" - he cannot know that we have a winged keel. Draft 2m´s and we are sitting on these bloody wings. Heeling increases the draft. Oh, could someone please pass by and throw a little wave?? Someone up there must have heart it. A small passenger ship in the distance sends some gentle waves... the boat rises from the ground, full reverse, touches just a little at the trough and takes of with the next one. Slowly out of here. Backwards in the same direction were we came from. Planned destination cancelled. Straight home. The little one, since than, does not want to step onboard again. He has felt emotionally the wrong aggregate state of the boat.

The boat did not carry any damage but a fortnight later my charterer asked me if I knew a new route around that cape. "Oh, well no. I cannot recommend this way. Please stay out if you round that corner". Bloody me, I forgot to delete the course lines in the Garmin...

Sailing without fun...but fun in the sun!

This blog is actually updated (noops, I was not able to send it through, I am doing it today, being homebound) from the airport in Singapore where we are in transit from Bali back to Hamburg via Frankfurt. The reason to visit the beautiful island of Bali as a first timer, had been an invitation to a wedding party in the Four Seasons Resort, at Jimbaran Bay Four Seasons, Bali , from a good ol' friend and sailing buddy of mine, with whom I had shared my last H-Boat, G-736 some years ago and the 36db, GER-3843 which I still keep and sail. Our friend did marry into an Indonesian family. This had been an event which I did not want to have missed. Actually it had been the most incredible event I had been to. Not only wedding wise. Definitely something, which I will never forget. (K. just talks on her mobile from Singapore Airport to her parents in Wittenberge and she told me that it is just as phoning from next door...amazing times) OK, the wedding party went on for 3 days and I had put in 3 extra holidays, getting the very special rate in a place which I normally would not choose as my holiday home. Anyw, one of the days we went sailing in the resorts only 2-hander, a Hobie Cat with a "keel". (do not know exactly the type) It was nice to be out on the Indic (Indian Ocean for non- circumnavigators) but to sail the boat was horrible. The boat was very hard on the helm. Weatherhelm. I could not find out what was wrong before coming back to shore with a sour arm. The instructors told me that they are waiting for a new rudder from Australia, which takes time. OK, it made me happy that I had not forgotten how to get through the surf in a Cat, but sailing a straight line was near impossible. The rudder just had way too much rake which put the boat out of balance. We tried to wet ourselves afterwards with a sea-kajak but it seemed that we had missed all, but one wave on the last run-in. With this last wave we did a handstand, burying the nose into the sand… a lot of laughter not only from the beachmasters but also from ourselves.

Out of balance is what I am today after the exhaustive trip home, following the daylight. But it is not the tiredness, it is a little virus in the system which keeps me close to were you wanna be alone…

No sailing in Valencia but a great day in Schleswig...

One gets tired to read about postponements and "no race days" in Valencia though as a sailor, I have "been there" in quit a few occasions when we travelled far, say to the Med to take part in the FD regatta in San Remo or later in Hyeres when it either blew "cats and dogs" or the see stayed calm. Same happened during Kiel Week but never for more than 3 days. The good thing is that work get´s done, the bad thing for me that some journalists are digging into crap. E.g. suggesting that Dean Barker of ETNZ is not good enough because he lost against the Latin Rascals in the first race. Pressure is built here from English Journos, as far as I can interpret things. These guys want to see Ben Ainsle on the wheel to have an advantage for the next round when Britain takes part with the ORIGIN challenge. I have followed the Kiwis since the "Skiff on steroids", NZL 20 days. Being a tiny little supporter by purchasing some team gear and "promoting" this team within my group of sailing friends. Everyone here has heart the voice of the Cup, Peter Montgomery. We have a sailmaker friend, who learned from the many Cup videos which I got send from Kiwiland, to act and speak like PM. Great Fun. Back to what I want to say: Barker took some scalps during the Match Circuit. Some big scalps and I believe that the ETNZ will make it through into the Cup. And if not and you ask e.g. Dennis Conner, who will win the Cup: His answer is said to be: "A Kiwi. There is a Kiwi in every team". Like that.

Yesterday had been an interesting day here in the sailing community. My friend collected his Melges24 from the Harwich/Esbjerg ferry, the former HENRI LLOYD, from England. The boat was purchased through phone and mail with help from my side cause of language problems. Without ever meeting the owner in person, it proved to me that as a sailor (a boatowner) I can trust sailors (boatowners) elsewhere because we share the same passion. Passion for boats.

This also applies to my fellow colleague, Bjoern, who recently purchased an older 1/4 Tonner. A Bruce Farr Design, built abt. 30 years ago in Germany at the former Burmester boatyard in Bremen. A cold moulded boat, still in very good condition. Yesterday we celebrated the "boat in the water" event. The official launching will happen later. I do hope that I can post a photo later about this interesting boat, which still pleases the eye. Having done some 1/4 ton sailing myself on a Nissen design, I had many chances in the old days to look at the beautiful wide stern of this particular Farr design. (Wide of course in the meaning of the IOR days, today most boats are wider)

So, K and I did sail to the event with our dinghies. We live just on the other side of the water. (On the north side, just about the middle of the picture. Our friend watered his Farr boat just across on the south side. We launched from the green close to where we live and when we came back later, after doing some up-and-downs to shake the tacking and jibing cow webs off, we de-rigged under a full blossom cherry tree. What a sight.

Did you watch the anemometer in Valencia?

Anybody who watched the anemometer in Valencia over the last 30min would have been amazed that the windspeed had been 0 knots! This thing either sits in the windshadow of a chimney or something else or the weather is not cooperating at all!

Actually I believe that the Spaniards have placed their Anemometer free of every windshadow and what we see is what we get...Have a look yourself and pray that the condition will improve now, when it looks like +39 might have their version 5 mast ready to race. Go: Weather Data from Valencia and press thumb for the Finn Dinghy guys in the AC.

Two days of waiting for the AM Cup Races to start

It is the second day with starts postponed in Valencia. Not a sign of enough wind. At least the weather has changed from the cold blustery days to some nice and warm sunshine from what we can read. I am not there. I am following it via the Americas Cup Homepage. I think for the true aficionado it is not a bad thing. He understands the adverse weather conditions and that you cannot schedule sailboat racing according to the TV program.

Every sailor or windsurfer must have come to a sailing site where the locals told you: "It is always windy or always sunny here" and when you arrive, you find just the opposite. Or the locals tell you: "You should have been here an hour ago". It happened to me quite often, when driving to the Baltic Sea from Hamburg, to put in some windsurfing in the waves (small) and to air my 4.7 or 4.2qm sail, it seemed that I had arrived too late.

The weather in Europe or more special at the Med is, according to my sources, normally more reliable as at present. But this does not help when everybody down there and at the recent Mallorca regatta has frozen like never before. In the sum of all external forces I think the weather did not change much but it may have moved. We here in the North of Germany did not have frozen lakes during this winter. The people on the Med have had 4 weeks of really bad weather, even snow where it normally does not snow at this time of the year. We can only hope for the better and better it will get in Europe. Whilst "down under" they start preparing for winter, we are coming into our spring and summer season. May the gods of wind prepare some nice racing in Valencia!

And by the way to all European moaners. It is far better to have a postponement line from AC Valencia on your work station during office hours, other than being glued to the TV at 02.00am and not knowing if it will happen or not. Smooth watching.

Digging into the past

This blogger is a little bit out of order due to a bad cold which does not allow me to go out on the water or to do the jobs on the boats which have to be done. Of course there is some planning for the upcoming Double-Hand-Challenge, being started from Flensburg and maybe a participation in the Melges 24 Europeans held in Neustadt.

Every sailor here knows that racing on your own boat brings a lot of satisfaction but also heaps of work in the preparatory stage, whilst crewing for a friend/owner shifts over the workload and the boat prep to someone else. Going through the stages of a bad cold, I could easily decide to skip all boat work and just jump on a well prepared boat as seems to be the Melges24, purchased this week by a friend of mine with whom I had some excellent sailing and racing results in the past. I will never forget one specific Kiel Week in the heydays of IMS, when we sailed together on his X-382 with a good crew. Jürgen and I decided to share the helming from one race to the next as both work hard and concentration on the wheel would fade easily when jumping from office into sailracing. Jürgen started the first of 6 races as helmsman in the Kiel Cup where there were 25 competitors, all keen and many with newer boats and sails. I did the mainsheet on this toprigger and we changed place in the second race. Being a bit nervous after Jürgen set the goal with a second place and helming the first time in a competitive race with a wheel I tried to “bend” the wheel during the starting sequence that the crew asked me to ease the grip, otherwise the sailing would well be finished before arriving at the weather mark. OK, guys, I see what you mean. I sat on the rail, used the wheel like a tiller, softly touched and started to feel the boat like I used to feel any boat which I sailed before. We managed with some excellent crew work to come first and than we never looked back. We won this Kiel week overall under IMS with a near clean scoring sheet. Later during the price giving we learnt to know the Kiwi, Ross Field who was sailing in the Farr Maxi OD Class “Mistral”. Ten boats on the starting line. Very exciting. These 80´superyachts of those days where supposed to race to Stockholm the next day and Ross Field asked me to crew on his boat. Maybe he was lured into asking me, because I carried all the trophies from the stage to the bar. I thought about the offer but knew quickly that this one was not for me. I am not a distance sailor. I cannot sleep on the rail. I do not have enough power to even carry the smallest sail on a maxi yacht. I had to turn him down but asked him if I could help a friend, a sailmaker on to his boat. Yes. And that is a another story, when my friend Harry sailed on the “Grand Mistral” Maxiyacht to Stockholm with a bunch of Kiwis.

It reminds me also to another story when Greg Young asked me to have Ross Field to helm my brand new Bull7000 during Cowes Week 1996, where the boat had been delivered from Auckland. I acted a bit nasty and answered “Ross, who?. The man can do the mainsheet but I am going to helm my boat myself”. How we did not survive Cowes Week and got run down by a 40´Swan even before the first start in front of the starting line at the Royal Yacht Squadron is a story in itself.

I do hope that I get OK soon and do not have to bring up so much of my sailing history. Better to report about actual life out there on the water.

Unbelievable exciting!

just listening to America´s Cup Radio and watching the race-tracker on the official site. +39 with helmsman Ian Percy and all the Finn blokes right in front by about 203m to Areva. Our German team made it back to 5th place. We have to see how she goes downwind.

Couldn´t resist the nice weather on Sunday and took the dinghy out of the winter storage and went sailing for 2,5 hours together with K. Both had tons of fun, enjoying even our rustiness and slow tacks and jibes. NEver started that early in the season over the last years but living now so close to the water and having the boats on stand by one has to do it!

Have to hit back to the official AM CUP website to see how the +39ers are doing.

Not much happening at this time of the year

Sailing is not on my agenda at this time of the year. The transition between winter mode and spring mode brings with it a lot of work to catch up on my boats and workshop. The water is way too cold and " Cold Shock is the killer in water below 15 degrees Celsius" as Jerry Freeman, from Racing at Petit Bateau Ltd., wrote in an article, featured yesterday in the Europe Scuttlebutt. An article which I propose reading for every sailor. I am a vest wearer nearly always but have to rethink a few clothing tips when going out early and not having developed my sealegs.

A friend had send to me this morning an interesting link to a: Swedish Blogger with DN Scrot , who had survived an accident during the last DN Europeans. His boat being "skrot" which in German means: Schrott and to you English speaking guys: "Scrap". This guy has other nice boatbuilding projects featured and I wished my Swedish knowledge would be able to read through, but it isn´t.

April brings a lot of boatwork on the various projects and from May on I think we will go sailing on the water again.

DN European Championship put behind...

What a week we had in Haapsalu, Estonia. Spring temperature on the Ice and a lot of racing. One cannot ask for more. My friend Andreas Bock, (G-624) Germany won the title in a hard fight against all those young Polish, Latvian, Estonian competitors. He also beat former World Champion Ron Sherry (US-44). I had the pleasure to become second best German, finishing 20th which is not too bad without much training this season and bearing in mind that I will zero again this year. I had reported nearly daily on the German Iceboating site: www.eissegeln.de (use the link) of course in German but you will also find photos which give you an idea about the trip and the location. More photos are available on www.eissegeln.at the site from our Austrian commodore, Niklas Müller-Hartburg, who did a phantastic job, travelling 2400km with a trailer behind to find a location which would suit all 150 competitors. This big fleet of course had been divided, after 2 qualifiers in typical DN-fashion, into 3 fleets. Gold, Silver and Bronze. Anyone interested to know more, should try to read the German diary under German Iceboating Homepage on the page under DN Yacht where you can also find result lists.

Haapsalu in Estonia is the place to go for DN sailing

Tomorrow morning, Friday at around 05.00h am we will leave for Haapsalu for the DN EC. The only place in northern Europe at present, which has sailable ice conditions and with a weather report of unchanged temperatures and no snowfall predicted, we should be able to sail our European Championship from Sunday on. My friends and I have booked the ferry from Stockholm to Tallin, others are taking a ferry from Rostock into Ventspils, Latvia. The latter takes 27hrs and I think that is very boring to be on a ship that long. We prefer the 13 hours drive to Stockholm, than an overnight ferry and we will be ready to sail a few laps at around noon on Saturday. Sunday the first races are to be started. The picture attached is from the World Championships 2002 at the same place, were Ron Sherry, US-44 won the title.

A pity I could not train anymore before the Championship this year due to workload and no ice within easy reach. I have to try hard to defend my 12th position on the World Ranking, otherwise I will slip back and have to go through the qualifier races next season. This is really, really difficult. Only one race and you have to be within the top 12. Coming from a bad starting position (drawn by the computer), say left side in the 40´s or 50´s you have to do one more tack than the starters from the right and chances to make it, are small. I have been there in the qualifier league due to two bad seasons and I will try my best not to drop back again. My fellow readers should wish me luck and I promise to do some reporting.

Waiting for departure to DN EC coming weekend

Very difficult to catch up with my blog these days. There was just no opportunity to go sailing (iceboating as in winter...) and I do not want to bore you with a typical "day in the office". Or a Monday evening like this one, where I catched up on reading fellow bloggers messages.

Just to let you know about the difficulties this year to find good places for DN sailing, I´ll post the latest message from our European Commodore who is travelling with car and trailer (which has his equipment stowed) from Vienna to Poland and further into Sweden and now wants to check Conditions in Finland and maybe look further on into Estonia. All to find a suitable site where 180 sailors can launch their boats, sail races and can be accomodated for the upcoming European Championship. Niklas is a great guy who is doing this in the old fashioned style. Looking it up for himself. Not trusting webcams, not trusting reports from people who want to pull us into their territory to make some money, or just lazy race organisers who do not like to travel. Niklas, we here in the north of Germany really do appreciate what you are doing at present. Keep cool and keep up the good work. See you on the Ice.

Posted by Niklas (Commodore) on Monday, March 05, 2007 - 07:04 pm:
Dear friends, to avoid - I know that this is almost impossible - too havey discussions in the grapevine I decided to post some preliminary informations here.
I started on thursday night from Vienna to Gizycko (where has been the Polish Championship) to check the ice there. Arriving on friday Irealized that the icesituation in combination with the weatherforecast is not good enough. Saturday I got information from Kjell..that there are some spots in Sweden, but it came out that only the spot in Västeras could be good enough for a EC. The other spots have too thin ice.
Now I'm in Västeras and we wait for rain, so that the slush and snow may disappear. For what will happen with the water afterwards I'm missing the phantasie. Tomorrow (Thursday) we will have the decision if the EC will be in Sweden or not.
If the decision is not to sail in Sweden, there are two possibilities: Finland and Estonia. Tomorrow I get informations from the Fins and from the Estonians about the icesituation there. The decision where it will be I can do when I have seen the ice myself. So I have to go there and this takes time. So please wait till tomorrow for the information if we will sail in Sweden or not. And please be patient with me - it's not that easy. Think Ice. Niklas

No DN sailing but a video for the "Warmduscher*"

No DN sailing last weekend. Good Conditions only in Poland but a 15 hours drive away. Some of our DN friends took part in the DN World Championship this week where Bernd, G-107 came 3rd and former W/C Ron Sherry, US-44 finished 4th. Congratulations! Also the junior, Max Minarek, G-479, did well. Find more information through my links > Eissegeln.

Normally I would not like to recommend a youtube video here but this one: GEANT, Orma60 tri in a breeze is something I had to watch several times. Michel D in mid Ocean sailing GEANT, the ORMA 60 tri, upwind in a breeze. Wow. Comparing this to the Fomula 40 sailing, which I did years ago on Lake Garda, I think I was in Kindergarten.

Das mit dem Tri ist definitiv nichts für Warmduscher und auch nichts für Forumsegler. Eisberichte vom Solgen, Schweden klingen gut. Morgen geht die Rundmail raus, wenn unser Scout vor Ort grünes Licht gibt.

*Warmduscher = staying home and taking a hot shower instead...

No Iceboating, Weather is going crazy this Winter

We did not drive to Sweden last weekend for the DN regatta. The weather report did not convince us. Not enough wind at the Mälaren. Some Dutch friends made the trip, which for them is 5 hours more, and they did some racing in snowy conditions. They did well, they love these conditions. Maybe we should not look too much into the computer and try to analyse the weather, just hopp in the car and go. As we did in the years before Internet.

I got a nice respond to my thread: "Who is your sailing hero?". Very interesting to read. Look at the comments and give me yours: Sailing Hero, comments...

DN Sailing - a trip to Sweden on Feb, 2nd.

This blog had been started in December 2005 because I wanted to tell some of my friends about iceboating in Germany as well as keeping a log myself. Long time ago I had given up to write shortcuts into my trim-book. With the ever changing hardware and style of sailing as well as with new knowledge, all the numbers, written down, did not help me at the end. New Technology also made the book, with regards to roadmaps, redundant. Nowadays you are finding the smallest lake in Nowhere-land with your little GPS. On the Swedish Iceboat site they are showing the Long-and Latitude of the places to go. Just type it in and go >> OK, sometimes you have to drive for 10hours and more as we did last weekend. It is not always freezing in Germany as it did, when I started this sport. 7 years in a row we went iceboating nearby. The next 7 years we had to travel. Another 5 years of fantastic conditions in Germany after that and again some weaker wintertime following. Sometimes it was cold but way too much snow for sailing. Tried it of course but got stuck in snowdrifts. Some friends broke their boats. One of my friends started with a well built DIY boat on such a "bad" day. He got stuck several times. In the bad mood he put himself, he lost his boat from the car roof and we had never seen him again on the ice. I remember that on the Sunday after, the snowdrifts had been softened and we had some great racing. W. Schwarten was showing us how to do it and won most races by length.

Back to last weekend. Arriving in Västeras at 03.00h in the morning, going for a pee on the ice, checking if it really was there and a couple hours of sleep in the Camper. The sun was waking us up in the morning. The reed on the lakeside showed signs of wind and we knew already, that it was worthwhile to drive up all the way to Lake Mälaren. 13 boats from Germany, 2 boats only from Sweden went out for some thrilling practice races in a good Force 4 Bft wind on fast ice. A good training for the upcoming weekend when the Swedes have their official race weekend, which takes place every fortnight in different regions of this big country. Anyone who wants to read more and wants to improve his German language skills should go to:

My German report. The photo had been taken on the launch site.

Who is your sailing hero?

Picture by Jim Bolland (see my Linklist for more information about this artist)

Tillerman made me aware of Gary Jobson´s site the other day and I must admit, Gary Jobson is one of my heros of the "old days". Exactly, the America´s Cup of the eighties. I have been in Newport 1983, watching the final AC races, when "Liberty" with Dennis Conner at the helm lost to "Australia II" with John Bertrand, being Skipper. One day on High Street in a bookshop, Gary J. was signing his latest book "Racing Edge", written by Ted Turner & Gary Jobson. A book which helped me many years later in my match racing career. Gary Jobson wrote me a note into the book: "Smooth Sailing to Manfred". And though, I had only learned my English in school, these two words I felt, is all about it!

Whenever things go wrong with me, be it in sailing or other things, I say to myself: Smooth Sailing, and that has been also what I wished Gary in a mail when he had a rough time, health wise. The Curmudgeon (Scuttlebutt) published Jobsons e-mail address and all the well wishers must have helped that this great sportsman is back on the water. A true hero indeed. Use my linklist for your best advantage. Today it is Gary Jobson whom you should pay a visit.

Car Breakdown hindered DN Racing in Sweden-no sailing!

Still a little bit frustrated I was not in the mood to write about last weekends "would be iceboating". Our Swedish friends had called for a DN regatta in Västeras. The weather report looked pretty good for Saturday. Sunday maybe snow and not much wind. I got notice from a couple of friends from the Netherlands and Poland that they would be at the start line. Packed up everything in the Camper and on the way home to pick up K, I realized that there was a lack of oil in the cars system. Filled up 2 liter at the nearby Gas station but still no sign of enough oil. Looked under the car. The filter leaked like a strainer. I called the emergency service as it was a minute to 18.00h. Closing time. Got the car there, half way towed due to noises which made me shut off the engine. Got a new filter, oil and a good-bye from the technicians and after 800m realized white vapour from the exhaust. Big white clouds behind me. Stopped immediately. K. who is a good runner, got her car from home and we towed the Camper back. Garage closed and my hope to make it to Sweden disappeared. Saturday I got text messages about the wonderful site in Sweden, the racing, 42 participants and everything. Good friends tried to cheer me up or to disappoint me. You never know, when in winter mode. We make a lot of fun about each other and ourselves. Anybody interested in the reports (German language) see under links > Die Eissegelseite dt.< and go to DN Yacht in the menue bar left.