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.

Boatshow Visit and other matters

Just back from a visit to the biggest "European" boatshow. The "boot" in Düsseldorf. Not exhibiting with my company, I was visiting the show for two days to meet some customers and their products in the spotlight. To give a quick review is nearly impossible. Way too many impressions. Be it the smart looking BRENTA30, the beautiful lines of the HANSE 430 (Epoxy built), the Tender 08 on the Volkswagen Marine stand or some giant Motor Yachts. The one on the photo did amaze me. Why on earth do you bring such a boat to a boatshow like Düsseldorf? Are there any "would-be-customers" walking around with their ladies and when they see this thing, just say: "hmm, Darling, shall we buy this?"After having bought the Bladerider on the Hamburg boatshow early in November, my budget is limited... But I was looking for a pair of boatshoes and I happen to see the (not so new) Lopolights. They are qualified to be used in Germany now and I need new (sailing/anchor) lights for "Samantha". Lopolight offers a smart solution: Sailing light to be switched into anchor light. The sailing light also lightens the Windex. I had to buy this for the next seasons doublehand-overnighters. I know, politically it is not quite right. The commercial ships do NOT like sailboats with lights on the top of their masts. The light is difficult to see within all the other lights from the bridge above. Someone even told me that you can be rammed whilst anchoring. Skippers look at the light in abt.18m height and think you are still very far away. Fish stories? Uuuhps, nearly forgot to mention. I was very much attracted by the PBO yacht rigging from Easy Rigging. Saving 50% weight compared to your wires is quite something. The product looked well sorted. Haven´t had a look on their website but for anyone interested: www.EasyRigging.com

Friends found some black Ice in Sweden. Might go there tonight for another trainings weekend and some short races. The Swedish fleet is having their races up in Västeras but the forecast is for snow in that area. Catch up with you later, have to check the weather reports.

Finally we found some Ice

Being a DN Iceboater with so much love for the sport I really got nervous finding myself in mid January and no ice anywhere around. Hope was fuelled from the webcams in Italy at Lake Rescia on the website:

German Icesailing. Trouble was that we did not find a scout who would drive there to measure the ice thickness and to check the surface quality. Webcams can be fake. Some people just pin a picture in front...

Anyway the good pictures from the cams left us with no choice. We had to travel down there. Anyone interesting to read the full story including regatta results, though it is in German language, should visit the German iceboating website and look under DN Yacht. There you can find my full report. It helps you improving on your German as I constantly try to improve on my English knowledge by reading your sites.

The pictures shown here were taken on the weekend. The "dull looking site", I took on Friday from the balcony of the hotel. No sailing due to rain and way to much wind out there. Normally you find the mountains all snowed in but this years weather (sofar) is far from being normal. Saturday and Sunday we had good racing in beautiful sunshine and I only lost on countback to one of our German competitors, who will compete in the DN Worlds in three weeks time to be held in Minnesota, USA. I will not be there, though the trip might be shorter than our adventure this past weekend, riding the 150km/h storm "Kyrill" on the German Autobahn A7.
Manfred, DN G-99.

DN - Auf dem Weg zum Reschensee, ITA

Wir rasen durch die Nacht. Auf dem Weg zum Reschensee. 1098 km entfernt von Schleswig. Über Deutschland tobt einer der schwersten Orkane der letzten Jahre. Eben mussten wir von der Autobahn runter. Bei Gießen. Totalsperrung. Erst hatten wir gedacht, wir haben und verfahren, also wieder rauf auf die Autobahn in Gegenrichtung, dann kehrt an der ersten Ausfahrt und das ganze noch mal. Tatsächlich wir wurden sanft von der Autobahn heruntergelottst (mittlels hell blinkenden Schildern) und sollten nun der Umleitung U52 folgen. Doch das ging auch nicht lange gut. Einige Ortschaften waren abgeriegelt.

70 km bergauf-bergab durch Waldgebiete mit viel Schrott auf der Strasse fanden wir endlich wieder zur BAB zurück. Nun fliest der Verkehr um 23.44h Der VW Bus schwankt wie ein Schiff im Sturm aber unser Steuermann fängt ihn immer wieder ab.... autsch..ne ganz harte Böe. Die stieg von der Seite ein.

Wir wollen in Nesselwang übernachten. Der Schlüssel befindet sich in einem grünen Briefkasten.

Unterwegs haben wir noch einige DN Freunde angemorst. Die meisten glaubten nicht, dass wir unterwegs seien. Krogo klang dann aber sehr überzeugend. Man kann schließlich nicht auf der EM starten und vorher nicht im Boot gesessen zu haben. Und ausserdem, wie häufig hatten wir schon zu Hause fürchterliches Wetter und tausend km weiter schien die Sonne und das Eis blinkte.. Warten wir es ab.

Der vollständige Bericht befindet sich unter DN Yacht auf der Homepage:

German Icesailing.

Last Sailing in the Old Year

Yes mates, I wished I would have gone iceboating between X-mas and the new Year but even if we drew the circle around 1500km, there was no ice nor did the weather maps show any promise of minus temperatures except on the arctic circle. Writing about DN Iceboating is why I started this blog. Some sailing friends from Down Under, who had always promised to visit and go sailing with me in winter, should know what they were missing. But there is hope, watch this space around 15th of March, when we are about sailing our European Championship. I might have shown DN sailing to one of the heroes of modern dinghy sailing. From Down Under. But first it must get cold.

Back to the theme: I got a mail call from Rolf in Switzerland who is marketing an interesting range of boats, all built by Lion Yachts. The smaller one, the Humphries H-22, we once built ourselves during boatshows and it happened to be a lovely little Sportsboat. Fast and furios in a blow. Always safe to sail. It had to go because the fleet got too big to cope with. The other boat Rolf is selling caught my interest already last year. The AXion 33.5.

AXion homepage A design from John Corby, England and being built in epoxy. The boat already had amazing results down at Lake Constance and Rolf had asked via a circular letter to people interested in the boat, if they liked to crew in a regatta held in Antibes at the end of December. Yes, of course, had been my response. Can I bring a crew? No problem. There we were. Flying into Nice, got collected by a friend who loaned us a nice little Smart (how you lock this car, when the top opens automatically is another story, preferably on an Autoblog) and met the crew of "Imperator" on the pier at December 27th. The boat looks racy, don´t you think?........

The weather was nice, not very much wind and therefore there was only one race per day during four days. Competition came from a lot of different boats, X-35, X-99, Beneteaus 44.7, 40.7 and a separate Sportsboat class with nine H-22´s competing. All boats squeezed together on a small starting line with a shoreline on the left in a short distance. In the first race it was obvious to start at the buoy end, which we did but not with best timing. I was sheeting the jib and later the gennaker and felt responsible for a bit of tactics. I thought we would have to dug many sterns but this incredible boat pulled out with great speed after we got settled and minutes after the start we had to tack due to the shore and we only had to pass 2 sterns. Saw some nice breeze lines out at the sea, catched it and arrived at the weather mark, close to Nice airport way ahead the fleet. It must have been 15 minutes. I forgot to start my watch as the distance was not seconds, but minutes. The wind died on the long way home to the finish line in front of Antibes harbour and we started to drift half way from the finish. Boats from the back end catched up. The wind turned around 180°, headsails up again and we pulled away with the first new breeze. First ship home and we won on corrected time. Big time.

Day two saw some good breeze at the start which later calmed and became a drifter. The weather mark had been set close to Cannes this time. The French race committee had set a mark a mile to weather which was followed by a long downwind leg along the shore to the mark off Cannes. It all went well until we rounded the mark again in dying wind. We opted for the shore again and others drifted out to sea. They got the new breeze (180° shift at noon again) setting in first and some of them rolled us during the downwind tacking. We were fighting back as quick as we got some nice sailable breeze and just squeezed in as second ship home. Corrected we were 4th. The next competitor on the score board had managed two 2nd places thus we had to beat him in the next race.

Day three saw us meeting at the boat without the owner, who had other responsibilities. We had small troubles interpreting the French way of signalling and about the course which was set as an up-and-down. We managed a good start and stayed in front. I remember that the big white gennaker on the boat pulled us fast downwind with a bit of tweaking the tackline. Crew weight on the rail did not help much in rolling the boat to windward. It is just plain stiff. First across the line and first on corrected time was a boost for the morale, the owner and the marketing of the AXion 33.5. Day four was a windless day and we could´nt either loose or show the öpotential of the boat. We won the regatta on a countback and I am still wondering what makes this 33 footer so incredibly fast. It could not have been my sheeting, ej?

Later K. and I spend some nice days strolling through the old and picturesque St. Paul, through the big marinas on the Cote and through St. Tropez. Boat spotting. We saw boats which you normally only see in the glossy mag´s. Ships like "Ice", "Carinthia IV", "Borkum Riff", "Stormy Weather", a couple of 12mR´s and 100foot Swans and the much admired "Mari Cha IV". It was worth of not going iceboating but now I just can´t wait and my friends are luring me into defending my title as Bavarian Champion down at Lake Rescia (see picture above) in the north of Italy. The webcam today looks nice. Black Ice. No snow. Just what we like in winter. But without training?

New Sails

In my August theme "Where do you sail" I had mentioned that I need fuller sails for my Bull 7000 due to a lack of power in light air and choppy sea. I am working on this issue now and as always the big question to me is about: "who shall make these sails...". I have many friends in the sailmaking business, some had been fine competitors, some I had sailed together with, which makes the decision rather difficult. Some I had distributed myself but at the end of the day it comes down to: "who can provide the best service and who has a knowledge in the class".

For my Bull 7000, I have always trusted my English friends at Sobstad as they have sailed the Bull very successfully themselves. That has been the reason why I have ordered the headsails always from them. You can see from some nice features that they really have a knowledge about, how the boat is best being rigged. Subtle detailing. The mainsail on this boat is another story, as I have a carbon mast in the boat after the aluminium mast broke some years ago. We burried the bow into a steep wave trying to pass a 44ft X-Yacht in strong wind. We did not release the Top Gennaker immediately as we should have, and so the disaster started. The top of the mast kept on sailing, the boat, deep into the stern wave of the boat which we chased, stopped.

The new "kind of DIY" carbon mast is very stiff, maybe we used a little bit too much carbon as a safety factor and the stiffness gave us some problems with the first new mainsail. This one for obvious reasons, had been ordered locally. Our friends at HOLM Segel, just around the corner, had to re-measure and to re-cut the luff twice as I had always seen the sail as a test sail for the new rig configuration: Taller mast and shorter boom was my aim. Now it is time to do something better. Of course a lighter mainsail made of kevlar and maybe some carbonfibre to follow the loadpaths. This normally is difficult or better impossible to get from your sailmaker around the corner. But there is development happening in the market and this year the Dimension-Polyant brand offered the 4th Dimension pre-fabricated highTech sails to smaller sailmakers to service their customers. This is the way to go. The "local sailmakers" can purchase loadpath optimized sails in one piece but without all the necessary clews, rings, reefs and such. They put on the luff and the leechcord and will fit the sail to their customers special requirements. In my case, a square head, loose foot and high tension cunningham which shall open the top when pulled.

There is lot´s more about sails and adjustments which I have learned during my sailing experiences. One thing for sure which amazed me lately had been the new and very strong boom vang which I saw on an exhibition Laser. This nice piece of equipment allowed me to pull until the boom hit the afterdeck of the boat. Without much muscles. Compared to the new Laser, which K. could have used during the Christmas break in the Med (no wind at all, story following later), that fitting on the exhibition boat was so much better that I will try to get it for my own downhaul. Not only an eye-opener but also a leech-opener. American made.

How it all began

Inspired by the great Tillerman, (see link to Propercourse on the right side) I have written a little story about the beginning of my sailing. I have only realized by now that I am a little late but there are maybe some readers out there, who might enjoy this. Also my THANKS to Tillerman to keep us communicating, especially in this winter time without a boat in soft water or on hard water.

Here it goes:
Coming from a non sailing family I caught the bug by watching sailboats on the river Elbe as a teenager. Sometimes a friend took me in an old steel dinghy. Building paper kites I learned about the wind. Did start only when I was 23 and had earned some money to buy my own boat in 1970/1. A Flying Dutchman. G-500. An old boat. The racers had G-931 and above. A change in shape had taken place and the "expert sailors" laughed at me, when I showed up at Kiel Week.

It was also difficult to find a club without having two bailsmen. Read every book in the trade. Trimmed a lot ashore. Participated in races though the boat was old and outdated. Overhauled it and painted it and sold it and did the same with FD G-1057, my second boat. Having my third brand new FD, G-1308, built by Hein in 1974 and yes, a sistership to the famous G-1288 from the Diesch brothers, who won Gold in Kingston in 1976. I practised with them but only managed to become no. 12 in the long German ranking list at those times. And yes, I remember a phone conversation with Ian Murray (?) who wanted to order a Hein boat and I tried to help with the German/English, uuuhps Aussie language, when Uli Libor (FD Olympic Silver in Accapulco) was not available.... My first win came in autumn 1974 in Berlin. Oh, I love this silver plate, which showed me: I can do it. Today I am not putting any pressure on my 9 year old boy who does not like boats at all, though I would love to see him sailing and to tinker with his boats as I love to do, still today.
_________________
smooth sailing
Manfred
_/) _/)

New kid on the blog...

Having had not much time going into blogland lately, I was pleased to see a comment by Burki in my blog. He seemed to like the idea of blogging so much that he started 3 blogs. One is named "thefridge" , hmm, what does it mean. I thought actually, it is named the "fridge door" and maybe he wants to tell us about his unhappy days on a Laser. One must know that he has turned into a speed windsurfer, though I know that he had been one of the best crews one could find in Germany. Not only on the wire of a 14 footer but also in Keelboats where he sailed with Jochen Schümann (of Alinghi fame) in a couple Match Races. I think that he also won the Champion of Champions Series in a PIRAT (like the Snipe) dinghy some years ago.

Burki has changed into a Speedsurfer and he showed me some interesting devices and computer programms about the way these Speedsurfers are listing and reporting their data on to the Internet. Maybe you find some information on his pages, which I am going to link. The windsurfers are only racing against the clock (should I say GPS?), whilst we sailors are normally sailing against another or other boats. I have the feeling that we can learn from the Speedsters, from what Burki had shown to me. There had not been enough time at his last visit and I do hope that we can spend more time when he is over here, in the North of Germany. Or maybe, as Burki suggested, in spring 2007 at the Cote á Azur. If I am not able to manage the linking today, goto: http://c3-thefridge.blogspot.com/

Winter mode and talks about Foiling

Everyone out here in the North of Germany is now getting into winter mode. Not that it has been cold at present, the point of freezing seemed far away. Interestingly, my little DN (history & race results) booklet tells me that in the past years we have had some nice days sailing the DN at the end of November. Having seriously raced in Germany in the middle of December, which needs safe ice. This will not happen this year. We have to be patient.

Bar talk at the local sailing club at present is about apparent wind sailing and the message has spread that we will have two Bladeriders (Foiler Moth´s) sailing, or should I better say, trying to fly, on the waters of the Schlei next spring. Boats are not produced yet, but delivery has been confirmed by KA sails. Being an eagerly waiting new owner of a Bladerider, I have had a look at the Aussie Moth website and found the discussions about the status of the class, e.g. will the Bladerider ruin the Moth class etc, astounding. My friend and I would never even have suggested to purchase a Moth from what we had seen so far within the class in Germany. The boats being used looked very crude, they normally did not survive one race without going back into the "homeyard". One particular boat, (a Prowler?) looked well sorted and Jens from Ratzeburg was flying it very well. This pulled the trigger and the Bladerunner, exhibited on the Hanseboot show, looked sorted. Looked the business. Also the fact that Rohan did sail it on the River Elbe (my homewater for many Flying Dutchman years), a tidal water with busy traffic of the biggest container ships, right before Hanseboot. This showed us, what is possible. Far, far away from going racing in the class we want to learn about this exiting thing, called foiling, and if it is not for us, I am sure that many people want to jump on the wagon next year and we will be able to easily sell the boats. Of course this is not the objective. Definitely not.

Some people asked about the foil for the windsurfer which I mentioned during Hanseboot conversations and my blog. We showed the crude equipment (MarkII), built by Werner, on the boatshow and people were interested but did not believe, that you can fly with it. There is actually a video, which proves that it is possible to do so and to steer as usual with the mast raked forward or backwards. I wish I would be technically able to put it into You Tube, but have not tried anything like that yet. For my Blogger friends I put a photo down here.

In the middle of this week I have to fly out to Dubai. This time only a couple of days and for "business only" reasons, but I think, that I will spend one or two evenings on the patio of the Dubai Offshore Sailing Club. Meet me there.

HANSEBOOT, the International Moth and our booth

Hanseboot boatshow started last Saturday and my company is participating since I have found it 22 years ago. This year we had to change the location due to the extensive rebuilt of the whole area. The old halls are being teared down and the Hamburg Messe is building new, really large halls for exhibitions of all kind. The fair ground is most known to seafarers, be it professionals or amateurs for it’s Ship, Machine and Ocean Technology exhibition as well as for the boat show with an in water part in the Hamburg harbour. Boats of all kinds are exhibited and one of the stars of the show had been the new HANSE 63 in a fascinating apricot colour for a client from the US east coast. This thing is really huge. OK, in the water down at the marina they have a SWAN-80-something and other big boats but as an exhibitor myself I do not have time to drive down to the harbour. Also the weather this week is really bad and the temperature is soaring around 0° C since Thursday. Better to stay in inside.

To me the most exciting boat on the show is the Bladerider, exhibited by my sailing friend Christian (onSail) who represents the RS range of products and he struck a deal with Rohan Veal, the former World Champion of the International Moth class, to come and join him on the show and to give a bit of interviews and to promote the „flying Moth“. Their stand is opposite our own one and you can imagine that since Friday evening when we where all rigging our booths, I could not take my eyes of this little craft. After a good night sleep in Hamburg in my Van and a bit of discussions with my colleagues early in the morning, I took the chance to talk to Christian and Rohan at exact one minute after the opening of the show and ordered a Bladerider. Yes, my friends. I will be able to report to you first hand experience about sailing this most exciting sailing boat of the century. Of course you have to wait until the late spring next year. I am getting in to DN iceboat mode first and we DN´ers al hope for cold season with black ice. (see also my entries from Jan 06 and further) Sailing the Moth later next year, I need to do a bit of slimming down, loosing weight and a better fitness, but it is motivating. Not that I can see myself sailing somewhere in the middle fleet in the International Moth´s World Championship to be held in Dubai in 2008, but the plan is set. Practise and have fun as much as possible and to get the license to foil as quick as possible.

It happened that an old windsurfing buddy came along in my office some days before the “hanseboot”. Werner of the famous Wernerfinne had developed a foil for his windsurfer. He even brought to me a video, which shows him riding high on the foil. Of course we did exhibit the foil and we promoted Werner´s marketing phrase “Foilen statt heulen”… So this part of hall 12 became a “Foiler” corner and I am sure that a couple of people caught the bug and will join us next year, or maybe later.

For my blogger friends out there, I was able to convince Rohan to write a short paragraph into my blog. Here it goes, “live from the hanseboot Boatshow:

This is Rohan here writing a quick spot on Manfred´s blog. Not sure what I am supposed to write, but for someone who is nearly twice my age, Manfred seems like he is still living as a teenager! And not only did he buy a boat from us, but he makes frequent visits to our booth to introduce me to a potential moth sailor or helps sell boats to interested customers. Just wondering how long it will be before Manfred will start working for KA and take over my job? Ah well, hopefully I can still take him out on the race course! Maybe not on the DN tho…
Rohan Veal
www.rohanveal.com

Last sailing this season

Germany had a long weekend from September 30th until 3rd of October, the day of celebration of the re-unification. The wall came down on 3rd of October 1989. Many sailors went out for a last cruise and we took “Samantha” our 36db for a cruise into the islands of Denmark were we met friends for a dinner on board and some interesting conversations. Our friends had invited for a „good red one“ a couple from a Swedish boat, a Hallberg Rassy. This couple had already fulfilled the dream of crossing the Atlantic and cruising the Caribbean waters. Oh, we wished we would have time to do the same. The Swedish Gentleman spoke fluent German, as it happened that he worked in Hamburg as an engineer. Other people on board the classic 53´ sloop, that reminds one to the great S & S designs, had been our DN iceboating friends. Of course we also discussed the upcoming season and if we should go to the USA to sail in the World Championship in 2007. Our friends from the Detroit area had spoken out invitations last time around.
As I can only speak for myself, I will not do it again as my last encounter had cost me „an arm and a leg“. Do not worry, this means, I had spent way too much money. I had bought a complete DN to stay in a trailer with four other European iceboats but it turned out to be „not much sailing, but much travelling time“. Not exactly what I wanted. I sold my equipment and bailed out.
Back to report about the last weekend of sailing. Our destination had been Avernakø. It turned out to be a 70° apparent wind reach with our new Code Zero. Lovely weather and we were dressed in T-shirts. What a late autumn day this was. We reached the destination pretty late, as the wind only picked up around noon. Friends with their boats had come from different destinations and the cooking had already begun. We had brought a home baked cake with us, which somehow everybody was longing for. Coffee and cake in the cockpit of "Samantha" with people coming and leaving. Later a walk across the island in the beautiful countryside which wetted our appetite for the evening dinner. We watched a beautiful sunset from a nice vintage point and than back to the small harbour. What a wonderful smell as we came close to the little harbour. Lamb, spiced with garlic and fresh mushrooms were cooked in the pantry of “Katinka”. The photo shows our wide IMS stern and "Katinka" beautiful bow line.
After a nice dinner we started discussing the weather report for the next day, which showed no good. Henning, who had sailed this weekend as a single hander on his X-79 decided for an early departure, before the 25-30kn of predicted wind would have built up substantial waves on the open sea. Kerstin and I thought we could take it easier with our boat and did not want to leave already at 06.00h. Maybe it was a mistake, as after breakfast around 10.00h, when everyone else prepared for a very windy windward leg home, the wind howled in the rigs of the boats. We prepared 2nd reef and jib no. 4 for us. The bigger boats just used their headsails, which are on roller furls. When we left the wind shadow in the lee of the island, we thought that this was the right set up. “Katinka” impressed us much, when they just rolled out their headsail and the beautiful sloop with the classic lines just glided through the waves whilst we started hammering into head waves on our race orientated IMS hull. It turned out to be the toughest windward sailing of the season. Around the half way mark the mainsail broke in parts and our boat just does not like to sail upwind nicely without a piece of main. We had to go lower and of course more distance. As everyone had got the message for a right hand shift coming in the afternoon from weather reports, we sailed mostly for the right side to be able to ease and reach after the shift. What happened: it turned left around 15.00h and we had another beat into our destination at Maasholm. These “wrong decision making” or bad weather predictions do no only cause frustrations and bad placing during regattas but they are disgusting whilst on a cruising tour. You long for the hot shower but instead you find yourself beating into the wind and sea for another extra 1 -2 hour. Finally we made it. The boat was prepared for the haul out and winter storage and this season is finished for us. Hamburg boat show is coming soon, the house hunting is coming to an end, the contracts have to be signed and there is lot’s to think about what we will do next season. Maybe leave “Samantha” in storage for a season and get on with other important matters or share the boat with my brother who is finally “coming home” after having spent many, many years on the ocean and in the south sea. I am full of hope that I can improve my cruising skills, weather and navigation knowledge with his help.

Sailing the Dinghy

This blog shall not be dead, no. Instead of writing, I am househunting. Whoever has done this, know´s what I am talking about. I am on the hunt since 6-8 month and a couple projects have slipped away. Some others were "rip off´s". Now my projects, left in the bag, are getting closer to the water. The Schleifjord which I had shown in a previous thread.

Nevertheless the weekends are devoted to sailing and after doing the Sportsboat thing in Flensburg it was time to change back into the singlehand dinghy for some basics. We had three one-design Seggerling´s on the starting line and a couple of yardstick boats, from IC (International Canoe) to Skiffs. A very good regatta on a nice lake between Rostock and Berlin, roughly speaking. It is one of our favourite lakes for DN iceboating and many championships have been sailed there. Maybe one of the reasons not writing immediately after the weekend had been my "loss to the girl". She beated me and my other sailing mate on the water with better height and better speed. She was really good in moderate to strong wind but unbeatable on the Sunday with medium winds. Maybe we practised too much with her. Besides some rough moments mentally, during the race, of course we cheered her and felt that she deserved it. She shows amazing tacks and an amazing happiness once she is out there on her own boat. I have a photo which proves it all but have to get permission first to put it on here.

On the other side of planning and not sailing, I must say, that I am hooked on the Swift SOLO. I got somehow into their mailer and they keep me informed about things going on. I am trying to convince 3-4 guys here in the office or from the sailing club, that we should purchase kits and start building them during wood/epoxy seminars. This boat not only attracts me from the beauty of the wood work but also the lightness and the way the guys are handling it in the videos. Them who knows have seen it. For the other ones I will put a link in here later. I have to hit the road but did not want to leave you in the dark.

Swift SOLO homepage

Eehm, this is about sailing but just a short one about a film, which I saw the other day. I got the "World´s fastest Indian" from a friend who visited me, coming home to Europe from New Zealand. Really worth looking it. It gave me tears, shivers and happiness. All you want to get from a movie. A great happy end and a lection that "you can do it".