Three Mothies on a Melges 24

No, no, we do not want to compete with Bora, who actually wants to become the World Champion 2011 in the Melges 24 class in the windy Corpus Christi of USA this year. At least what I interpreted from reading some sailing sites.

We sailed the beer-can-race on Wednesday night in a boat, borrowed to me by my friend Jürgen, who took the pain to put his boat "Henry Lloyd" into water, but than he had to travel home for abt 120km for a business date, fixed some time ago. It was the start of the season. So it was me to search for crew in the last minute and I checked in with Markus and Nina, who were still around in the area for some Moth sailing and testing some lakes for our upcoming Moth training camp. One of Jürgen´s crew joined us and off we sailed, racing against the clock (Yardstick) and boats like the X-99, X-34, X-79´s, H-Boats, etc. Not a big deal, we rounded the weather mark in third behind bigger boats and with Markus experience on the G-sail from his 49er campaign, we VMG´ed fast to the leeward mark. It was all fun and a good evening sail. The air was warm and we were in good company. As the three Mothies of us are usually singlehanders, everyone had a turn on the tiller. Nina found it a bit awkward that the boat heeled to leeward after she had trained hard for windward heel under the auspices of Markus. Yes, and the mainsail did not look as nice as a cambered KA moth sail does. And with a bit of lead on the bottom, it won´t fly.

As nobody took photos from the Wednesday night regatta, I´ll post here the winner of our Moth event, Markus. He is just rounding the leeward mark. You can see the Schleswig Dom in the background and the old town, the Fisherman´s village is to the right. Photo courtesy by Anja Rupp.

If you have time to waste...

From the last weekend regatta, the "Carbon- Motte". Anja just published hers and other photographers photos on Picasa. There are some great shots and the winner in posing is again Hannes. What is it, that makes him always looking smart on the photos. If you see him foiling and being so relaxed on his Bladerider, don´t you think, you also want one? Anyone looking out for a used boat to start with, here is a linky: Used Moths for sale

And if you have time to waste, have a look here:

87 photos from Anja on: Anja´s Photos
92 photos from Randolf: Randolf´s Photos
49 photos from Andri: Andri´s Photos

Thank you Anja for all your great work for the Moth Class. Thank you again to all participants and especially for all those who helped us with all sorts of things, hands on, to make this a great event. A truly regatta from sailors for sailors. Hope to see you all again in October and I can promise you already now: a "Sauna on the beach".

Demolition Derby and than you need service...

What a great Moth regatta we had sailed over this past May weekend. Blue sky and the wind was nuking in the 20kn range and gusting up to 25kn with a fair bit of 10° direction changing. 13 Moth sailors from all over Germany participated but the early season and the strong breeze took it´s toll on the boats and on the bodies of the sailors. Only 2 sailors, Markus, GER-3732 and Hannes, GER-3444 survived the 6 races held on Saturday and Sunday. Nothing beats experience and these two great sailors have both a 49er Olympic Campaign behind them with Hannes, together with his brother, taking Bronze in the windy 2008 Quingdao races. You guys done the fleet proud.

Anyway a more complete report and a link to great fotos will follow later. This is about how to fix and how to get spares for our beloved boats. We are in Germany and this is not really Mothland when seen through the eyes of the current bread of highTech boats. So for broken booms, broken tillerarms, for the necessary RHA (ride-height-adjuster) and various other bits and peaces my first choice now, are the people at SailingBits., Australia. Have a look at their website: sailingbits.
They do understand that we do not want to waist our time waiting for answers, waiting for spares, they just do it. They offer at competitive prices, take in the order and the moonies and despatch immediately by courier or fast AUSSIE post. That is what I call great service. For the Newbies in the Moth class, John Harris won 2008 the World Champion (on a Bladerider) so he knows what he is talking about. His winning championship boat is now owned by Felix S. which brings me to say "THANK YOU" to Felix in the name of all the competitors from the "Carbon-Motte" event. Felix donated vouchers, specially for this event through his company: alendra.de, who are supplying clothes and other sailing related gear. I would say: For sailors body and soul requirements, first have a look at the alendrashop Felix text message to me, that I should hand out one voucher for every competitor, came a bit late and therefore we only issued 3 vouchers, polite as we are. Maybe I can take his word and use ALENDRA again next time at the autumn event or at Lake Goldberg, when the next regatta, sponsored by CTM will take place. Please feel free to leave your "mark" on the Facebook site if you like it.

Full results list from the Carbon-Motte here: German Moth Class and an article SHZ, vom 9.5.2011 about the CTM "Carbon-Motte" was printed in the local newspaper today and can be seen on the German Moth site where a hundred fotos and videos, courtesy by Anja @ Mottenfieber.de will appear soon. Fotos on this blog entry courtesy by Andreas Borrink.

Thanks for the inspiration Andrea!

Coming weekend we will sail for the "Carbon-Motte" trophy here in Schleswig, North Germany. We have 15 sailors from Germany and Denmark signed in at the moment and maybe some others will come out of the bushes in the last minute. You never know. The weather only turned into nice and sailable just recently. Before the water had been in the single figure temperature range. You know, this range where the foils loose grip in the water...

I was inspired to produce this challenge trophy after reading Andrea´s blog entry about a Moth-Carbon-Key-Ring. Have a look yourself at: carbon-fiber-key-ring. The photo is a bit rough, taken on the iPhone and it does not show the fine woven carbon fabric and the 8mm solid carbon plate (infusion technique) from which we milled the Moth. The trophy has to be challenged every year either here on the Schlei, as long as I am able to put my Moth into the water or maybe somewhere else. I am not donating a trophy again in a class with one outstanding sailor (Sven K. in this instance, whom I think would walk away with the trophy after 3 wins in a row) without putting it onto an "endless challenge" Nobody will win it forever. Like one of these great trophies, like the Admiral´s Cup, the Commodore´s Cup, the Roosevelt Cup and many others. It just lacks a bit of height and silver, this Carbon-Moth. But than, is black carbon of today not the silver of yesterday?

On a different note I promised to write about some misshapes on my boat due to my own repairs and some spares which I had used and which did not do the job properly. I have lost a wand in the process, had water in the bow, was fighting with the cambers and slacking hiking straps but now the boat #3627 seems to be in good shape. Thanks to sailingbits and thanks to Amac . Hope everything will work out fine on the weekend and I will not miss the races due to boat problems. Will keep you updated.

Anyone interested in the German press release about the regatta, follow this link: SA-Cup Germany

Moth Ramblings...

Reading the latest in the Moth-blog-world by Cookie, I am under the same impression like him, that professionalism must have taken over way too much and has taken time away from fellow mothies which usually they had spent for the blogosshere. Yes, I am missing the ramblings from a few great sailors and especially the comments which are following them usually. I do hope that Simon P. will keep us entertained as well as educated. (What would I have done without his tips about the draining hole positions in the M2. Maybe I would have hacked a draining hole which would: "look like you cut(hacked)that first hole with a wet fish!!!", according to a quote by Marty J in the following blog entry: m-m-m-m-mach2-mod/

And that reminded me about writing about some misshapes or mistakes or misfortunes I had lately after coming back from some great and some not-so-great-sailing in Spain. Don´t get me wrong here, I am not blaming anyone, I am purely blaming the messenger. Where should I start? Maybe a good idea to start with the "finding of the names" session for Kerstin´s GER-3627 (new MSL10 and soft mast) and my new GER-3835 (old MSL13 and stiff mast) Just for the reference, both are M2´s and my Bladerider went to a happy new owner in Holland. Yes, I do not name my DN´s though I have various hulls, I am purely known as G-99 as we are keeping our registration numbers for a life time. Not that I started the DN sailing some 50 years ago, which the number would assume. No, I bought my first boat (a wreck) from a gentleman who decided to retire from the sport and he donated this great number to me. Anyway, I am sometimes a traditionalist and real boats shall have names. I was reminded by one great blog entry (AGAIN!) by Simon P. and I never felt comfortable having a new or used (3627) Moth and not naming it. This we now wanted to change for the two Moth´s and martyred our brains. She came up with the great name ORANGE, as her first Moth (complete different story) which had never been finished by the builder, was supposed to be painted in part orange and some visible clear carbon. Yes, and I came up with the simple solution to name the new one, MOTTE.

Man, we got hammered or verbally beaten by Alan at Pro-Velaonce we mentioned the names in a light evening conversation. He must be an authority in English Yachting rules. Wait for what he has in mind for the upcoming Moth Fest. What a laugh we had that evening, how negative the words sounded when he spoke them out and yes, it began to sink into me that "Agent ORANGE" can be a very bad association. And this in the middle of all the Orange plantations down there in Murcia, Spain. Just think about how these beautiful trees would look like without leafs. And also think about the "all-orange" sail, where the sailmaking people must have understood something wrong from K´s wishes to have some orange applications (reinforcements or such). It must be the language barrier which had played a big part to make a whole sail in orange. It reminds me to the meaning of the "Morning Glory". A great boatname, for a string of successful German Yachts, but a nasty meaning in Aussie slang. Or would you really let the world know you have a: "....". It is the language barrier, I told you. OK, ORANGE will now be named GOLDFISCH, which shall reassemble the color scheme of the sail well.

A different story for my own findings in the word: MOTTE, for the new GER-3835. Avid readers will associate this rightly with Moth. Just the English word put into understandable German. What is wrong with it? No phantasy, a lack of wit I was told whilst we had a big laugh about the theme. To make a long story short, Alan came up with the new name of LUNA. He told me, it stands for Moth in some other language, but carries a lot more phantasy... Yes, hopefully.

So time is limited today and though I wanted to add some useful information about the repairs I had to do on 3627 which did not all come out successful and which kept me busy more than one evening, but I spare that for next time. Hopefully before the upcoming weekend where I am organizing a Moth regatta Regatta: "Carbon-Motte"on my home waters. As per today we have an international field signed up and the best German sailors have also signed in. You should not miss it. If it does not blow stinks from the East, like the last 8 days, (up to 30kn/h) we will have a great weekend.

Fun in the Sun...

Yes, a great week here at Pro-Vela, Alan´s Moth camp at the Mar Menor. Great weather, the boats arrived in time, lot´s of help and tools from the pro-vela team to put the boats together, and of we went on to the water. You can see here three happy campers: AJ who is the red baron and man, did he buy speed. Of course he is very talented and a good boat can only help getting the best out the sailor using it. Than you can see KR, she has only started foiling this week and man, is she progressing. Her will-power to get up on the foils and flying was only dampened by Alan´s thorough training methods, when he strictly forbid foiling for the first sessions. Boat handling and understanding how it reacts comes first in his training methods. The training boat is in pristine conditions, newly rigged with a tramp, made by a sailmaker called Snail Sails. I do not get it. Do you? But the tramps are better than the one I had seen lately from one of our German Moth friends. Yes, and the proud owner of the new black beauty is me.

But my sailing is worse than average, I mean, my average. Maybe I will become the "famous Moth sailor" unable to foil jibe. Or I have to start a new (regatta) class for myself, forbidding to jibe and doing tacks instead. It is only the ever motivating Alan, who keeps me on track. But it is the choppy Mar Menor which is dampening my will-power and yesterday I gave up after only being out for 15 minutes. I unclipped the ball joint and sailed downwind back to the shore. But other than my own performance it is great being here when at home it barely gets above 10°C and the water not even in the double figure region. Hope you do enjoy your season start as well as we are doing. Over and out and back to school.

Just can´t wait...

Just can´t wait to finish work... sometime after 17.00h
Just can´t wait to hopp in the plane...early Sunday morning
Just can´t wait to feel the warm air surrounding me... around Sunday late morning
Just can´t wait to arrive at the CAR... 90 minutes later
Just can´t wait to unwrap the new beauty...at the first possible moment
And to take her out when she is ready for me.

More about her later.

End of March and away with hard Water...

Saw Harald´s Blog entry today. He went sailing on his Moth with the new foils. He took a photo from the water, with a lot of water. Went back to my own blog and realized that there is still frozen water in the header. Need to change it. Took a photo from the window yesterday. The Wikings are already out here.

On a different note: It was so much fun to assemble the M2 3627 which had been stowed away in the box over the winter. Everything is ready to go but the water here still under 4°C. How do I know? From the Fishermen in the village. The Hering (?) is not coming into the Schlei Fjord for spawning with the water being so cold. They need abt. 5-6° and than they are coming in shoals. Good times. Hope to see you on the water soon.

Our Sport: It is about the People

More often I have written about similarities between my two favorite classes of sailing boats. The DN Iceboat and the Moth class. Both are development classes and both have a rich and long standing history. As being a longtime competitor in the DN with nearly 40 years of building boats and racing them behind me, and only a short period in the Moth (only foiling) I am not able to verify what had been discussed in the Moth and being similar in the DN but the other way round I am rather well informed.

Uuuhps, now this blog entry is going to become complicated and starts to become technical. Instead, it should better express my initial thoughts, before writing this one and better not getting into discussions like e.g. max 15 (Moth) or max 20 (DN) races at championships, which I personally find stupid. Better two series with a short break in between and the Worlds or Euro Championship with 7-8 races and after that using the time left for "Cup races" with max 6 races for the competitors who are left to participate. Those will usually also be the ones who do it for the love of the sport and not for the sake of their sponsors nor for the title alone. Bringing the fun back, when the all important thing, the title, had been decided.

Actually I wanted to bring to you the three part CNN Mainsail episodes, lead by two times gold medal winner Shirley Robinson, about the last DN European Championship held in Estonia in March 2011. What you will see is not much about boats racing past a mark but it is about the essence of the sport, the people. For me this was pretty emotional to watch. Take your time. Have some fun and give me your comment.
CNN mainsail.DN one
CNN mainsail.DN two
CNN mainsail.DN three

Advise for Alan

Graham had asked Alan (see Alan´s latest blog entry) how he will manage to put his boat on top of the Van and I´d like to share an idea which I had used for my other dinghy. Of course Alan, you must de-rig, or maybe your Father can help you lazy bugger, otherwise the next short circuit (Kurzschluss) in Murcia will be yours.

Other than reading from the post and subsequent reply, I would like to recommend Travemünde 2011 to you guys. The Moths are not at the wurst-mile, we are located on the other side, behind the "PASSAT". And we are launching from the big beach there. Some surprises are planned but I cannot take away from our organizers the glory which will go with it. I think that the location alone will bring us together a bit more, if that is what you are aiming for. And you should not worry about the following:

1. Weed: We will take care of it, raking it away for you or we will have wind from offshore and it´s been blown away.
2. Money: Don´t worry, your spouses will be able to spend loads on the other side whilst you are swimming errg foiling.
3. Arrest: If you have not heart until today, the iron curtain isn´t anymore. If you are washed into the shore, you are still in (West) Germany and you can take a taxi home and pay with €´s.

That is convincing, isn´t it?

DN Season is finished, Moth is coming.

There had been small hopes for a Danish Championship last weekend but due to rain and temperatures above zero it had to be cancelled and I took the opportunity to clean and oil and check my gear and to stow it away after taking some notes for the start of the next season. There is some work to do after the last couple of seasons being lazy, but I cannot do the work now, when the spring is lurking around the corner and early spring flowers start to blossom.

Today I have received confirmation of the new boat (MACH2) to be supplied to the Pro-Vela for an early season practice session in the beginning of April. Good job so far by the M2 team. Hopefully the customs declaration will run a bit smoother other than for the parts from SailingBits, which I had ordered for myself and Moth friends. Wanted to make life easier for them but with our customs authorities clinging to their jobs with overseas deliveries, it now becomes a small problem to get the goods out of customs. As my friends are located in different places, I am sure it would have been messy for them to get hold of the parts. I am sending my charming colleague out tomorrow to talk to the bureaucratics in Flensburg.

If things with the new boat to be delivered to Spain are not going according to the plan, I am sure that Alan would appreciate, if I send him the stunning girl to help with custom house bureaucrazy (!)

Edit. A video called: The Making of Eissegeln Europameisterschaft Saaremaa 2011. Heli Videos
Edit. 17.3.2011: Another one I really like to recommend: DN EC 2011 on CNN Mainsail
Edit. 22.3.2011: The German TV report at: ZDF report

Back from the DN Europeans

Just back from the DN Europeans with abt. 160 competitors I had found this report from the winner, Karol Jablonski, in my inbox: I would not be able to describe the event and the tough conditions, which we had faced, any better. Also, I will not take credit away from the publishers and therefore please go to the following link to read in English and German a great report about our last week, spend on the Ice of the Baltic Sea in Saaremaa, Estonia. DN EC report by winner, Karol Jablonski

The photo shows me and fellow iceboater "Praline, G-666" on the left. With special regards to the Detroit DN fleet.

Photo courtesy: Andreas Seegers:

PS: I wonder about this blog entry appearing in NZ? Was not able to leave a comment on the sailracewin blog. Never had a Kiwi sailing a DN with us though me and other DNérs have offered various invitations over the years. It is not the BloKart style, man. It is tougher.

Good Bye to the "Old Faithful"

Yes, you see my wonderful Bladerider X8 being on the move to a new home in Holland. May Jaap, the new owner enjoy the boat as much as I did. What a great time we had together, the X8 and myself. And it had been reliable through all the sailing, that is the reason I was calling it "Old Faithful". Just like my old 1973 MG B GT which is being used very seldom but when it is needed it starts roaring after a few revs.

Selling the X8 was not easy at two ends. First there had been no reaction on my advertisement on the International Moth Homepage (thanks to Doug for such a great tool). Than, out of the blue I had 3 highly interested people in the boat. One from Holland, one from Germany and one from Poland. I settled with Jaap as he made a decision without much fuss and the boat was his. Michal from Poland, with whom I had good correspondence settled with MACH 2 and a distributorship. After the dust had settled there came another very interested person via my good friend Søren from Horsens, Denmark. Anyway it was a bit of an emotional departure as K´s and my idea had been to keep the boat for her. But the more I thought about it, the more I thought about the logistics with spare parts for two different brands. (Spares, big or small always needed when sailing Moths) the closer I came to the conclusion to buy another MACH2. This will help with having equal parts and the possibility to vandalize one boat whilst waiting for spares. Downtime must be short as are the month of summer.

Also my Moth buddy, Andreas, being on the rise and becoming quick on the race course, wanted a M2 himself. When he was a bit undecided I pushed him into Simon´s direction and as far as I am concerned, nothing speaks against a well set up ABARTH Moth on our home waters on the Schlei Fjord. So, there had been a few good Moth deals lately in our small fleet. And we will all meet with our new toys at the Moth Fest in May at the Mar Menor. (No direct link here as I think it is already overbooked...)

As far as activities around the house are concerned, I am preparing for the DN Euros in Estonia, Latvia or Poland. The news this morning had been that even Finland is an option now. Our president and the professional race committee* are concerned about snow coming in on the "best ice since 30 years" in Saaremaa, an island near Haapsalu in the Baltic Sea. Have not sailed lately as I was not in the mood for the long trips to the south (Lake Rescia) or to the north (near Gothenburg). Family kept me away. The ones who are interested in the more technical side of the DN rig should read the German article which was written in the SR online mag at: Segelreporter.com

I hope to be able to send a small report from the DN EUROS but anyone being more interested should check in at: www.eissegeln.de. Either the Pinboard or the DN Yacht button will contain reports. The racing will start on Sunday 27th and I think I have to go through a qualifier to try to get from the "B" fleet to "A" fleet as my last ranking in the World ranking list just does not qualify me directly for the Gold fleet anymore. It will be difficult but not unmanageable. First I need boat speed on the given day. What I do not need, is a starting position outside on the left (always computer generated for first race, odd numbers on the left) as that will give me 2 more tacks other than the starters on the starboard side. Anyway the preparation of the gear already gave me some fun and I am sure I will enjoy the event. Meeting friends from around the world and sharing the same passion is always great.

* In the DN class we have a professional race committee (Stan Macur and friends from Poland) which are assisting the officials from the country which is responsible for the event. Compared to other classes, this works on a relatively small entry fee of € 150,--per participant for the whole event. Usually there are around 150 to 180 starters which are divided into 3 or even 4 fleets depending on the size of the available area. The maximum fleet size is about 54 starters and that works great. Something which I am sure will happen in Moth fleets in the very near future. I am with Simon and do not think it is possible to let 150 Moths foiling straight to the wall. Anybody knows what he meant with the broken pencil in the same post at: SP´s Blog ?

DN Racing in Denmark

What a great weekend we have had in Roskilde, Denmark, racing for the Seeland Championship or whatever it was called. Photo credit to Sejlfoto.dk And I got back into it. Got back my grin and will not compare it with the summer Mothing again, to say which is better for me, like I showed doubts about the Iceboating still being my favorite in my last post. No, you cannot compare, you should not. It is all very special and it is both rewarding to the work and time which you have to give into both sports. I am such a lucky guy to be here on Mother Earth, still being in decent shape and to discover it and to enjoy it. Sailing on hard water and foiling on the soft one.

For people being interested in more details about how DN regattas on ice come about, I would suggest reading John Casey´s last bit on his blog. A great sailor and journalist himself, he had been invited to take part in the 2011 DN World Championship in the USA, also held last weekend, whilst me and 40 other sailors from Denmark, Netherlands and Germany where sailing in Roskilde. Good and tough competitions in both events.

And as this blog entry is appearing on the IMCA site, I like to present my friends from both worlds two videos which I found to be very interesting to look at. Especially for people who are following the discussions on SA.com about Bora´s Wing. Enjoy and see you next time on the water. Hard or soft.

For the Moth Wing Video:

For the DN Video from Roskilde:

Who is behind this thing?

I had been pointed into the direction of this virtuell Moth Sailor by Magnus Wheatley, the handgranade journalist, see also link on the right side. Visiting the site, which Magnus also mentioned in his blog post which has an entry I would call: Virtuell Moth Sailor I am a little puzzled. This guy or girl must know a lot about sailing, hanggliding and such. Smells a bit like SP, hiding behind a different personality. Beside the Moth sailing on a very, very high level, I have read that he has a similar boat as described in one of the "noodleqt" posts, going cruising. Or could it be KK? She knows a thing or two about sailing. She is one of the gifted writers and story tellers like the gentleman mentioned before, as well. And does the sailing club not look a bit like the HISC? Never been there but seen photos. But it could also be someone from the Isle of Wight, who dreams about Moth sailing and who is or had been a hangglider pilot as well. The Deeg? Or one who sold me his "Magic MKIII" after teaching me the finer points of watching the clouds for thermal winds after a lot of "looking at the green barn" during the first lessons on the IoW. Feel free to guess who is behind the "noodles" personality.

Anyway, great stories to read after an evening of working on my DN runners which had an alignment problem. And one of the 440C runners had a notch which took some time to smooth on the belt sander. All this work because the Danish DN friends are calling for a regatta in Roskilde on the weekend. Haven´t done much sailing so far due to other commitments.

On the Moth side there is some planning for the Moth Fest and some training before at the Pro-Vela in April. Flights are being booked and everything else will fall into place, I am sure. It really is the first of many, many DN winters where I could live without ice sailing and instead going foiling with the Moth. Sailing on soft water has never been so exiting for me.

Spend the last two days at the "boot" in Düsseldorf. Haven´t seen a Moth there, instead I had met someone from real life in the seventieth. A gentleman who had sailed Flying Dutchman in some of the events where I also took part. Great stories to exchange about the Worlds in Weymouth ´74, about Travemünde and about Kieler Woche. Does anyone today believe that Rodney Pattison came to Kiel with a Morgan+8 towing his FD behind? John Mellow and I had witnessed it. He is now producing really nice sculptures in stainless steel. Some had been donated at the TP52 Audi Med Cup. I immediately ordered two "Moth Sculptures" to donate during two Moth events coming season. Hopefully they will help increasing participation in the planned Northern Europe Moth Circuit, where we expect sailors to participate from Sweden, Denmark and Germany at three events. one in each country. Of course Moth sailors from other countries are also invited to come. More news and maybe a flyer later on the IMCA site.

Anyone interested in composites or boatbuilding in generell should visit my companies new Facebook site at CTM Facebook and become a supporter. This will enable you to receive composite news or special offers on carbon and other materials.

Now we have a decision

Yes, it just came over the Internet. eissegeln.de German DN Championship is on. I have two afternoons of sailing just behind me and the body is a bit tired. The ice was very bumby, comparable to chop on a lake at 5 Bft. Need to work on some of my runners tonight which I had used yesterday for practice. Of course I will take my Lappie with me as it is nearly more interesting to know what happens in Belmont other than on the ice in Germany. Wishing all competitors from both mediums (the liquid in Belmont, Australia for the Moth class and the hard water DN friends in Klink, Germany) good luck and smooth sailing! See you on the Ice.

PS: Deutsche DN Segler sollten sich an der Diskussion im Forum beteiligen: Sind wir Memmen?

Edited at Jan., 28th:
The German Championship had not been sailed due to lack of wind, lack of sight and lot´s of water on the ice. Temperature was above 6°C but ice had been 30cm thick. No worries but you need at least wind and good visibility when you are crossing with your friends at abt. 40-50km/h upwind and around 80-100km/h downwind. Yes, I was happy that the racing had been skipped by those responsible. All the friends had a great time partying in the castle of Kling without me, who was suffering from bloody nose bleeding.

Wishing everyone a happy and prosperous New Year!

This aint no speedo foto. It is a shot of my weather station during the last couple of days. Taken in the morning at 09.30h we had this unusual low temperature of -16.1°C. One might think this is good for the DN season but due to massive snowfall after the first ice had appeared on most of our sailable lakes, the ice was not able to grow under the thermal snow layer. And the snow is too deep to sail through. Only one lake, called "Plöner See" froze over late at 24th of December and after 3-4 days the first sailors could be seen via the webcam installed at the local sailing club. I had been out there on the 30th and we did sail some short races around the marks which we had put up. I had not expected anything, my knee somehow injured, but my gear worked well and I had good speed and was able to be in front in all races bar one. It must be said that I took the chance about fourteen days ago, after the first cold nights, and sailed with a friend "at the bottom of our garden" on the Schlei. Not much wind but good for rigging the first time and checking the trim. All my DN stuff had been put away quite hectic in March as I was so keen to go foiling at Alan´s www.pro-vela.com. Nothing more than a bit of WD40 on the runners. Should better go into the workshop but you know what: There is still some Moth gear to be put into good shape and order.

Working on the DN stuff had also delayed more than one evening, because I had followed the Moth Wing discussions. Very interesting as a wing would also be something for me. I will not have transport or storage problems and I would really like to try one as I think it is cool. Cool in the way of interesting for me as a sailor, as someone who loves all windsports but has to make decisions about which ones to take up. I skipped the idea of kite surfing due to fancying the Foiler Moth. And to have a wing for the fun and technical interest of it would just be great. Not all that had been said in the SA forum discussions is fair and I can only appreciate that the executive committee in the Moth class kept their cool. Good job. Thank you very much. I am very keen to see results and to hear about the happenings in this great Mothosphere. Wishing you all, be it on hard water or on the liquid one Smooth Sailing and a great season!

Read this about Wing Development

Haven´t come to grips with blogging. Not even about the last great regatta in early November. Alster Glocke. Maybe later this year. Today I found a must read for most of my Moth friends. Have a look at

Bora talks about wing development. Thanks Bora!

Everyone is a Winner...

...at least on this page accept myself, as I am not one of the winners. Not a winner in terms of NOT having a picture of myself on this blog entry as there is none sailing picture available. Haven´t been able to sail one of the 8 great races which the International Moth fleet, who gathered here in Schleswig, sailed in great conditions past weekend. My bad luck had been two major breakdowns. On Saturday the MACH2 bow fitting did not allow me to participate, as breaking before the races even got started, and on Sunday the day was finished for me and my "old faithful" the BR X8, after the first race, where I might have hit something on the downwind. A log of wood slightly under water or something which knocked on my main foil which I lost later during the second start sequence. Very bad.

As I am sure you will find the complete results list and a report on the Mottenfieber site, I will not bore you with the details about the sun, the wind and the fun everybody had. You can see yourself if you follow the link to the photo book: All Photos courtesy by Andreas Borrink who did a great job on Saturday, running 4 races as PRO together with Johan and Jonie and also finding the time to take these 400 selected shots. Andreas and the young Johan and Jonie: you are always welcome in the Moth fleet. We appreciate your efforts to work with us and to understand the Grand Prix finish which made it possible to run 8 races in two days. Our thanks also goes to Philipp who worked as the PRO on the race committee on Sunday.

Edit: Not everyone might know. If you click on Diashow, the fotos appear in full screen in great quality.

Great sailing, 4 Races on the Saturday

We had four great races on the Schlei. Wind at around 20kn and 3 laps up and down. Sven is leading with 4 first and Burkh is on his heels.12 competitors who really enjoyed it. Let the pics speak for themselves