It is winter 2024 and I am back into action at least in the DN Class as well as summer sailing in my little Albin Express. 

Here you can see a photo from the opening ceremony in Estonia last week. We had sailors from 17 nations  appearing and they came as far as from Canada, USA and even a competitor from China. 

Had a couple of "bad years" but recovered very well and just being back from the 50 years DN Gold Cup with mixed results, of course I cannot keep up with the youngsters, running like Armin Harry on the start line. You get into a lot of dirty air and usually it is difficult to recover. Tacking early is dangerous as you are approaching the weather mark with its offset to leeward (Darling mark) on port and there are usually about 40-50 starboard sailor coming in hot. You do not want a crash with another boat sailing abt. 60km/h as well as yourself being as fast. 

This Blog entry had been written in the year of 2019. 

Took the photo away for a reason. Though this year had been planned as my last year sailing my Mach 2 Moth and finishing competitions with "Kiel Week", I now have to accept that due to a very bad accident sailing my DN a fortnight ago during Swedish Championship 2019 in GÄVLE, the recovery from two broken lumbar vertebra will take its time. Time to say goodbye to my Moth.

Moth World´s in Hawaii 2013

No excuse for not blogging since long time. Life had some cross roads for me and I am still not sure if I took the right exit. But all is coming together and as I thought since long about the opportunity to sail the Moth´s WC in Hawaii this year, I had searched for a web page yesterday and with the help of Mike L. and Scott B., I did find the link behind the Nathan O. photo on the IMCA website. To make live more easy for myself and for you Moth guys out there, I have put a direct link on the right side as usual. I should definitely increase my small amount of Moth sailing and do more exercise, but it ain´t easy, mate. I will attend the Euro Cup regatta at Lake Walchensee, which I am looking forward to. So, all in all a good day today. Have put my entries down for two upcoming big Moth events, have booked the flights and hopefully the accomodations will be accepted. Now it is about preparation of myself and the boat. Business as usual but more difficult with age.

As I have two great MACH2 boats (with all options) at present due to lifes circumstances, I am willing to sell one directly after the Worlds in Hawaii. Anyone out there reading this, should request for details and pricing. It will be a good opportunity to purchase a boat which had not been sailed much and which is upgraded with RHA and Adjustable Wand.

For my friends out there, following the AC, and I am excited about the racing to begin (hopefully) here is agood shot showing the asymetrical rudder rom ETNZ. Every Moth sailor will understand what Dean Barker said about "a man falling overboard and maybe being sliced by the rudder foil if sticking out of max boat width". And I am sure these asy rudders need special reinforcements and I cannot understand the dispute which we have as per today in the AC. I am happy that my Moth and Sails are being measured and class legal. 

Smooth sailing everyone out there!

Photo Credit goes to Chris Cameron of ETNZ

Off to the DN European Championship

Less drag by bending the mast in the "right" direction

Long time , no hear. Suffering from a very bad mutant (?) flu it took me a lot of days to get back in shape and also to prepare my DN equipment which I had neglected last year after coming back from Sweden. Had been out racing 5 weeks ago and realized, something has to be done. Runner sharpening and alignment. Time consuming and difficult to really get into it when there are so many distractions. We are living in a very difficult business climate and nobody really knows when and if things will pick up again. In the marine trade business we thought that it cannot get any worse but every month shows that we seem not to have reached the bottom yet. Ask your friends, they might come up with the same answers all around the world. 

Picture shows a price which I had donated to our president, who is searching by plane for the best ice conditions all over Europe

But lets not be too negative here. I am looking forward to meet with friends from all over the iceboating world. Though it is a European Championship we have participants as usual from the USA and we have Karol Jablonski, P-736, back in the fleet, sailing the DN. I really wonder why he has not been invited to share ideas and to sail one of the foiling monsters, the AC72´s. He has done a Tornado Olympic campaign. Several times DN World Champion, knows all about apparent wind sailing and sniffs the gusts, due to many, many hours on the ice where you cannot "see" the wind. Same with Ron Sherry, US-44, also a multi former World Champion. 

From a Moth point of view it is a pity that Amac cannot make it. He was very interested to sail a DN regatta and I am sure the sport would suit him. He had to cancel due to business committments. I had prepared my reserve boat for him and really aligned some nice runners for this boat. I think that Amac is looking into possibilites about how to make the Moth rig faster. As I had said in some sailing forums long time ago, it is all about drag. And if you look at the DN picture above, the drag can be reduced with the help of the bending. But in the case of the DN, tests had brought the best results with the "odd" triangel shape of the sail. A fat head sail with a short foot leech did not work at the time of testing. This might change with more testing but in the meantime we are all happy with the rig of our iceboats and we love to bend it to leeward which is enabling the "turbo" to accelerate the boat like there is no tommorow. Look at this video. No drag from the bottom, the runners, just the drag, the driver and the boat and the rig are producing. Reducing the drag in the water is also what the current developement in the AC72´s is looking for. Yeep, they are foiling.

Best wishes to everyone for a Happy and Prosperous New Year!

My DN friends are usually searching for good ice conditions between the holidays at the years end and there is a pattern to where the different people are going. I have usually made up my mind at the last minute due to family commitments but these commitments had also stopped me during the last years to go either north to Sweden or South to Italy. This year some friends have gone east to Poland where they have found good conditions, but only for a few days. My prefered location would be Lake Rescia (Reschensee) where you usually also find my friend Thomas, whom I had talked into the Moth class during one of our DN meetings, somewhere on the Ice site in one of those long nights in our campers. Thomas easily beat me on the soft water after a year in the Moth and I was able to beat him on the ice in the last competitions. It is always fun, we always share our experience. A pity that this great sports buddy is living in the south and I am living in the north of Germany. Anyway if you look at the picture above, in the left corner, you can see a small group of DN´s. It is early morning, I guess everyone is still at breakfast looking out the window to the beautiful scenery from the www.seehotel.it or else. Maybe the snowfall, which is predicted, will stop the sailing but than the skiing or sledging takes over. It is all good in Italy at 1500m above sea level.

Yes, and what am I doing here at the office desk on my computer? I am staying home another year due to different commitments. Company wise and in my social life. Yeep, I am going to a "ball opening" with full ball gown tonight. Life is pretty at the years end and it will finish with a positive note. Looking forward to 2013 to meet with my sailing friends again on hard or soft water. Maybe also doing some keel boat races in Kiel and Flensburg on my new "thing".

On the Ice again

Yeah, life is not bad when the Fjord at my home starts freezing in and the first sailable ice is developing. Such had been the thing yesterday and despite a work schedule for most of us, we met on the ice to sailsome practice races. It was good and I felt at home immediatley with my boat, with the surroundings and with myself. Maybe that had been the reason that I won all of the races despite the first two, but all without changing a knob. We had some good chat after finishing the day and thinking about racing again, maybe more officially on Saturday, weather permitting. See you on the Ice, G-99 Have not blogged for a long time after I had to swallow my frustrations of not being able to sail at Lake Garda. Did only do some practice at the wonderful venue and the warm water but at the first day, my back gave in. I was not able to carry my boat to the ramp and therefore went straight home to see the doctor. Couldn´t stay and look at 120 Moths having fun and fighting it out. Not that I would have been able to even touch a place better than 80th, but the great cameraderie and spirit in the Moth class is something special and it will pull me back into the next big event. See you on the water, GER-3835

Boat Prep is King...

Boat preparation going on everywhere here in Camp Moth in Campione. Foils are being smoothed down to 2000 grid, carbon work is going on every evening when there is shadow protection from the high cliffs in the west of the launch area. At present there is no hurry to put in any morning races with the "Peler" wind. This is the reason why the Mothospehere is buzzing with news and Fotos and all. At present I am counting 15 computers in action down here at the Cantina which serves us not only with good food but with a stable WiFi. Heart that there is a lot of "noise" in the many FB pages which I am ignoring. My own preparation had only been marginal though I know some of the important bits to go through. But I did not expect a knot to slip open, a splice to detach and my boom vang to open up at the holding part. Bloody me. Than there was a lack of speed both up and down and avoiding traffic in the most careful way. You can see in pictures, published at Segelreporter that 80% of the fleet did start on port tack. You than do not want to be the idiot to call for right of way as a starboard tacker on the line, close to the pin end. 50km/h crossing speed will not be without harmful damage. One sailor already ended up in hospital. I tried a right of way start closer to the boat. The line was difficult to cross but when the fleet approached me, I tacked to port immediately but after that, I found myself already at the back end of the fleet in the first race. Due to technical problems missed the 2nd and 3rd but had all the slipway for myself to do a safe hauling out of my boat. Done some boat prep in the evening, even sanded down my centerboard and foil. Hope it helps the mind set today. Being in 114th spot is not exactly what I came here for. 99 would be acceptable, bearing in mind the risen standard within the class. A great article can be found again today (as yesterday, scroll back on the fron page and read "Naked Lunch") on SA.com. You can read about this fantastic event in German language at SR.com who said they are covering the event. And many good Fotos, taken daily can be found at the Mottenfieber link as in the post below. On with some food, a good cafe latte and waiting for the Ora to set in from the south.

Moth Blogger in Campione, italy

An amazing new place here in Campione, Italy with a Cantina giving us a stabil Wifi an the best coffee south of the German border. The Italian championship is behind us. Today is a layday with measurements and technology sharing. I had a nice swim in the lake this morning and am sitting now in the air conditioned Cantina because it is very hot outside. The boat is sorted after some small trouble yesterday. Some ropes had not been rigged in the right way which might have to do with the extensive heat, this North German participant is not used to. Nevtheless had a nice sail yesterday and had to try out unusual cloth combination due to the warmth of the water and the burning sun. Two Leicra shirts on top and no neopren seemed to be a good answer. Mottenfieber Fotogalerie