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

Wish I could be there...

Going to Spain to see Alan and the ProVela is always tempting but with a busy September behind me (we are talking sailing and racing here) and an upcoming Moth regatta organized by me, my family and my homeclub, does not allow for more adventures. So Alan and David, I am sorry, I will not be able to make it but comes spring, you will see me.

Apart from some Mothing alone or with Andreas, I did take part in some Yardstick regattas with the Black Sheep to gain experience on this new style of boat. Very, very wide and hard chines. Double rudders. In short I must say it is fun to sail but the Melges 24 (who were our benchmark at the Blue Ribbon regatta) have developed themselves so far ahead that beating them in a distance race seems questionable to me.

K. and I also sailed the yearly Laser-City-Championship and whilst she finished all races in an old, worn out boat in style, I tried two starts and had to retire in both races due to stupid rigging errors. I wished I had Tillerman or other great Laseristi to help me with rigging an old boat like #84084. Maybe they would have told me what I knew afterwards: Change all the ropes and black plastic cleats or double secure behind the cleats with figure eight knots. See the amateur movie: Schleswig Laser Regatta

Anyway there had been a Moth regatta in between in Kiel. The Inshore race. I took the boat down there on the trailer, did not manage to hit the startline at first start, tried to sail the course for practice with 3 other Moths who were in the race but got so frustrated about the wind, the weather mark under the high shore line and myself about being unable to cope with the conditions. I had stayed complete dry getting on the tramp as the ASC, Kiel had provided personnel to help the boats into the water (Moth´s, I14´s, 18´s and a YS group even containing a Devoti D1 Skiff) but heading for shore I capzised badly just in front of the ponton. No wind, hazzle to get back on the boat and all. Not a good Moth show for the spectators though some came up and asked questions and wanted to help de-rigging the boat after I had put it ashore. I went straight home after that experience. Ole had also to give up due to a broken boom vang shackle (and you really need a Ronstan reserve in your tool box for this job on the Bladerider). Hannes and Sven seemed to have sailed all races, even the long-distance on Sunday and I am looking forward to meet with them as well as a couple other Mothies for a great weekend of racing the Moth on the Schlei. My X8 Bladerider is well prepared and test-sailed by me last Wednesday and it will be used by Philipp and before we will have some newbies who are interested to sail a Moth. I will use my MACH 2 with the new parts from Graham S. New Parts mounted and hope for a less wobbling wand. May the wind and Sun come as expected Weather Forecast for the weekend in all available weather-reports.

Sailing the "Black Sheep"

Should have sailed it earlier but had some Moth duties and than got sick for a whole week, but last Sunday was the day. A local regatta with a mixed YS fleet. You find more information about this incredible Sportsboat under: Sportsboat 5,50m

Anyway my expectations were high as I had seen the boat, nearly winning it´s way (elapsed time only) in a bunch of 50 other boats at a regatta a week before. We took the photos from aboard our spectator boat. "Black Sheep" came second after leading about 80% of the race. Their last beat was poor (hmm, hmm from the outside....). The fast X-34 found better lanes and the 5,50m boat was outpaced by this very sharp competitor. I started to believe and was able to see first hand that the old saying: "Länge läuft" (only length is counting) does not relate to modern Sportsboats if designed right.

Rod, the builder of the "Black Sheep" had his friend and designer of the boat, JP to visit and to test sail the hard chined, super wide (2,40 is wide related to only 5,50m length) boat. The wind on Sunday morning was very light and I offered to give a lift with the Bull driven by the Outboard. Walked over to get the Bull ready for the tow but when I saw the 5,50m boat sliding through the marina, faster than I could walk in nearly no wind we skipped the idea and I jumped onboard to take the tiller. We made it in time down the Schlei-Fjord to the "big-wide" and did not have to wait much for the start. Despite the light wind we got in front quite quickly but on the last long downwind we got passed by the DB1 (old 3/4 tonner, built by Dehler). Should have rolled the boat over to windward as suggested by JP and pressed hard down to leeward but with a straight pole and a flat gennaker this is not easy to achieve in the light air. Anyway upwind we were fast. You can see the upwind performance of the boat on the photos which are running through this entry. The small boat in the lee of the X-34 is the "Black Sheep".

Moth wise I had only 2 outings lately. Both together with Andreas on his BR and it was great to be back on the homewater for some practice. Still lacking good jibes but going nicely upwind. Have I told you that I am sailing a MACH2 by now? Not that I think I can improve my results much with this boat at present but it came along my way as a very positive surprise or should I say, a chance I could not dismiss. Should anyone out there be keen to buy a good solid Bladerider X8, I would negotiate if it finds a good home. Otherwise I might take it to the Mar Menor for the upcoming October Fest organized by: ProVelaComing weekend is another Moth regatta in Kiel ASV Kielorganized by the Academics who always throw in good racing and good partying. The races are open for 18th, Int. 14th, and Moths. The usual suspects will be on the startline.

See the boat right in front there. that is the "Black Sheep" not long after the start. Should anyone out there like to have more information about this new boat, contact me and I put you through to Rod and JP.

Impressions from the Startline at Silvaplana

Still on the road to do some business whilst down in the south, I can recommend to those who want to know more about the happenings at the Moth EC (with some outstanding top sailors from abroad) to read the blogs of other Mothies. (see link on the right) For my part I can only say, I have never done an event with 14 races in total. Mostly 3 races a day in the demanding Moth. With a few capsizes, usually on the downwind the body felt sore and tired already after day 2. I had given up 2 races when the wind blew over 25 knots and for the first time I stuck the tiller through the sail in one race. Getting back to shore and changing sail for the next race was not a problem.

The one thing that sticks to my mind had been the great sportsmanship and cooperativeness to help everyone who had a breakage. Parts had been lend out, laminates had been done overnight for others who had not done this before so that everyone was able to get back on the startline for the next day. Something that reminds me a lot about the spirit in the DN class. It was also motivating that some of the top sailors cared a lot about us, the rest of the fleet. For example they pushed the race organisers to extend the "open period" of the finish line from 10 to 15 minutes. Which meant that a lot more sailors were able to finish after saling the full 4 lap course instead of being timed after 2 or 3 rounds. (Grand Prix Finish)

As there are only a few sailors with more points on the scoresheet than myself, I have a lot of motivation to improve. I like the class and I just love the foiling. Markus, the top German sailor (placed 13th) analysed his result as being 2000 practice tacks short to break into the top five. For me this could mean that I need to add 2000 jibes to get a result mid fleet. We will see if this is possible.

Silvaplana - a lousy Internet Connection tonight

Trying to send a report and photo off to a friend on www.Segelreporter.com did not work but maybe this one will do it. A shot of the first start from the far distance. I am sure that those with a good internet connection will have all the reports and results which we, the sailors here at Lake Silvaplana will only see tomorrow. The sailing was great. Even with the cold water. I would not have started a fourth race as already in the third one I could feel a loss of power and concentration. The boom struck my back several times and it took away the cap from my head two times. Tacks were awfully slow and despite a very good start in the third race (who tried to squeeze in at the boat end with no right of way? Could have let you bump into the starting vessel) lost sight of most of "my friends" with and against whom I am racing in this big fleet. But fun it was. I came off the water with a big smile and I am thankful to Carlo who helped me to drag the boat out of the water. Without him it might have stayed there overnight. The Aussies are doing very well despite a finish line deep in the upper bay of the lake with a lot of non-foiling. Easy to win or loose 10 places here. Maybe this will be changed tomorrow.

Edit: Photos do not work today.

Moth EC - it´s real, the snow has arrived

Waking up this morning, there was some blue sky shining through the shades. Got up early and it was cold but the sun came up over the mountains. And there had been snow. Not just a little bit but as you see from the shot a bit more down to abt. 2200m. And we are at abt. 1800 m altitude. Lots of waterfalls and small rivers and all spend their ice cold water into the Lake Silvaplana. No wonder the Dutch Moths ventilated. Mine did not fly but that could have been another reason. Sweet-water kelp. Anyway during the day it started raining again, which made wet sanding easy for some participants with mud and garbage on the rigging area now taking over.

There had been a practice race today. And we had to collect our transponders to carry on the boat. Who in the world wlll know about the tracks of the sailors behind place 10? I was actually thinking about putting mine under the table in the tent (with tape) It would have looked like I am stationary at work here in Silvaplana and not drifting around on a cold, rainy day on some mountain lake. I am not sure who won that 4 lapper practice race. I was told that Nathan was circling around Simon but have no eye witness as I was in the way of Scot some times. Had a good lowriding race with Harald who beat me to the mark. We both had sailed 2 laps after having been lapped. But it seemed that nobody sailed up to the finish line and cared about a result. The official site (see Linklist) will have more information.

Tomorrow the weather will improve. I just heart from Markus that we will have 20kn of wind. Alright for me as I am still flying low. Have to work out better settings on the new boat.

Not Monster, but Moth Garage...

Packing up for the Moth EC at syzmotheuro2010.ch Lake Silvaplana, Switzerland caused some small headache. What goes where, what does fit and how much dismantling is necessary to load the boat on the camper. Decision time. The cat is not yet out of the bag but will be soon.

Looking forward to the road trip with family. "Sind wir bald da???" and other spectacles. I am looking forward to meet with friends and other sailors Entry List from around the World and my personnel goal is to have as few alphabets as possible and to get some scoring on the sheet. Of course fighting hard but not to bumb into anyone. Sailing fair. There is some internal competition between me and my fellow Moth friends Harald and Gerold. Two others from the German fleet have practiced for two full month and we will see how they are doing. Exciting days, I can tell you. Feels a bit like going for your first date.

Talk about Wings, I couldn´t resist

Admiring guys like Adam May, who are not only able to put to paper a great idea but also being able to follow it through and to handle it on the water, I could not refuse myself to put this into a blog entry. There have been drawings of wings before, there have been wing rigs long ago on Russian & German iceboats, but the three most amazing wings for me have been the ones pictured here and designed and built lately. Great times and I look forward to see Adam´s Wing at Silvaplana, CH. The Moth EC 2010 entry list reads like the who is who in Mothing and more like a WC instead of an EC. How comes? More developments to be shown?

I had to nick one or the other photo for this entry and if I have harmed anyones business, I am willing to pay. It is just that I could not discover the origin.

Some foiling and some tinkering on the boat

Oh, this always feels good and brings back memories from winter work on the DN. Going into the workshop early morning before breakfast to have a look if the epoxy cured properly and if the job done is a good one or needs some more tinkering. Found out lately that I had a very sticky connection from the wand to the push rod. Maybe it was the wrong lubricant together with my home made carbon swivel which did not turn around smoothly. Gone back to the original nylon (had a spare one) swivel and had to do some alterations. New, longer wand with paddle to see if the ride height could be improved. With my weight (no way to get it under 83 kg) on the boat this should help to gain some time during the manoeuvres before sinking in and spoiling the jibe.

It already looked good last Saturday when I had two short sessions. The first one just to realise that the hiking straps were too loose and I had rigged the wrong mainsheet. (way too long) This made sailing uncomfortable and after a while I sailed back to the shore to change things. And than it felt good. Really good. I saw Rod (my regular crew on Wednesday night races) with his family out there in the blue Bull going for a holiday trip and I did two "fly by´s". Wow, showtime. Up high, crossing his wake, nearly above his stern deck, nailing, (ok, nearly) a smooth jibe and hiking my ass out as it was windy. His girlies with camera in hand. Rod was sailing with jib only, me with all controls pulled to the max. A great afternoon out on the water after re-assembling the boat.

Yes, this foiling jibe thing. I am glad for Koos and anyone else out there who are managing it after some hard times going for it. I still have to practice more to be able to nail more than 30%. During the German Championship I had the will to do it. Concentration was all right and I nailed the first one on the downwind to set an example...for me and my fellow competitors Harald and Gerold who have played in my league. But it was only one nice jibe I did. Missing the lay-line did not help me and with some frustrations working their way up into my mind I did more mistakes, like not realising that I had been lapped and going for another round before noticing that the 3 boats behind me were already finishing. Does this turn me away from going to the Europeans? No, not at all. Everyone seems so excited. Moth sailors are coming in from the USA and Australia and what else. To sail in the European Championship on a swiss lake, high in the mountains with a thermal breeze called the Maloja. The Silvaplana had been on my agenda already many, many years ago when I was sailing my FD. But is was always the skiing part which turned me off from those great ski/yachting events held in St. Moritz. Still cannot and will not go skiing. Lot´s of other things to do in winter time.

The foto above shows a group gathering of Moth sailors at the beautiful Lake Walchensee during the German Championship.

Sailing Holiday and no Mothing

Changed the 36´C/R into a cruiser with sprayhood and else and have gone on a holiday with the family. It did not go smoothly though. Lot´s of trouble with the boat which had not been used for the last two years. All the small problems here and there to tackle with and nearly having a big one with an electric shortcut which could have ended in a "cable fire". Something really nasty. Now after 4 days and only a few miles it looks like everything is sorted and tomorrow we can head out into the Baltic. At present we are berthed nicely in Schleimünde and are looking into a beautiful sunset. Not very keen to take the computer out during holidays but with the build-in camera I had to give it a try. Smooth sailing everyone!

Moth Class Championship Report

After some great foiling session with good ride height a weekend before the German Championship, I started to dismantle my BR for the trip and taking the wings off. The boat should go on the roof of the Passat to enable me to drive a little faster other than with a trailer behind the car. 1150 km should be done in one step. Alone. And it was´nt a problem. I arrived at the beautiful lake on the Thursday afternoon, assembled the boat and went sailing on Friday after the thermal breeze kicked in. It did not look too bad for me comparing speed and height with 3 other earlier arrivals though the MACH 2 sailors looked like playing it easy whilst I tried to give it all. My concentration was gone after an hour and so was the foiling jibe ability. Some swims later I called it a day.

Come race day one and after the skippers meeting I was out early (which was one of my goals for this event), as I do not find it "charming", coming late to the startline. And there had been no mercy, I mean three Moth sailors were´nt ready but the class, including me, did not go for an early start. Before us we had a good fleet of Finn´s and Star´s doing their starts and the race committee was right on time. I had an OK first upwind leg and my dearest competitors behind me (the back end of the midfleet) and nailed my first jibe and off to the downwind mark. I did not hit the layline and had to put in two more jibes and arrived at a crowed mark. Walls of sails flogging. Starboat sails. A wide rounding, good speed, less height and than my boat began some funny movements. Hobby horsing. It started slowly but got worse on the downwind course. And it got worse during the next races and I got lapped in race two and three by 4 sailors. Did not realize this in the last race of the day and had to turn back to the finish line after being a couple hundred meters upwind already. Have to keep a better look out. Sven being fast as usual and he was followed by the talented Swiss, Martin, followed by Frederik and newcomer Markus. I heart a few girlie squeaks out on the course and both Tanja and Nina had their moments of foiling. At the end of the day I had Harald behind me on the list and we watched the Football game and a great German team beating Argentine. Later on we came together for the annual meeting and the usual discussions about how to attract more sailors into our class ended late at night.

Come Sunday and one more race. A pity that the program was written in stone as the day was just great, the water clear and green and the thermal breeze had kicked in though all reports said it should not and we should have thunderstorms. I had a bad race, the amplitude of up (flying) and down (touching the water with the hull) nearly made me seasick and I was happy to finish the race and did not enjoy the long ride home on foils very much. My boat and I can do better but I have to find out first what made her sailing like that. Something within the system must have come sticky. From the road transport? Dirt in the rod tubing? I had played with adjustments of about 8 turns (not at once) on the ball socket joint but it made no difference. Harald beat me and revanche will be sweet.

For the next fourteen days I will be cruising with the family in the Baltic Sea. No foiling, no boat work. In the meantime I hope that my boatbuilder will be able to do some maintenance jobs on the carbon frame tubing which all looks a bit tired and thinned out at the joints. After coming back I might attend the Moth racing in Horsens to meet with the Danish Bandits. A report in German language is available under: mottenfieber.de. Photo courtesy to Toni Mangold. Me and my boat do not look like "porpoising", don´t we? Just flying a little low.

Great Sailing at Lake Walchensee

We had some fun in the sun! Finn´s, Star´s and Moth´s sailed four great races on this beautiful lake. A report will follow later. Enjoy the Foto from Toni Mangold. Click it to enlarge it.

German Moth Class Championship coming soon...

German Championship is around the corner. It will be sailed in the beginning of July down south in Bavaria, on Lake Walchensee. German Championship link. They say it is a beautiful lake (which Google Earth proves) with good thermal breeze. Kind of a Mini Garda. So let´s see. At present there are only 11 participants on the entry list but I know of at least a couple more who will show up. For me the questions is: Shall I put some reports into my blog about my great training days, which went well with the boat flying nice and level after upgrading the AoA, or keep a low profile, as a regatta some 1100 km away from home always puts some strain on the pilot and maybe also on the boat from the road transport. Vibration is the nr. 1 road transport problem for a DNF. Some screws, one might not have checked carefully enough when arriving late at the racing site, might come loose. This being one of the reasons, I do not want to put my own expectations too high. Especially when there are a couple of new participants at the start line. In the Moth class a lot can happen. What sticks with me since I am racing this boat is the great anticipation. Looking forward to the event. Loading up the boat (roof or trailer) and gear. Can´t wait to start the engine.

On another note, tomorrow we are sailing our fifth Wednesday night race this season with the Bull. We managed to come first into the finish all the last races and also won on elapsed time. (Only keel boats on the starting line) It is only Rod and me sailing the boat at present and we had luck with the wind, which had been light. It is also the new mainsail with a bit more roach which gives us power and the calm sailing style which Rod and I have adapted lately.

Great Moth Racing last Weekend

We had nine participants in the Moth class, racing here on the Schlei last weekend. As you can see from the photo, taken on Sunday, it shows that at least 50% had been lowriding but nevertheless it was racing. If I am turning into a good lowrider, I do not know. One could get the impression. Being the most heavy sailor, I managed to come second, behind Sven our German Moth hero. Unbeatable for the rest of us. At least at present. I think with his new boat he has even gained more advantage to the rest of the fleet. He only faltered in the second race when I had a home run. First for me and 5th of Sven. Our Danish friends also enjoyed the sailing on the Schlei though they expected more breeze here in the north of Germany. Results and some German comments you can find here: Results & Comments We will meet again in Horsens, DK and at Lake Silvaplana at the European´s. I can only hope that I will be able to improve my jibing. With summer now arrived it does not look for much breeze at the next weekend.

Oh, before I forget. Here is one for the music fans. I am going to see Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood tonight. I am not sure if they perform together (didn´t they do in the group called TRAFFIC?) or if they have both single acts with their band. Clapton is not 100% my music but Winwood is a must see. And since I have missed the great concert of the Supergroup Traffic who had Spooky Tooth playing the first act, many, many moons ago, I promised myself to go and see Winwood, the next time he is around. Geeez, is this now 41 years later? Am I sitting in a time machine? Sailing and Music are tw wonderful things which one can perform for a whole lifetime, me thinks.

Moth Fest Report

Saturday, 22nd of May, 10.30h, high Altitude above the clouds on my way home from the Moth Fest. Yes, flying in the Air and not flying on the foils as most of the other participants will just do in the final races at the Moth Fest in Mar Menor. What an incredible week it was. I had arrived last Sunday just in time for the briefing given by Simon Payne and Alan Hillman. I had missed the Paela but than I did not had to assemble my boat as I had chartered one of Alan´s well prepared Bladeriders. I will not be able to report day by day as the days flew by quicker than I can remember. There was sailing everyday and there were lectures and training and a mixture of fun races. The last one will stick in my memory for long. The "around the Island and than head for beach bar" event on my last day. It was blowing 15kn and it was a long distance group flight. Not sailing for first or last but staying together as a group of 12 sailors and foiling along with 15-20kn of speed on a tight reach and than after rounding the island letting it loose on the downwind to the bar. There were some very fast Brits reaching 23+ kn on their GPS´s.

After some great laughs, a good conversation and food and drinks we hit to the water again and foiled home from the Beach Bar. The waves and wind had builded up a bit and some participants reported about nose dives later on. I had a great ride but due to the speed and splash of the water into my face I lost my ML sunshade. A pity but it was the only loss on the trip. My luagage is more heavy than on the way in as adding the Sponsors give aways and prizes, I take more things home than I got on my way out to Narejo, Mar Menor.

Tuesday, 25th, after recovering from the trip: It is the one thing which strikes my mind and gave me inspiration to this blog entry (all day by day action you can read elsewhere, go to: Moth Blogger News...) I think the heart and soul of this great event had been David Hillman. Besides giving a helping hand and tools to anyone requesting he took care of so many things in the background which made us all feel like home. The ones who had not been to Alan´s PRO-VELA sailing school before could of course not have noticed the changes in and around the place to make it most comfortable for us. From the sun umbrella to the big empty space for the rigging area and the preparation for hanging up the sails over night without de-rigging, everything was well sorted. As I was not there on the Sunday for the last prize giving and usually I am the one to bring out cheers for the organizers and helpers let me do this here: To Alan, to David and to all the Gentlemen helping out on the rescue boats: You did a phantastic job. You promissed a great event and you delivered. Three cheers and a big "HIPP HIPP HURRAY" "HIPP HIPP HURRAY" "HIPP HIPP HURRAY".

Latest News from Aussieland

Training in "winter mode" down under. Scott Babagge, John Harris, Dave Lister and friends are practicing for the upcoming worlds in Belmont, AUS. Have a look at: Aussie Moth practice session Great innerview and video about their sailing in front of the Sydney Opera.

Report about the great Moth Fest in Mar Menor, ESP tomorrow.

It is disgusting...

Yes, I have read about it. Yes, I care but sometimes not enough. This morning I saw a big plastic sheet swirling in the wind towards the shore from the works at the new building taking place right in my neighborhood. A 5 story monster, 4 in a row only 40 metres away from the shore. The EU regulation, FFH states clearly that within towns the distance should be 50m and outside towns it should be 100m. But this is not my theme today. Before going to work I walked to the beach which is a nice "green" and picked up the huge plastic sheet before the offshore wind would blow it into the Fjord. Nothing to rant about. But the eyes from the workforce, people looking and shaking their heads was a bit disturbing.

Being at work and going through my regular SA frontpage reading I came across a link and an article which reads: Plastics-in-our-Ocean I know you know this but it had been the bullet points which cannot be brought to attention often enough.

- Use durable fabric shopping bags;
- Whenever possible, choose bio-plastics, glass or paper;
- Return broken plastic goods to the manufacturer;
- Please do not litter.;
- Pick up a piece of plastic on your way home from sailing and place it in a recycling bin;
- Support environmentally responsible companies who are recycle plastic.
- Compost and recycle everything you can;
- Sweep your sidewalk rather than hosing it;
- Buy in bulk, avoiding smaller containers that will need to be disposed of;
- When appropriate, send letters to companies about over packaging or plastic packaging;
- Buy less and when you do make a purchase, avoid excessive packaging;
- Repair whatever goods you can before considering replacing them;
- If you live near a body of water, volunteer to help clean up the trash;
- Reuse flimsy plastic bags used for bulk purchases or choose paper instead.
- Cut the rings of plastic six-pack holders, which lowers the chances of entanglement with marine animals should that holder make it out to sea.

Please think about like me, going out to your local sailing club and have a little speech about this to the junior sailors. Make it clear that they do not want to capsize due to a plastic bag in the water. They shall care about the fish in the sea, about the environment. Sometimes I think about myself having developed a bad habit of picking up glass-and plastic bottles from the beach but I think the times they are changing. People will recognize it and in future more people will adopt the same habit. Hopefully. So please, keep the shores clean.

Boah!!

Reading the following letter from my Scuttlebutt News this morning, I can only agree and I am happy that my main sailing takes place in two boat classes which obviously have not much to do with most of the ISAF regulations and especially the way we are setting our courses and are managing the classes. The Moth and the DN class both are usually sailing windward leeward courses which have to be seen as a big oval due to the speed which the boats are generating once at the windward mark. 3 laps around and one is exhausted. After a break another race and another one. Grand Prix finishes in many events are preventing long periods of waiting for the lapped sailors. Read on and feel free to comment. Kudos to Terry Bischoff!

* From Terry Bischoff, 55 year member of US SAILING:
My (race committee) team was the first team ever to run a Medal Race. We did
this continuously at the Miami OCR through this January. When interviewed
early on, I expressed my doubts as to the real benefits of the race. Sell
more boats, get more people to watch sailing on TV?

How much of those goals has ISAF accomplished by sailing a silly little 25
minute race, at double points. Totally unfair when compared to our
traditional Olympic racing techniques. Anyway, apparently many must feel
this finale has great merit since it continues even with the latest negative
procedure changes from ISAF.

ISAF has a very hidden agenda: keep sailing in the Olympics or most of the
staff will have to go to work in the real world. They will continue that
goal no matter how they turn a great sport upside down. As I've said for
years, the U.S. needs to resign from two obsolete and terribly
anti-productive organizations: the UN and ISAF.

Two Boat testing on the Schlei

Again it has been a Sunday out of the "picturebook" out here in the North of Germany on the Schleifjord. Like already last Sunday, I went out with the Moth and I had a wing man, necessary due to the cold water. Read about the "missing" wing man on : Doug´s Blog. Last weekend I had very good session with Andreas, who is only in his second week of mothing and as a true top notch sailor he was already pulling some foiling jibes whilst I am still stumbling. Racing with Andreas on simple windward leeward courses in flat water was great fun.

Yesterday I had to pull the boat apart to install a new mast stump. The Acetal part (white plastic) had been completely worn out. This happened due to the metal pin slowly moving into the mast foot though it has a thread. I had fixed that a little late., the thread slowly grinding itself into the black plastic foot. As usual when heavy into boat work a few more jobs appeared which I tackled until midnight. Today in beautiful sunshine, 14°C and a good breeze from the east, I have sailed with Ole from Denmark who is playing about my level. He recently bought a BR Moth from GB. We had some good racing together in our first session at around noon. After a break, some drinks and an apple, the wind had increased to a handy 4-5 Bft. with whitecaps nearly all over the place. I was not able to pull some proper maneuvers in the breeze and we both went swimming a couple times. I think it was due to fatigue. Nevertheless we rounded the marks, waited for each other and blasted downwind with abt. 20kn until we "slow jibed" or swam. Ole was able to pull a few really good jibes. I even digged my mast top into the mud once but nothing broke, just a bit of the "black stuff" on the deck after righting the boat. We packed it in after an hour and had a nice BBQ, coffee and cake and the boats, sails and drysuits dried out completely in the sun. A good and promising season start these last two Sundays.

By the way, I get loads of spam mails masked as comments to one of my older blog entries: "Two Boat testing in the Fehmarnsund". Want to see if it has to do with the wording and does also happen with this entry or if it is something else. Does anybody has an answer to these spam comments which is a bit nerve-racking? Fotos taken by Kerstin with a longs lense. Do not get fooled. This stretch of water is wider than it appears.

Fred's Mar Menor holiday blog

Sorry "Fred" is unable to be with you this evening...he is recuperating!

For those of you who read about Fred's antics on ice and water you probably think of him as 30-40 year old hi speed adrenalin junkie...which he is....., except for the 30-40 year old bit. Manfred would best be described as being more senior (substantially!) then Amac.

So here he is up to 4 hours a day in the Mar Menor in Southern Spain giving it heaps every day on one of our Bladeriders. The holy grail for Manfred is the 100% foiling gybe (the same for most mortals) frankly if I get to Manfreds seniority I would be bloody grateful if 1. I make it that far and 2. Am still able to get on my moth! Manfred was out last year on his own and gave me a bit of pasting in the light stuff....fortunately I have stuck a few hours at it and obviously upgraded my technology so it wouldn't happen again! So, Manfred brings out his mate Andreas........after only 3 days the guy is now foil gybing and looking really comfortable spearing it down hill...really annoying! Fate eventually played his hand and he is now sporting a fashionable shroud stripe down his face. If he foil tacks before he goes home I am giving up...here is Manfred.
Alan Hillman
Pro-Vela

UK 0044 7917 678299
Spain 0034 609 822488
E. alan@pro-vela.com
SKYPE: alanhillman
W. www.pro-vela.com

Details for the Moth Fest are out now.

Just got an e- mail form Alan, whom you can contact through his website. www.pro-vela.com
The official Moth Fest website is currently under construction. To wet your appetite here is the list of sponsors as Alan writes to me today. Looking to some great holidays, training and racing and to meet with some of you. Put it into your calendar: May 16th until May 23rd. Three days of training with the current World Campion, Simon Payne included and I guess I am getting some extra lapping from him during the races.

quote by Alan Hillman:
As we go to press the sponsors who have committed to support the event are:

Pro-Vela: My sailing school and clearly the only place to learn to fly!
CAR Infanta Cristina: The Spanish high performance sailing centre where we are based.
Roda Golf Resort: Our apartment partner
Henri Lloyd: Giving great clothing, event t-shirts and PR support.
Spinlock: Our official supplier of high quality knee pads
Marlow: Official rope partner
Harken: Official fittings partner
SP Systems: Official sponsor of Crash for cash and resin supplier
CTM: This is our German friend Manfred, (Fred on the blog!) and his company is providing some carbon kits for Crash for cash.
unquote

Looking forward to meet with you.

Last weekend of DN sailing, March 13th, 2010

...at least for me or at least here in Germany. Our Swedish friends had called for their yearly Championship which normally is a top choice on the event calendar but this year we still had good sailable conditions in the North of Germany. Some Polish iceboaters started already to enquire about the location in Germany on Wednesday but than we were not able to make a final decision. They decided there and than to travel to the Swedish Championship to be held in Jönköping at the big Lake Vättern and racing to be started on the Friday. We were only able to make a decision on the Friday morning and I hit the button for the message "regatta is on" on the Internet at 12.09h. Thus we had a couple less participants but nonetheless some top sailors including the European Champion 2010, Bernd, G-107 came to race in Plön. The two photos accompanying this report are taken from the webcam at the Sailing Club in Plön from the Saturday. Nearly all sailors are far out on the race course and of course not to be seen.

We had 17 competitors on the starting line for the vent to be called, the "Internationale Goldene Osterhasen Meisterschaft". With Marek, P-107 from Poland and Dideric, H-467 from Holland participating, who gave some international flair to the event. The start had been called for 12.00h and a little after we had set the course after a necessary re-arrangement due to some competitors having found holes in the ice close to the layline. The holes weren´t measured, only eye witnessed, which normally is not enough but we had enough space on the big lake to move a little to the south. Around noon the surface got soft but still ok for our 5 or 6mm insert runners. The sort of metal being the critical choice. I took my 100° Stelith runners and my good ol´faithful Shore LD sail but was late for a trial run. The bad flu from the days before still hindered me in my activities and being the under-assistant-ice-boat-promo-man, I mean the appointed assistant from our ill-being North German secretary, Vossi, G-709, the speech and organisational duties (somehow I had to carry the leeward rounding mark with me and everyone was waiting for it to be positioned) kept me from being on the course with spare time to burn.

We did 5 races in the rather difficult conditions with strong gusty wind and "heavy" ice, as we call a soft surface, where small crumbs of ice was flying or hammering into your face like hail. This happens mostly when you have the wrong front runner mounted (short) or one of your friendly competitors is running you down on the windward side, as Holger, G-890 did with me in the last race of the day. Anyway, I had some great races and only one bad result, when I finished 11th after having had a very bad start in race nos. 2. Overall I finished this event in third position behind our champion, Bernd, G-107 and the fast Polish, Marek, P-107 (see the numbers, must be fast). Some really great competitors and sailing friends, whom we call the "A" sailors had to sort themselves out behind me in the overall standing.

The last thing to do now is to write up a summary about this great season were I had some really good results on the national circus (podium places only) but mediocre during the Worlds and European Championships. This summary might come later or maybe only in my little "to-do" booklet. The thoughts are set on the Moth now and I am planning some training and modifications to my faithful Bladerider. Stay tuned if you like to read about the foiling adventures from an old salt for whom it takes ages to do a proper foiling jibe.

DN Racing still going strong in Germany

Great racing last weekend despite the German Championship had to be cancelled due to very much snow on the ice, which was coming down the night before. Most of the participants just moved on abt 60km to a different lake/venue where we found good conditions and were able to convince our former class secretary to do the starting and scoring, which she did just great. Together with her husband, Edith and Jürgen, many thanks for giving us a great time. 6 fantastic races and fun in the evening during the dinner and price giving. Full race report in German language: Race Report

Not able to read German, but interested in the fun we have, please go to the following link. German report Here you can see fotos about 2 "prices" which I had prepared for the two friends who had put the most effort into our class during this winter. The first one you will see is the Icescout 2010 price. Our German class secretary, Jörg, G-747(!) did actually search for good ice with a plane and next day checked the area with his DN. He really deserved this price for his efforts sofar.

There is only one guy who comes into most iceboaters mind when you think about the "Golden telephone" price. Yes, Wulf "Krogo", G-749, deserves this one without doubt. He is actually starting on Monday searching for sailable ice for the coming weekend by phone. He phones up everyone and pushes. Often driving out himself late afternoon if the given information seems a bit unreliable. Without these two great sailors we would not have had such a good season this year. And it is not finished yet. Temperatures are around the freezing point. The Ice is about 25cm with snow cover. If that cover melts away we will have another one or two weekends of DN racing, until the runners are dull.

Following the Moth Worlds in Dubai as many other German Moth sailors, (great job by OTWA and Justin TV) I hope that this blog changes soon into becoming a Moth blog again. Keep your runners sharpened and your foils polished!

The DN NA is on and the Moth WC is coming soon

Wished to be able to attend in both events but one has to be realistic: I think that my Moth sailing is not up to speed to attend a World Championship. On top of my "mostly non foiling jibes", I haven´t been out on the water for 4 month. Instead I had sailed with the DN in various regattas since the middle of January. Some 16 days in total so far of great fun, speed and comradeship. And also looking for another weekend of sailing on hard water due to the weather turning cold again. The "old" ice has not melted away yet. To get to the States for just one regatta is very time consuming and costly. I had done it once in the past but was not happy with the days of sailing versus travelling time/moonies. (DN Worlds at Lake Geneva with an interesting visit at the Melges boatyard when they were developing the Melges 24)

I am following both events of course. For the Moth following it is very easy. One click (see my Moth linklist on the right) on the top link will present you all the latest blog entries. Smart feature Doug! With the DN North American Championship it is a bit more difficult. I can recommend the following sites:
Geoff Sobering
Kent Baker
Iceboating.net
Ken Smith

In between blog entries I am putting something together in my head which is about the similarities between the Moth sailors and the DN sailors. Good technical knowledge which is been shared quite openly. Maybe one day I will write an article about it. One thing for sure is that the Moth sailors are following the DN route these days. Many Moth sailors are not building their own boats anymore, instead they are buying themselves into the class. As I did with the Bladerider. And lately with my DN equipment from Sweden and Estonia. Whilst many years ago I was building my own hulls and planks and also tried to build one mast. But I realized that a big part of the speed comes from the preparation of the runners and it takes a lot of time to prepare them well. It was time consuming for me to learn about metal and how to work with it but I liked it. To work with wood, epoxy, carbonfibre all came much more easy. The fast Moth sailors are tinkering a lot with small upgrades, developing devices to fly higher or more stable. Prepping the foils with special coatings etc.

Going through the pictures (click on them and they extend) from the DN Worlds, I found the one on top very interesting also for sailors from both camps: Look at the bend of the 2 different masts. Both composite. One build in Sweden, the other in Poland. Very, very similar in their bend characteristic, though we do not see the fore and aft bending, which is also an important factor for speed. Some Moth sailors are actually discussing this bend characteristic but I think that with the Veal heel, the Moth has also made a quantum leap forward in speed and height. As did the DN with the unusual mast bend, possible only with the composite masts. Looking out the window today and checking temperature, the last picture might sum it up: Good bye for this season. I am the 2nd on the left.

A Great Read about the DN Worlds and European Championships

Why on earth did I only find this now. This makes great reading and Ken is looking into details from a different view. An American View. Take a cup of coffee and lean back. Ken the Dad, Report about the Trip to DN Europe

Glad that the Winter Olympics are done. At the end I was pulled into watching some events (late at night) and man, they were emotional. The German girls in the team racing on the ice. The 30km ski race, the final Icehockey game. Anyone out there who enjoyed it as well?

Some intense Iceboating

The DN Worlds and EURO Championship are behind me and it had been a few days of great sailing. There are already a lot of reports up on various iceboating websites. Here is just a quick and dirty summary for me to remember and maybe to be able to tell my grandchildren.

Left with 3 sailors in the Volkswagen Van (Bully) for Hungary. Krogo and Henning. Arrived in good shape, travelling through four different countries were we had to pay road tax (to purchase a windscreen sticker). After the flag ceremony on Lake Balaton, it started to snow and did not finish the next day. The whole circus packed up and drove into Austria to the famous Neusiedler See. (Lake Neusiedel) A small village, Mörbisch had been woken up and the 200+ sailors and PRC occupied two hotels which first had to be heated up from zero. Some sailors slept in their warmest clothes available. 2 days of sailing in three groups with 7 races for Gold, Silver and Bronze fleet. I had to qualify from Silver to Goldfleet, managed an eigth in the qualifier (the first 12 sailors are qualified) and finished 37th in the final A-fleet races. Ice conditions were very good and fast and some people said that the first 20 sailors each had a chance to win the title. I would cut this down to 12 or 15. The speed of the top sailors was in a different league to me and the sailors hanging around midfleet. Though I think that I would not have managed the top twenty, I think that my good old SHORE LD sail from the early 90´s did not help my speed in the strong wind. If it would not have full length battens it could be folded neatly. The HT "finish" has left the 6.5oz H&B cloth. I have to say good bye to it. Better sooner than later.

Same applies to my plate runners which are from Siberia and very light. They say that the material is a mixture from Titanium and Magnesium. Not very fast in the snow conditions which we faced during the last day, sailing the EC. The Qualifier races had been split into 4 groups due to the danger of way too many boats speeding around the course and bunching up at the marks. Due to my international ranking I had to start from the "C" fleet, qualified into the "B" and again qualified into the Goldfleet. First day of the EC my speed was very good. No problems getting to the front of the fleet even if my starts were medium. All the youngsters from Poland, Estonia or Lithuania just running away from me after the flag goes down. We faced light wind and very little snow on the ice during this first EC day. I used my faithful ´96 UK Power sail and managed an 11th place in the first Goldfleet EC race. Right there with the top boats. Next day a lot of snow and wind up to 10m/sec, increasing later through the day, left me with my only plate runners which I had taken with me. I managed some places in the 30´s and finished 24th over all. Thus I must play the elevator game again next year. Only about the top 21st from the international ranking are usually pre-qualified for the Goldfleet. I have to go through the stress of qualifying again. And it becomes more and more difficult due to many new and young sailors in the class who start understanding the game. They have well prepared boats and equipment and are only using the latest sails. If I would start a more competitive campaign next year, I could either go for a podium place in the Silver Fleet (won it in Poland a decade or two ago) or for the price given to the best sailor over 60. A whole summer to think about it.

Last weekend we had a 5 series race on Saturday in Plön, some 90km away from here. Strong wind. Of the 20 sailors, who showed up, we were only 7 making it to the start. One sailor had a bad accident. Broken arm and ego. He capsized on the downwind at abt. 90km/h and slided across the very rough surface for a while. He was back from hospital in the evening more or less in good spirit. I finished this series in 3rd place only because I did finish all my races without spinning or crashing into a mark as the much faster Krogo did in front of me. I was sailing with less speed and more respect. One of the toughest series ever sailed in the last years. Not the best conditions for our newcomers to warm up to this fantastic sport.

We still have a lot of snow in the North of Germany. Difficult to find a good spot for DN racing on the weekend. I do not fancy long road trips at present. There is a chance that I will go straight from DN sailing into mothing this year. In four weeks time I will be foiling at the www.pro-vela.com. All bookings confirmed today. Come ice or snow, the Mar Menor and Alan´s Bladeriders are waiting.

The Flag is up!

DN World Championship 2010 in Hungary at Lake Balaton. We drove down to Hungary in 13 hours non-stop. 3-Man in a van. The opening ceremony, participants from 18 nations had been greeted with their flag and national anthym, had been held today on the ice, whilst it had been snowing. Snowing nearly all day. Very bad for out sport. Looks like we will not be able to sail here tomorrow and we epect the race committee to start their plan B tomorrow. Could be that the "camp" (200 participants) has to move to Austria, Lake Neusiedel. Wait and see.

More DN sailing, some authentic shots, Mothing and the 33rd AC

Whilst I had to put some older fotos into my blog entries recently, I discovered on the homepage of our local Sailing Club some great shots from the two weekends action on the the ice here in Schleswig. If you are interested, please go to: ssc-online.de for the homepage, where you also find fotos and later a report from the I14 World Championship recently held in Sydney, where my regular crew, Jan and Sören took part. They did qualify for the Gold Group which is a great achievement for them and I think that there is more to come from this team. More icesailing shots are to be found under: DN Racing, Schlei

This is about the area where we live and it is the first time, after I had moved from Hamburg to Schleswig, 12 years ago, that it is possible to sail on ice in front of my home. It never frooze over before. Normally my DN sailing is about travelling to the locations. Like we have to do for the World Championship this year. We will start moving to Lake Balaton, Hungary tomorrow morning at 05.00h. It is abt. 1700km and we are driving with three guys in a VW bus. Everywhere else there is way too much snow to have good racing. There are 220 sailors registered. Some as far away like the USA. Those sailors keep one boat here in Europe. Normally with German friends.

Last Thursday we had a very good afternoon with good conditions on the ice and it was the first day when K. was able to sail her new boat. Everything went well and she had some great fun with four other friends right in front of the house. The last foto shows the view from the window and her boat is the G-990.

As this is a blog also about Mothing, I am looking forward for some practice time on the Bladerider at Mar Menor again in March. Yesterday evening I had a look at the German ranking list and I was surprised to find myself in the top ten. This is a good reason to try to improve the results this year and to see if it is not possible to beat some of the guys in front of me. Especially my dear friend and enthusiastic competitor, Harald from Lake Constance. He has built himself a very light and good looking new Foiler Moth and it will be interesting to see how he is going. Pictures had been shown on Doug´s homepage.

Something is troubling me. The 33rd AC in Valencia 33rd America´s Cup will start on Monday with a best of three series for the most interesting monster racing yachts every build. I do hope that we have some Internet access in Hungary because I really want to know what is going on. Who is fast and if there are more protests and such. The Worlds biggest pi..ing contest between two enthusiastic Billionaires. Wishing everyone down there at Valencia a great time and some exciting races and after show parties.

Two More Succesful Days for the DN G-99

We have had fantastic wheather over the weekend with temperatures on the Sunday of abt. -9°C. Sailing close to home and 2 race series. On Saturday we had 6 races in Bft 3-4 and I got tired and lost concentration at the end but just managed a one point lead to win the "Stadtmeisterschaft"

The wind had increased to 5 Bft and shifted to the east on Sunday morning, which allowed a very long course. The left side was favoured due to less snow patches. With my first places only I always had a tricky first part of the race, normally being 2nd or 3rd on the weather mark but than was able to run down Sven and Mike with a lot of Chock to Chock sailing with Sven. Both upwind and downwind. He is a very experienced land yacht sailor and did not give an inch. I think it did not happen often to me in racing that a first place was to be dropped from my result sheet. LiveSailDie thanks for the sticker! Wish I could skip work tomorrow and go sailing.

Another Weekend, another DN Regatta

Second weekend in a row, where we are sailing a DN regatta very close to home. This time the Stadtmeisterschaft Schleswig. As it is a very cold winter in Germany this year, it is possible to sail on various lakes from the North to the South. I am not very much in the mood to travel much and prefer to sail here on the Schlei. The same stretch of water where we are doing our Wednesday night beer can races during the liquid season. Same location as we did our Moth regatta in the cold October last year. And we will have 3 Moth meetings here this year.

In total I had already 6 great days practising or racing on the ice in 2010. 2 days with Henning, G-499 and other friends in Denmark with no report written and the other days sailing at home.

I am part of the organizing committee, doing the notice of race (NOR), participants list and trying to find a scoring team for tomorrow. Also responsible for the beverage, eehm, made myself responsible and just did the shopping. I really hope that K. will be able again to help with the food as she did great last weekend. This weekend she will try her new DN iceboat for the first time. We will see.

Last weekend our former class president, Rainer H. came to help with the racing and he decided that we should sail the much admired "Jungfrau von der Schlei" price. I started badly, as I had no time to sort out the runners for the conditions before the first start. In the second start my parking break came into the bobstay and I had to fully stop the boat and to fix it. Was able to claw back into 6th place after that. From that moment on it went well with a couple first places and in the last race, being second on the last leg, Henning, G-499 made a big mistake overstanding the finish mark in the very strong breeze (it had built up to 20kn/h in the gusts) and than he was not able to luv up, instead he did one or two 360 degree full spins. I finished first. On countback this helped me to win the series and the beautiful price, which a former winner still keeps on his cupboard. Have to back off now, doing some packing up of our boats G-99 and G-990 and organizing things for tomorrow.

Note for myself: 64/2008, 68/2009