Had a fantastic weekend on the Ice in Sweden with my new boat and a new mast. It is amazing how one can have small problems with the set up of the boat when not doing a full rigging process at home in the driveway or else. Which I had not done due to various circumstances. Raising the masts on the hull first time, it looked like my old shrouds were way too short for the new higher hull, but with a set-up of the mast at 94 cm it worked and did not look too bad. Rake was OK. Shrouds at the last possible hole. Anyway it was OK for sailing and for racing within the first third of the competitive fleet. Tips from the current European Champion, Karol, P-36, to move the mast back to 104 cm for more speed did not help me as it was impossible. Now I cannot wait if it is true and I will find a bit more speed when changing the set-up, which is meant to be for strong wind and black ice. 
A different story in sticky conditions of course. More important would also be to get a bit stronger, to have more willpower on the downwind to fight hard for not loosing places. (Same, as in the Moth Class) It is amazing how much one can gain if purely holding on and blasting away from the weather mark. I am under the impression, that the top 5 gained half a leg on the first 1,8 km downwind flight.Now, before writing up a more detailed report, which I had already done in German language Report (use your favorite translater) I give my fellow 3 readers, who like to know more, some links to more information and pictures:
An nice article and video link can be found about our first training session on Friday 12th in Sandviken at Segelreporter.com : Segelreporter.com
This article also contains other links, like my report for the German DN site as well as the result list. Some great shots are to be seen at: Fotos from the weekend
Next stop: Somewhere in Northern Europe in 10 days for the World Championship and the Europeans which will be sailed straight afterwards. There will be about 10-15 participants from the US this time as well as Canadian sailors and with all the independent States in Europe we might have again 18 - 20 Nations raising their flags. I hope that all the anthems, though nice to hear, are not played in full length out there on the ice because than we would be finished with the opening ceremony only in the dark.
The picture above had been taken in Sweden on Friday. Some early arrivals are being shown.
The second picture shows me (G-99) starting to hike just before the mast will fully bend and is taking the load and acceleration.
