End of the Moth Season...

This text below had been written earlier last year but I had been too busy to post. Now with the DN season -eagerly awaited- to start for me at the upcoming weekend in Sweden, I am trying to make a smooth transistion into winter mode:

Today, not even the middle of October, I had to search for the ice scraper to clean my front window before going to work. Might be the time to dismantle the Moths and stow them away into their boxes and to make room for the DN equipment. A pity, as my intentions had been to do at least one more weekend of practicing and to test my "KA/M2 rig" for height and speed. Now, that it makes sense to sail and test against K., who had beaten me the last two regattas, I should set modest goals, just trying to match her speed and height. Having been the lone Moth sailor here during my practice sessions, I must have developed backwards. Not sure if it is the set-up of the boat, if it is in the rig or if it has to do with calcification. (Good excuse by Tillerman).

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

Cool Winter

A weekend of DN racing is behind me and another one in front of us. Thursday is mostly the day when we decide where to go, where to meet and where to race. Our mighty "Vossi", chairman for the North German fleet has now organized two weekends of racing in a row. Of course we are helping him and we try to have only volunteers but there is some equipment which has to be carried around. Equipment like two big orange marks, smaller off set marks, the starting line equipment and the scoring equipment. Maybe this is boring information for my two readers but there are the other two who have no idea about what it takes to organize racing in winter time. It is much less fuss than the soft water racing. E.G. We are laying the marks ourselves. Usually the fastest guy takes the weather mark and will lay it out. Of course we take the fastest sailor because he always lays the mark as far to weather as possible. He wants us to have some "speed races". Long distances where his speed will come into play. If we asks sailors from the back of the fleet, usually the weather mark is laid with much less distance. Often under the wood and not straight into the wind. So everyone has his own opinion. Usually we get under way after some re-shuffling the start line and the downwind mark. After the wind has stabilized in direction. And also waiting for the very keen racers who are running one test lap after the other. Always changing runners in between or even the sails. This is a bit difficult to understand for softwater sailors. They cannot walk around their boat. Changing a mainsail in a 470 dinghy is no easy task and what do you do with the spare one? We just drop things in the rigging area on the ice. As well as hot tea and some snack. So, to bring you up to speed. No coaches necessary to carry your gear out to the course in iceboat racing. You take it all yourself. And you are discussing and testing with your fellow friends between the races, directly on the ice. Looking at trims, set ups and everyone is very helpful. You just need to ask some good questions.

Last weekend we had some raining in the afternoon on Saturday and most of my friends played it lazy. Myself too. The photo is from some practice racing between the rain showers. So, no racing as we thought that visibility through the ski googles was poor. Dangerous sailing so to speak. On Sunday the sky cleared and the sun came out. We ran 3 races in light air and had to abandon as our chairman ran into a pool of water. (Rescued himself and no damage to his boat) Nobody knows why and it was definitely out of the usual course area (which was safe of course) but we had a winner for the "Silberne Drache vom Goldberger See". I was in contention for first place after 2 races but screwed up the start in the third race and could not make a comeback. Fourth place overall and Holger, G-890 won with Bernd, G-107 in second and our friend from Bavaria, Thomas, G-8 came third. Now, looking forward to racing this weekend near Hannover on the Lake Steinhude. I´ll give my brother a test sail on my spare boat. See if he likes it. He helped me with some repairs and refit this week so he already got an idea how the DN looks like.

The clock stopped ticking at 64...days of sailing in 2008

Happy New Year to my fellow readers!

The year starts nicely with 2 days of iceboating in Steinhude. A report will follow soon. This is just the announcement that I will try hard to beat the 64 days of sailing on various crafts in 2009. Please keep coming back. DN G-99