2016 Chronicle #6 - Nordic Championships and Movenstein Regatta

Preparation for Nordic Championships

Traveling through Poland and the Baltic states was uneventful. The roads were much better than expected. We had an excellent freeway from Berlin to Warsaw. After Warsaw it was mostly two lane roads, except for short stretches, they were wide and smooth.

We arrived in Tallinn Tuesday mid-afternoon and went directly to the Yacht Club. The Harbor Master was very confused about an American boat arriving towed by a German car but was very helpful in getting us established so we could start rigging the boat.

We were surprised to find out that the yacht club and racing venue were the facilities for the 1980 Moscow Olympic games. These were the Olympics that were boycotted by the US and our allies due to the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan. The facilities are nice, but not as extensive as in Kiel. It was really cool sailing in our second Olympic sailing venue for the summer.

Locals were impressed by the California flag

On Wednesday we finished rigging the boat and went for our first sail. It was a beautiful day with wind 10 – 15 kts so we were able to sail all around Tallinn Bay. There are many cruise ships and ferries that come into Tallinn so there was a lot of traffic on the water.

On Thursday it was quite windy and we were waiting for another F-18 to arrive to practice with. Around 1:00 pm our good friends (Penny & Jan) from Denmark arrived from another beach area on their chartered boat with one hull submerged (sinking) and both daggerboards broken. They had sailed within about 100 yards of one of the beaches where there are many submerged rocks which they hit at high speed.

There was another Estonian boat that sailed over at the same time who capsized and one of the crew members became separated from the boat. He happened to have his cell phone with him and called for the local rescue group but the operator said he had a poor connection and hung up on him. After another try at calling he connected and a rescue boat came out and returned him to the capsized Wildcat.

Later in the afternoon we did go out to practice in about 18 kts of wind against a Swedish boat and a Norweigan boat that I knew from the 2015 Worlds in Germany. He is very good and placed 11th at the Worlds.

Nordic Championships, Tallinn, Estonia

The wind forecast for the entire three days of racing was for very light winds so we knew it would be a challenge to get enough races in to qualify as a championship. We had 22 boats entered from Eastonia, Finland, Denmark, Sweden, and Norway. We were the only non-Nordic boat entered.

The first day the start was not until 2:00 to allow boats arriving that morning to have time to rig. The first race was started on time in about 6-8 kts. We had a good start and quickly jumped into the front pack of boats with good boat speed. Around the first weather mark we were in third place following the Swedish and Norweigan boats we had practised with the previous day. The Swede and us went one way downwind and the Norway boat took the other side of the course. When we got to the leeward gate we were in second place and then held that to the finish.

The second race went very similar but the wind was dying down. We managed to sail two laps and finished third battling with the same Swedish and Norway boats. The Swedish boat had two firsts.

Coming into the leeward gate with Tallinn in the background

By the third race the wind was less than 5 knotts and the race committee started us on a two lap race. Technically they should not have started the race because our class rules require races to be started in at least 5 kts of wind. We had a good start again but were squeezed by a Wildcat pinching below us and another boat driving hard over us. By the time we got out of this situation and had tacked we were in poor position. We were in around 14th place around the weather mark but quickly passed about six boats as we set the spinnaker early and sailed high before heading down wind. The wind kept getting lighter during the downwind leg and the fleet was very spread apart. We noticed that the R/C shortened the course at the leeward gate but when we got there they were off station. We finished 7th but had exceeded the time limit. For this regatta any boat that finishes more than 15 minutes behind the lead boat is scored ‘DNF’ Did-Not-Finish. The first four boats were scored with finishes and all other boats got DNF which counts as 23 points. So at the end of the first day we were in 7th place but knew that if at least four races were sailed there would be one discarded race which could get us into the top three boats.

On Saturday they started races at 10:00 once again in a light breeze. We got a good start and had excellent boat speed heading to the weather mark. We rounded in third place behind the Swede and Norway boats. The Swede immediately gybed to port while Norway and us kept going to the right side of the course. We stayed together going downwind and round through the gate in first and second places. The Swede was back quite a distance. The second lap was uneventful with Norway maintaining first and us in second. The Swede ended finishing fourth. Most importantly completing this race allowed us to discard the DNF from yesterday.

Heading downwind toward the leeward gate

The R/C started a fifth race calling for two laps but the wind was light. We had a poor start and it was difficult to predict the shifts and pressure sailing upwind. At the end of the first lap we were mid fleet. Going up the second leg we managed to find the dying wind better than most and were in fifth place heading toward the second weather mark with a chance for even being first to round when the R/C cancelled the race due to lack of wind. It was the right decision because if they had finished us at the weather mark only a few boats would have been within the time limit. They then towed us back to the club to wait for more wind to develop later in the afternoon. Around 4:30 they cancelled racing for the day and then hosted an excellence Tallinn Bay cruise on a two masted old cargo sailing vessel.

On Sunday they scheduled the racing to start at 10:00 but when we arrived at the club there was no wind. The R/C called for an on-shore postponement. They waited until 11:30 and then cancelled the racing for the day because they had committed to no races after 1:00 pm so people could pack their boats to catch the ferries to Scandinavia.

That left us in third place only one point out of second and two points out of first. At the awards ceremony they presented us with a bottle of Eastonian vodka since the metals had to be awarded to the top Nordic boats. Matt had great fun on the award podium beating the other teams to uncork the bottle of Champaign and succeeded in thoroughly soaking the other teams.

Of course after the awards ceremony there was good wind (12-15kts) and we went for a sail with two other boats since we did not need to pack up our boat yet.

Touring Activities

On Monday we took the day off from sailing to tour Tallinn before heading back to Germany. We found that Tallinn has a beautiful medieval town center that is a little commercialized because of all the cruise ships that visit. It was most interesting to talk to the Estonians about the changes since Eastonia achieved their independence from the Soviet Union. The regatta chairman told stories of the shortages of common goods and how they knew to live on so little. Now the stores in Eastonia have shelves loaded with goods and they are very appreciative of their new freedom.

We spent the day visiting the Seaplane Hanger museum and then the town center including a climb up the highest church steeple.

On Tuesday we set off for the drive back to Germany taking two days to get through the Baltic countries. The first night we had our first logistical problem of the trip when we found that we could not get to the hotel/apartment we had booked because of poor narrow dirt roads. We managed to walk to the property and were shown the room by the Russian-Lithuanian owner. I found it totally unacceptable to stay in and we decided to keep driving toward Poland.

The next day we got to Poland and took a diversion to visit Hitler’s Wolf’s Lair which was his eastern front command center. The huge bunkers still exist in a dense forest area and can still be visited though most of them were blown up by 18,000 lbs of TNT before being overrun by the Soviet army. Matt had a grand time climbing all over the ruins.

Movenstein Regatta

We arrived at Travemunde which is the seaport suburb of Lubeck Germany late Thursday evening. We went to the catamaran club on Friday to rig the boat. I had sailed there twice last summer with AJ Hatch so was familiar with the venue. They have a very nice facility similar to MBYC where the catamarans are stored in a grassy area. We started to set up the boat with rain threatening. Robert Schultz showed up and told us he wanted to practice with us that afternoon. He was the third place boat at Kiel week and the ex-hockey play who can strong arm the mainsheet two-blocked with one arm. We had a good training session with him during the afternoon and also included a cruise through the harbor so Matt could get a feel for the town.

There were 17 F-18’s present on the starting line on Saturday for this local club regatta. The wind was very strong and puffy ranging from 15 to 22 kts. It was a lot of work for Matt playing the mainsheet to keep the boat on an even keel and moving fast. We had four races all with conservative but good starts. We had changed some boat rigging settings and found that we were very fast in the heavy breeze. We were very happy after finishes of 4 – 2 – 3 – 2 which placed us tied in second place with Robert. Finn & Meryl (probably about the best sailors in Germany) had four first places.

On Sunday we started earlier at 10:00 and the wind was much lighter running about 7 – 11 kts. In the first race we placed 4th but finished ahead of Robert so it was a good result. In the second race we had a great start while Finn/Meryl had problems. We found the wind correctly and were first around the weather mark. We then held the lead for the rest of the three lap race. For the third race the wind increased a little and we did not play the shifts correctly going upwind so we finished in 7th place. We were a little surprised when they called for an eight race but it was still early before their 2:00 pm deadline for starting races. For the final race we had a reasonably good start and clear wind off the starting line. We were playing the shifts pretty good heading toward the weather mark. We could see very heavy rain clouds moving toward us. Shorthly before the weather mark the wind hit us quickly increasing to more than 20 kts. It was a very exciting mark rounding with five boats close together. We rounded in 5th place but then gybed earlier than the other boats downwind. This was a bad call and we lost more boats. We finished 8th in this race. They had one race discarded for this regatta so this was our throw-out. Robert had 1 – 2 finishes in the final two races so he ended beating us. But, we were happy being on the trophy stand for third place at this regatta.

Next Event:

German and Italian F-18 Championships, Lake Garda, Italy, Aug 26 - 28

This is a combined championship that will be held over three days on Lake Garda in Northern Italy. Lake Garda has a reputation for being the best place to sail in Europe because it is on a beautiful lake with consistently strong wind. I have not yet seen a registration list but we could have from 40 to as many as 80 F-18’s racing.

Traveling to Italy & Croatia

We are taking three days to travel to Italy and doing some sightseeing along the way. The first day we visited the German Panzer Tank Museum in Munster. It contained an amazing collection of tanks from WWI through current models. Matt was on cloud nine to be able to visit this museum.

Matt with WW II German Tiger Tank (his favorite)

On the second day we stopped to tour the Dachau Concentration Camp from WWII outside Munich. This was a very sobering visit.

Tomorrow we head through the Alps again on an easier road. We will stay initially two days at Lake Garda and then take a four day side trip to Croatia. We will leave the boat at Lake Garda. The reason for the trip to Croatia is to reduce our number of days in the EU countries to 90 since that is the limit for US citizens to visit without a visa.

Stay tuned for the next Chronicle after the Lake Garda regatta is complete.

Steve and Matt