Chronicle #8 - Nordlichtpokal Regatta and Trip Recap

Nordlichtpokal Regatta at Scharbeutz, Germany, Sept 2 - 3

Nineteen boats arrived for this regatta venue north of Lubeck. It was interesting because we had to take our boats from the rigging parking lot 100 feet down the main street to the beach. The race course was right off shore from this resort town.

Because rainy weather was forecast for Sunday the race committee scheduled four races for Saturday and only two for Sunday. On Saturday the wind was 10 to 15 kts from the shore so there were no waves but the wind was very shifty. In the first race we got a good start and were trying to figure out the wind shifts. We rounded the weather mark around 6th place. All the races were set at three laps so we had time to keep catching boats on each of the consecutive legs and finished 3rd.

The next two races were very similar where we got good starts near the pin end and headed towards the favored left side. We were 1st at the weather mark and were able to keep moving ahead of the nearest boats so we had significant leads to win both races.

The final race of the day was more difficult to play the shifts and we finished 5th. After four races there is one throw-out so we were in 1st place at the end of the day ahead of the next boats by three points.

On Sunday we arrive at the club around 8:30 and were surprised to find that the R/C had moved the start time up to 10:00 am. We quickly rigged our boat and headed out to the race course under an overcast sky. We got a good clear air start but struggled again with the shifts so rounded the first mark in 5th place. We quickly passed two boats during the spinnaker set and then went on to pass another boat each leg so we finished in 2nd place. Chris Brauer who was in fourth after Saturday sailed a perfect race to finish 1st.

For the final race we had another clear air start but Chris won the start at the pin end. Chris jumped into the lead and could not be touched. We struggled with the shifts again so rounded the final weather mark in 4th place. The boat behind us gybed to the right and we followed shortly thereafter to defend but he managed to get ahead of us at the finish but we passed one boat that rounded in front so we maintained 4th place. While sailing back to the yacht club we had no idea of the points since Chris had such a good day and we had been paying attention to the other two leading boats. We were please to find out later that we had maintained our first place position by one point over Chris.

Article in Lubeck Newspaper about our Win. Translation of title:  "US Crew wins 46th Nordlichtpokal [Regatta] offshore of Scharbeutz" — Article in Lubeck Newspaper about our Win. Translation of title: "US Crew wins 46th Nordlichtpokal [Regatta] offshore of Scharbeutz"

Danish Open Championship at Sonderborg, Denmark, Sept 11 - 12

This regatta is special for us because besides being the last event in Europe it is in the home town of our former Exchange Student Henrik Kuesler and also where we store the boat between summer seasons. We are lucky because after we are finished sailing on Sunday we can pack up the boat and have it ready to put into the barn for the winter.

Fifteen boats participated in this championship including 7 boats from Denmark and 7 boats from Germany. The German contingent include the top German boat at Garda Lake and several other very competitive boats.

We were very fortunate that the only good summer days that Denmark experienced this year were the week that we were in Sonderborg. We launched the boat and had two days of practice in nice 10 – 20 kts of wind on beautiful sunny days. The cruising boats from Germany were out in force.

This regatta was different because three classes of boats (A-Cats, F-18’s and monohull 5O5’s) were sharing the same race course. Due to the monohulls being on the same course, the legs were much shorter and with more than 70 boats racing the traffic management made the race course challenging. The first day of the regatta the wind started out light and built during the day. We had set our mast rake (angle of the mast to the boat) back expecting windier conditions so were slow in the light air. We started out the first five races with 3-6-4-4-4 finishes. Finally for the last race of the day in windier 15 kts conditions we pulled off a second place finish. The German team of Finn & Merle had all 1st place finishes. At the end of the day we were in fourth place but only one point out of third and four points out of second place.

On Sunday we set our mast rake forward expecting a lighter wind but naturally the wind stayed up only dropping toward the end of the six races. But, with this mast rake our speed was much better and we had finishes of 3-4-3-2-1-1. In the fourth race we were leading the whole race but lost out to Finn/Merle right at the end due to a tactical error. With these finishes we managed to squeak by with third place wining the tie-breaking rule with the top Danish boat and being only one point out of second place with “hockey player” Robert from Germany. We were pleased to finish our final three races in Europe this summer with strong performances but the final two bullets were also due to Finn & Merle having to retire due to sever bow damage from a collision with Robert. Robert was disqualified in that race and Finn & Merle used their two throw-outs for the last two races so still won the regatta!

After the races we took two of our Kuesler hosts out for a nice sail and then packed up the boat to be stored until next summer when the F-18 World Championships are going to be held in Denmark.

Europe Statistics

Now that we have completed our regatta tour of Europe we thought it would be fun to share some statistics from our trip:

Number of days in Europe: 94
Countries entered: 14
Europe Distance Traveled: 17,000 km (10,600 miles)
Number of race days: 30
Number of practice days: 11
Number of races sailed: 80
Different F-18 boats raced against: ~175
Number of friends made: Infinite

Best & Worst of Trip:

We would also like to share our reflections back on the trip:

Most Beautiful Regatta Site: Lake Garda, Italy
Best Winds for Regatta: Lake Garda, Italy
Best Live Music at Regatta: Kiel Week United Four
Best Hotel: Lake Como, Italy
Best Hotel Breakfast: Zahgreb, Croatia
Most Used Breakfast Venue: Lidl (German brand grocery store)
Best Natural Attraction: Pitlivec Waterfall Park, Croatia
Matt’s Favorite Tourist Attractions: German Panzer Museum & Hitler’s Wolf’s Lair in Poland
Steve’s Favorite Tourist Attraction: Tallin Old City, Estonia
Most Scenic Drive: Through Swiss Alps
Worst Road: Poland departing Wolf’s Lair
Worst Border Crossing: Belgium into France
Most Disorganized Regatta: Lake Como
Largest Regatta: Italian & German Championship at Lake Garda with 59 F-18’s
Smallest Regatta: Danish Open with 15 F-18’s
Regatta with most Races per day: Danish Open; 6 races each day
Most Difficult Wind Conditions at Regatta: Brest, France
Matt’s Favorite Dinner: Beer, schnitzel, spätzle & bratkartoffel with mushrooms & gravy
Matt’s Favorite Beer: Munich Augustine
Most Weight Gained: Matt (11 pounds)
Favorite Moment while Racing: Brest, France camera boat trying to keep up with us while filming our spinnaker run
Most Technology Advanced Regatta: Kiel Week SAP video broadcast

Next and Final Event:

US F-18 Championships at Sandy Hook, New Jersey, USA, Sept 19 - 23

There are 34 US and one Canadian boat currently registered for this event that will be held across from New York Harbor. The venue is on the bay so it should have relatively flat water. Tentatively we will have one long distance race that will be from Sandy Hook to the Statue of Liberty and return.

We have just flown to New York JFK via Iceland and will have four days to prepare for this regatta. The fourth day (Sunday) will have a practice race before the regatta begins on Monday.

Truck & boat in storage in New Jersey awaiting our return

Stay tuned for the final 2016 Chronicle after the US National Championships are completed.

Steve and Matt