2017 Chronicle #1 - The Schedule and Team

A new summer is upon us and I am heading off to Europe again for a new F-18 racing campaign whose highlight will the World Championships in Copenhagen, Denmark.

I have a new teammate this year since Matt Morris decided to pursue a summer internship since he has only one more year until he graduates. Yes, the real world is catching up with him and he wants to beef up his resume for future employment opportunities. Matt and I will still race together in the America’s Championship (for North and South America) in September which will be held in Long Beach, California. It is good that I have no cross-USA driving trips this year!

My new teammate is 21 year old Ryan Hopps who is also from Mission Bay Yacht Club (MBYC). He has been very active sailing in the Snipe class including several National, North American and Western Hemisphere Championships with Doug Hart, one of my best friends. Last year they were first in the North American Championships. He is currently in college studying Political Science so that he is able to take the summer off for this sailing adventure. This will be Ryan’s first trip to Europe so it will be a new experience for him. He has been previously to Brazil to sail in the Snipe Junior World Championships.

Ryan and I have been training together since December to prepare for the events in Europe. As a side note MBYC now has the largest fleet of F-18’s at a single club in North America with 16 boats. This has provided us with excellent and many different training partners.

In the major regattas that we have sailed together, we placed second in the San Diego NOOD regatta in March and placed second in Cat Fight #2 at MBYC in early May. Our final training regatta was the ABYC Memorial Day regatta in Long Beach where we also placed second with winds in the 17–25 kts range so it was similar to what we will see on the Baltic. In one of the second place finishes we were only one point out of first and for one we were tied on points and in each case we were beaten by different teams so we are sailing consistently well. We feel we are well prepared for the F-18 big leagues in Europe.

We flew into Frankfurt, Germany the morning after Ryan’s last final exam on June 2. We arrived at our first stop in Zweibrucken to visit my cousin Frank and to pick up the car. So far the weather is warm though we are getting some rain.

On Sunday we visited the Roman Museum in Homburg which is an excavation of a Roman town near the frontier of the Roman empire.

We are hitting the road today (Monday) because we do not have much time to pick up the boat in Denmark and then head to our first regatta outside Stockholm, Sweden.

The Schedule

Our plan is to sail in eight regattas over ten weeks which will consist of 22 racing days and an estimated 70 races (typically 3 races per race day). Following is the schedule of events shown on the map of Europe. Point 0 is the starting and ending point in Zweibrucken, Germany where Steve’s mother is from and the car is stored. We are estimating that we will drive 6,500 miles (10,000 Km) over the ten weeks.

1) Pick up car in Zweibrucken, Germany

2) Pick up boat in Sonderborg, Denmark

3) Sandhamn Cup, Stockholm, Sweden

June 10 - 11
A new venue for Steve
Raced on the Baltic Sea
10 – 20 boats
Race launch point is from an island in the Swedish archipeligo

4) Kiel Week, Kiel, Germany

June 17 – 20
Largest regatta in the world
First Kiel week in 1882
4 race days (3-4 races per day)
25 – 30 boats
1 boat from USA
4-5 countries represented
3 million visitors to Kiel Week

5) Surendorf Cup, Eckernford, Germany

June 24 – 25
Local regatta in small town NW of Kiel
Expect 15-25 F-18’s racing

6) F-18 World Championships, Copenhagen, Denmark

July 10 - 15
New venue for Steve
5 race days (3-4 races per day)
Expect over 130 F-18’s racing
21+ countries represented
2-3 boats from the USA

7) Italian Regatta, Rimini, Italy

Jul 22 – 23
New venue for Steve
2 race days (3-4 races per day)
Local regatta on Adriatic Sea
Expect about 10 - 20 F-18’s

8) Nacra Championships, Lake Garda, Italy

July 24 – 29
Repeat venue from last summer
Has reputation as best place to race F-18’s in all of Europe
Only Nacra brand F-18’s will compete
Expect 10-20 Nacra F-18 plus other classes of Nacra boats including Nacra 20 Carbon’s
5 race days (3-4 races per day)

9) Berlin Championship, Germany

Aug 5 – 6
New Venue for Steve
2 race days (3-4 races per day)
Local regatta on Lake Muggelsee
Expect about 10 - 20 F-18’s

10) Movenstein Regatta, Lubeck, Germany

Aug 12 -13
2 race days (3-4 races per day)
Local regatta on Baltic Sea
Expect 15 – 20 F-18’s

11) Americas Championship, Long Beach California

Sep 6 – 9
4 race days (3-4 races per day)
Expect 30 – 50 F-18’s

Results Postings On-Line

While the racing is going on it will be difficult for us to keep you all posted but you can look up results daily at the following links:

Sandhamn Regatta Results: http://www.ksss.se/en/
Kiel Week Results: http://www.manage2sail.com/en-US/event/KielWeek#!/results?classId=34f45aaf-41a6-4cb7-9188-825d2e62427c
Kiel Week Information & Videos: http://www.kieler-woche.de/english/sailing/
World Championships: http://www.f18-international.org/f18-worlds-2017-denmark
NACRA Championships: http://www.nacraracing.com/
Movenstein Regatta: http://www.manage2sail.com/en-US/event/646aca7d-9ed2-43b2-aa63-dd7afb7b71c1#!/results?classId=e7a6a876-b8c6-4de5-a441-1015678b89b2

The Boat

We will be sailing a Nacra Infusion Mk II 2012 model which I purchased used from the Nacra headquarters in Netherland in March 2015. The boat is almost identical to the boat we race in California.

The boat has been in storage in Sonderborg, Denmark since last summer in a barn on the farm of one of our former exchange students (Henrik). The farm house was built in 1777!

The Car

To get us around Europe I acquired a 2001 VW Jetta Diesel station wagen from my uncle.

So it’s off to the races for us….

Thanks to all our supporters in this endeavor – especially my wife, Alida who is supporting my retirement hobby and heading to Michigan to her summer cottage. And to Henrik Kuseler’s family for storing my boat in Denmark. And my German cousin Frank Reidelhuber. Without his help navigating the German bureaucracy to register and insure the car and trailer this adventure would not have been feasible.

We hope this newsletter is a suitable means to keep everyone informed. We will try to send one approximately every two weeks.

Stay tuned for the next Chronicle!

Steve and Ryan