Results / European Championships Travemunder Woche - 25/07/2016

Wednesday in Travemunde dawned uncharacteristically grey and chilly, and the fleet donned spray tops and wetsuits before getting on the water uncharacteristically early at 9am as the race officer tried to make the most of the forecast breeze with a 10am start.

 

There was nothing unusual about the leading few when racing started for the day however. In a light and shifty first race, Stewart and Sarah Robertson pipped the hugely consistent and fast Steve Restall and Chris Stubbs, with Liam and Julie Willis in third just beating Robertson Jr (Ben) and Jenny 'Duckhams' Douglas into fourth. 

 

The breeze piped up a little throughout the second race and Jon Heissig and Nicky Griffin stormed back into contention with a well earned bullet. Heavyweights David and Rebecca Brown enjoyed the increased breeze and hung on for second, with Restall and Stubbs ever present on the podium in third and Kevin Podger and Heather Chipperfield fourth.

 

A similar story unfolded in the third race with Restall and Stubbs, sailing a fantastic series so far, leading most of the way round only to be pipped on the last run by the Browns. John Cooper and Becci Wigley rounded out the podium in third with the Robertsons fourth. Much confusion then ensued about whether any further races were to be sailed, with the fleet gradually meandering back to shore after deciding that on balance lunch and naps were preferable.

 

The sailing is shifty and tricky, and this reflects in the results which are still wide open at this point in the series. However, Steve Restall and Chris Stubbs  are taking the tricky conditions in their stride and sailing a fantastic regatta, increasing their lead at the top of the table today. 

 

Sun and breeze forecast for tomorrow and the fleet is sailing on the SAP media course in the morning where the racing promises to be fast and furious. Bring it on!

 

Ding Brown

 

 

The weather was yet again not in our favour as we woke up for the forth day of the RS 400 'floating around Germany' competition. Fortunately racing was not planned to start until late with first signal at 1125, so we were able to rehydrate, recuperate and generally recover from the previous nights energetic activities. 1125 came and went and we were yet again held ashore with little hope of getting onto the SAP media course which had promised drone footage, GPS tracking and in race and onboard footage from some of the finest sailors in the fleet.

 

By 1200 the breeze had filled in and with cameras fitted to Ben & Jenny's and Howard & Dan's boats to capture the ensuing spectacle we head out onto the course. The first start was promising with a steady few knots across the course however it did not last and we were yet again abandoned after only a few hundred yards. Unfortunately in race two, with the wind still shifting the heavily port bias line led to myself and a number of others being at the back of the pack by the windward mark, nevertheless, the cameras were able to capture the winners, Ben and Jenny as they stormed around to lead to the finish. The second race was again a flop with a great first lap in moderate breeze, however despite managing to be on the lucky side of a shift, my hopes and dreams were dashed as it was canned whilst the wind swung 100 degrees around the course.

 

No more racing today... We have a legendary RS social to attend on the magnificent Passat, a 377 foot long sailing vessel moored along side in travemüde. More information to follow tomorrow after recovering from what I am sure will be a well deserved beer filled evening.

 

Ollie George-Taylor

 

Day 5 - Races 8,9,10,11

 

It is fair to say that at close of play on Thursday, most RS400 crews were still struggling to dispel a persistent sense of frustration brought about by our 15 hour close inspection of the A20 hard shoulder, followed by 4 days of more waves than wind, and that wind more shifty than a French border guard asked to wish several thousand Brits ‘bonne vacances’. Despite the best efforts of the highly efficient race teams and the legendary Travemunde Woche diversions, not least the superb party aboard the famous 4 masted barque Passat that evening, the loss of a day of our lives in a traffic jam, followed by another one or two drifting in the Bucht, and the bubble of an excitingly top place being burst by the dreaded 3 hoots of abandonment weighed heavily.

 

We all knew that this would be dispelled by an uninterrupted session of races in a solid F3-4, which was exactly what had been so confidently promised all week that the Friday forecast had not changed since it had been written while we were in the dreaded queue at Dover. As a result the whole fleet eagerly mobbed the committee boat on the Foxtrot course some 20 minutes before the first of 4 scheduled races in the blissfully solid offshore breeze. The RO responded with his trademark short and slightly pin biased line, once-only offer flag Papa and windward leeward course (the Germans do love their sausages!). So keen was everyone to make it stick that the fleet got away first time, setting the pattern for the day.

 

It is perhaps not remarkable that the front runners from previous days continued to excel in these completely contrasting conditions. While others were left swimming or spinning, John and Nicky Heissig were at their unflappable best, with 2 clean wins, Steve Restall and Chris Stubbs fitfully continuing their top 5 style and David Brown and Rebecca Witt posting 3 top 5s after a discard in the 1^st. Kevin Podger and Heather Chipperfield managed to buck their poor light weather trend, with some good starts and hanging on around the short course to post 4, 3, 2 and 5 and the best total score of the day.

 

It was Stuart and Sarah Robertson who made the journey from Scotland worthwhile, though, with a 3, 2, 3 and their 2^nd discard to clinch the European Championship by a single point from Brown and Restall. Travemunde was tremendous after all – what a difference a day makes!

 

Many thanks from the whole 400 fleet to the scores of volunteers, and notably the bomb-proof PRO Stefan, and our super secretary, Heather for making it all happen.

 

Kevin Podger

 

 

THE RS400 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIP

TRAVEMUNDER WOCHE July 2016

 

Being only my fourth European Championship, Travemunder, was always a must, 2 years ago when the venue was announced those who had been previously, assured me the trip to Germany would be highly memorable. Indeed it was, the journey that is.

Volvo very kindly allow a demonstrator (car) for each fleet, I was lucky enough to be the recipient of this for the short trip to Lymington last month for the Open event there. After the drive there and back, a trip of 130 miles I felt that a good test drive had been achieved, yes the car was excellent and one day I would probably buy one.

The recipient of the Volvo for this trip to Germany liked it so much that they decided to drive over 700 miles up and down the UK towing a double stacker before actually boarding a ferry to the Continent. London – Dover- Cambridge- Hull.

The point of this is, when you next ask to test drive a car, well, don’t just go around the block for 20 minutes.

 

There were of course numerous other epic tales from other competitors as they arrived in the expansive boat park in Travemunder, tales of nightmare tailbacks and of sleeping in cars with food and water supplies running out.

 

Upon arrival at the venue, a 3 acre site greeted us, plenty of space for the RS400, 200, 100, 500 & Aero fleets. Camper trucks and tents adorned the site, from small pop ups to palatial 4 bed segmented family tents. 6 wheeler mobile homes with awnings, bbq’s gently smoking, and boats being unloaded and rigged. I have never seen so many shrink wrapped new boats (Aeros) Travemunder Woche (Week) is the German equivalent of Cowes week. Other fleets were camped at various venues across the town.

The boat park also contained a large Marquee (for meetings), the RO control box plus shower / wc blocks. The plot being long as it lay behind the promenade had an entrance each end and a café / bar at the town end…………..the end where the 400 fleet decamped.

 

Now at some events, when you get off the water a doughnut and cuppa is thrust in your hand. In Travemunder, as you exit the beach, the helm takes the boat to the wash down area, the crew gets the beers. The wash down area comprised a fireman’s hose, operated by an enthusiastic soul who not only sluiced the boat out but cleaned crews of sand too.

 

So with beer in hand, each days racing was relived ……Many thanks to Dan, Ding, Ollie and Kevin for the daily Race reports for Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, these are already posted.

Walking from the boat park towards town via the promenade took you past large houses with steep sloping rooves, and an assortment of waterfront hotels, the beach with numerous wood and wicker covered benches were during the day packed. After 7 minutes of promenading you reached the array of stallholders in white tents. The Festival section, mostly under canvas selling BEER, WINE, traditional German food (Sausages, meat, more meat, puddings, sweets, tee shirts, wood carvings etc. The area packed not only with European sailors but many locals too.

But it was by night that the real festival came alive, two enormous covered stages hosted pseudo Rock bands, Bands dressed like Megadeath and Slipknot, but playing hits from Madonna and Abba…..well who cares after 5 Mojitos………….

Gangs of black clad heavily armed police occasionally wandered through, reminding all of recent events, but the mood was generally relaxed and buzzing.

 

At the point where the beach ends and the river emerges, huge ferries navigate through the narrow entrance on their way from Lubeck to other Baltic cities. They pass via a solitary tower block on the West side and a moored 4 masted schooner on the East side. Ferries dart across at a couple of points, but the festival tents continue around the West side of the river and join up with the Old Town. An old Lighthouse tower and then the high street lead into Travemunde Town Centre.

It is at this point the larger beer tents are situated, opposite the moored Schooner, where on the dot of 10:30pm each night a spectacular laser / firework show begins to the sound of stirring orchestral (piped) music. This scene is however just as spectacular when seen from the 24^th floor of the tower block after 5 Mojitos !.

 

For a majority of the 40 RS400 personnel the Rum tent appeared to be the unofficial meeting point, staggering home from this point for most was 10 minutes, via another meat feast.

So the wind may not have played its part, but for 3 of the 5 days, the racing was tight, If the crews at the front end thought it was close, take a look at the back. The fleet at the end of every two lap race appeared compacted, a very short time difference between the leader and the tail crossing the finish line.

 

This year has seen a number of events with very light conditions, boats bobbing about whilst RO’s have struggled to set a course in the switching airs………………..Patience sometimes leads to frustration…………leads to crews falling asleep in the boats…………….”Shall we go home now?”

Wednesday…………1 race completed, waiting………………waiting……….boat filled up with water…….a puff from the North, kite up, a short surge to drain out the swimming pool…….waiting……………drift over to the fleet representative………….”What do you think?”………….”give him (RO) till 3:00” Fleet starting to drift further from the race course, heading towards the beach……..Yawn………..”AAHH look over there, Howie with his pink kite up heading home”……..right then I’m off.   One blast on the RO boat, too far now to see the flags, no breeze anywhere. Then see a load of kites flying behind us…..”right then they are all coming in”

About to reach the shore when…….hang on the boats coming in are the 500 fleet, where are the 400’s………….scan the horizon………..nothing………….Have you ever had that awful feeling in the pit of your stomach………….that feeling you may have had whilst back at school having to wait outside the Headmasters room, in my case for hanging a rather annoying fellow pupil out of a second floor window by his ankles.

Then Howard coming out from the beach asking where the rest of the fleet was…..and I’m the ruddy fleet Captain…………………..OOOOPS! they must still be racing. Cue two very angry 400’s head out to the racing area, a 45 minute beat, and on getting closer see some familiar kites coming towards us on the race track………..Must have missed two races at least. Sheepishly ask the nearest competitor how many races we have DNC’d………………”Ha, yooooou was lucky, two false starts and a canned race after one lap”

If you believe in luck…………………Guffaws of laughter rang out across the race track.

 

We have in the fleet an award called the Duckhams, it is a prize presented each evening at the Nationals to someone who that day has made the fleet grin from ear to ear. This event above could be regarded as a possible Duckhams moment. The fleet’s Duckhams girls will have to adjudicate, Awards don’t have to be only for the Nationals.

Duckhams could also be awarded to the assorted gathering who whilst one evening on the 24^th floor of the tower block after 5 Mojitos decided who could build a paper plane that could make it to a distant car park. Now we all know that there is no litter in Germany, so the following morning some very annoyed official may have picked up at least 260 soggy dart like bits of paper, and if they had looked carefully would have noted that the paper originated from the SSI booklets that every RS400 sailor had been issued……

 

We did thank the hosts for an excellent soiree and assured them that whilst they resided in a jail very close to the old East German border on a charge of littering…………we would not be coming to visit.

 

In the end the racing was tight, one point divided the Champion from 3^rd, four points divided 5^th from 9^th and at the back the last 6 fought tooth and nail. Above all the camaraderie and banter made up for the lack of breeze, as crews bimbled on their boats and swapped top tips

 

Many thanks to both Steve Restall and Jon Heissig who bravely when asked by me to stand in front of the camera and do a live interview with a German TV crew did so, and provided comprehensive answers. The TV crew had approached me initially (how the hell they picked me) asking for an interview, I suggested they might want to interview someone at the top of the fleet rather than the bottom…………”Of course” they said and promptly shoved a microphone in my face. “I shall ask you about this and that” he said…………..then went live and asked me something totally different……..Splutter, choke, total waffle…………”And do you think you can win this regatta?” “Aaaahh of course…….not……no I have specifically polished the bottom so that it looks good in its normal position”

 

Congratulations to Stewart and Sarah Robertson 1319 who won the Championship

And to Ding and Bex 1290 in second, 1 point behind, and to Steve and Chris 1189, 3rd on countback.

Next year the Europeans will be on Lake Como, Italy either in late July (date TBA v soon)

 

See you out there

 

Max, Chair, 1342

 

FINAL RESULTS  BELOW. Reports from Days 4 & 5 to follow