BRITISH ICE YACHTING DIARY
2005 DN European Champs
Soderhamn, Sweden / Eura, Finland
February 14 - 18, 2005
IMAGE LIBRARY:
OPENING CEREMONY - Soderhamn, Sweden
DAY ONE [Sunday] - Soderhamn, Sweden
WEDNESDAY - Lake Pyhajarvi, Finland
NEW FRIDAY - Lake Pyhajarvi, Finland
REPORTS: 
TUESDAY, FEB 8    WEDNESDAY, FEB 9
THURSDAY, FEB 10    FRIDAY, FEB 11
SUNDAY, FEB 13    MONDAY, FEB 14
TUESDAY, FEB 15    WEDNESDAY, FEB 16
THURSDAY, FEB 17    FRIDAY, FEB 18
SATURDAY, FEB 19    SUNDAY, FEB 20
MONDAY, FEB 21
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 8:
TXT  M e s s a g e :
19:38:02: Disaster! Neil forgot his sail. Frantic phone calls, no time to go and get [6 hours back to Preston!] going to get it sent by TNT to Hakan Andersson in Sweden to pick up and bring to the event. On top of that Jill's car broke down and kids stranded! Heading for ferry now.
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 9:
TXT  M e s s a g e s:
6:15pm: Neil's sail on its way in the end. TNT failed to pick it up as it looked like no one was there at Neil's. We go to Sweden. Good run to Keil. Now on ferry to Gotenburg. Saves 9hr drive and saves 100 Euro on fuel and 60 Euro toll on bridge. Very quiet on ferry. Bought team beers in Keil as its expensive in Sweden. Weather forecast looks bad. Isobars all over.

9:40pm: Waiter hovering to take away plates. In bar finishing with a beer. Not many on ferry. Could be sailing on Lake Runn.

Regards
Gareth Rowland K11
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 10:
TXT  M e s s a g e :
7:10pm:Arrived Scandic Hotel, Soderhamn. Will be our base for the week. Full day's drive from Gotenburg. We are the first after the Dutch organisers. Will look at ice tomorrow.

E m a i l  M e s s a g e :
10:26pm: Our address is Scandic Hotel Soderhamn, Montorsbacken 4. SE 82640 Soderhamn Tel +46270 265200 Fax +46 270 265211 Email: Soderhamn@scandic-hotels.com We are in Room 140.

I can access web mail but there is only 1 terminal so I expect it to be busy by tomorrow. I hope to mail a full report tomorrow.

I need to buy a pay-as-you-go Swedish card to save on local calls. I can use my old phone for that. Also need some floppies so I can save pictures and send them on this terminal.

Looks like the championships might not start till Monday. There is another weather system to come through on Sunday and the Polish fleet had bad timing on the ferries. The depth of the ice is 10 to 20cm.

Today we called at Fiskeboda on the way up from Goteburg and had a coffee with Chris Williams and Hans Adolfsonn. To help out we brought the two ice scorer's huts and two large European championship prizes to Soderhamn, perhaps the only time we might ever get possession of them!!

It was another 4 hours to Soderhamn. The town has been sussed for the local bars and night life [well we have to do something!!]

We have warm swimming pool and the sauna where I am going now via a team beer, so if this mail gets steamy it's the sauna not me.

E m a i l  M e s s a g e :
11:48pm: I gave up in the sauna and had a shower. The swimming pool felt a little cold after the sauna. Suitably refreshed after the drive it's off to bed. The sky has cleared and a good hard frost is on the ground.

Regards
Gareth Rowland K11
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 11:
TXT  M e s s a g e :
6.27am: Bl**dy hell! Neil has gone for a 4 or 5 mile run before breakfast at -5C. We'll see how far he gets. Maybe delivering the Euro trophies has given him ideas.

Regards
Gareth Rowland K11
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 13:
E m a i l  M e s s a g e :
We woke up early to see the larger branches swaying in the wind! After a quick breakfast it was the half hour drive to the launch site. We arrived to near gale force winds. At the briefing at 9am we were told that the first start would be at 11am.

K11 (me) discovered that I was starting in pole position No. 2 in C fleet. Out on the ice the wind was blowing up to Force 7 in the gusts so we delayed the start. The prospect of starting at No. 2 horrified me as I had potential command over half the fleet. With such strong winds the plan was to survive the race and live another day.

After 30 minutes the race was started. Upwind was bearable but the downwind turn had me doing 50mph with sheeting in!! It was more a case of hang on and point the yacht according to the wind but that was more tricky than you thought as the left-hand side of the course had a wind shadow from a couple islands. You had to turn almost 30 degrees to pick some wind. Heading back towards the downwind mark the full force of the wind made its impact felt. I had lost too much speed and gave the onlookers a view of a very large hike.

Back to the upwind mark was fast. There was a crack on the ice that in places had a compression ridge. It was to prove dangerous later. The downwind turn was even faster clocking 50mph again. Approaching the downwind mark I was doing over 40mph when I hit a small ridge and "crack!" The bang upset my steering so I tried to hang on and pin the steering but all of a sudden the yacht did a 360 on the mark. I was spat out in front of the onlookers!!

By the time I picked myself up the leaders were coming in so I trundled back to the pits.

The start for the B Fleet was delayed as broken yachts were removed from the circuit, then Bernard Zeiger came back with a broken yacht. The crack had now compressed into a ridge with some open water. As time went on this got worse. Racing was cancelled for the day and a decision made at 5pm that we don't sail on the lake any more. By now it was snowing making it impossible to see any cracks at all.

Now we have a briefing at 11am tomorrow and it looks like we move to Hukisvall or west as it's snowing like hell outside.

Regards
Gareth Rowland K11
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 14:
E m a i l  M e s s a g e :
Report from Northern Sweden

The British ice yacht team joined by 170 competitors from 14 nations for 2005 European Championships has been hit by the bad weather in Europe, first when the England team had no idea where the European Championship might be. The team's plan was to drive to Berlin, with a possible choice of Poland, Hungary or Sweden as the venues. On the way to Germany they had a phone call to turn to Sweden, so headed north still not sure exactly where.

We went overnight ferry Keil to Gotenburg and we were told that the Championships would be on Soderhomn some 150mile north of Stockholm. We were racing on a lake Birgviken, just west of Soderhomn on Sunday, Gareth Rowland according to race ranking had pole position in the C fleet 1st race of the day, the start was delayed to strong winds, force 7 in the gusts, visibility was bad with drifting snow, snow also covered the cracks in the ice, this made a dangerous combination of high speed sailing and the risk of writing of the yacht. Only one race was held on the day, conditions were not good, several yachts were dismasted and a few spun out, me included. I was doing 43mph and hit a crack just near the turning mark. The yacht lost grip on the ice and I did a 360 and was thrown out. All in front of a watching crowd, rather embarrassing. Top speed of the day was 51mph. After arriving back in the pits with nothing broken on the yacht (or myself) the races we cancelled for the day as the continuous snow made racing too dangerous, while training the top Swedish pilot found a crack that had formed a compression ridge and wrote his yacht off, this ridge appeared in a few hours and increased in size making racing impossible on this sailing site.

It has snowed all Sunday night and we are now looking for other race sites, but this storm has covered most of Sweden, driving on the roads is difficult and the pure logistics of moving a whole race fleet make the mind boggle. Hotels etc have to be found. Finland has been mentioned, which means a drive to Stockholm and a ferry to Helsinki. No rumours as to a race site and that's bad. We wait for a briefing.

More info tel +44 7771 621249

Regards
Gareth Rowland K11

P h o n e  M e s s a g e :
9.26pm:We're on an overnight ferry from Stockholm to Finland. We arrive in Finland 8am tomorrow morning. The event has been shifted to Eura in Finland where we were in '98. Had a briefing today at 11am and advised that there was a possibility that we would move, hopefully to somewhere north in Sweden but everywhere has had snow. We had 5 inches! There was another briefing scheduled for 3pm but at 2pm word got around that we were shifting to Finland so we've headed off. Bit of a bugger really as we now have to work out how to get home after the champs. The championships been reduced to two fleets and the hope is racing will get underway early Wednesday morning.

Regards
Gareth Rowland K11
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 15:
TXT  M e s s a g e s:
7.18pm: In hotel sauna with USA, Germany and Latvia icesailors drinking beer and watching snow outside. -12C. Going back in sauna. We're staying in Eura, Finland. Sail tomorrow on lake. Going for more beer.

7:21pm: Second time in sauna. Now in front of log fire in room next to sauna which is by the lake. Have 15 in room. Having nuts to put salt back in body. Have to run back 200m to my room!

Regards
Gareth Rowland K11
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 16:
P h o n e  M e s s a g e :
9.37am: Doesn't look good for today. It's -16C, no wind and the ice is shrinking. There's a crack about 250 metres out on Lake Pyhajarvi. Was 12cm, now 25cm and getting wider. There's another small crack 3kms out which could open up if day stays like it is.

There's drifts of snow between 2" and 5" high over the likely race area and it's sticky snow. It's quite stiff and we'll need at least a 5 metres per second breeze just to move on it let alone point.

Situation at the moment is the original start time has been delayed and we'll have another briefing at midday. I don't think things will change and I think the organisers are being optimistic. There's a high pressure over northern Finland and a huge high building up west of Britain. We'll get some racing in before the weekend but maybe not today.

The lake is about 60-70kms north east of Turku. Eura is the nearest town at the top end of Lake Pyhajarvi and that's where we're staying. Internet access is archaic at best so likelihood of getting reports and pictures out is slim. Not a lot around here as you can imagine. This far north all the townships are small. The sailing site is about two-thirds the way down the right-hand side of the lake, about 20 mins drive.

With temps so low even the pre-heater in the Landrover Discovery is still on after the drive down to the lake. You've got to be careful touching metal. Moisture on the hands will stick and it'll take the skin off you. Almost put a pin in my mouth this morning before remembering. If you breathe in quickly through your nose you can feel ice crystals forming inside your nostrils! All my soda bottles are frozen solid in the Disco. Have to put them on the engine to thaw them just to get a "cold" drink.

One worrying task out of the way. We've got our home journey sorted. Would've been a long trip by ferry to Stockholm then drive through Sweden back the way we came however German icesailor Joerg Bohn helped us Brits out and got us a ferry discount back to Germany which'll take a day and a-half off our homeward trip. We leave on Saturday for a 3 to 4 hour drive to catch a ferry out of Hanko in southern Finland. Then it's a 21-hour trip by boat to Lubeck in Germany. Ferry sails at 10pm.

So not much to do now but wait. If the wind picks up and the temperature stays the same it'll be raw. But it all depends on the cracks, especially the big one which runs between two headlands.

Regards
Gareth Rowland K11

E m a i l  M e s s a g e :
With temps last night down to -16 it was a chilly walk from the hotel cabin a 100 metres to the main hotel to tell the Reception that we had locked our selfs out of the room and only had what we stood up in. Luckily it was the thermal underwear! We picked up the spare key and had breakfast.

The forecast for the day was not good as the big chimney smoke was going one way and steam lower down was going the opposite direction. The drive down to the launch site saw a nice sunrise in to cloudless blue skies. We rigged the yachts in the hope of wind but the 9am briefing told us to wait till midday, later to be 1pm. The cold weather had made the ice shrink and the small crack 2 x 50 metres out has some open water some 25cm wide. It later it stabilized and froze over. At the briefing it was nice to know that we still had three fleets, so most looked like they made it over the Baltic to Finland.

Yesterday no sooner had we arrived than we made arrangements to go home. Jorg Bohn kindly spoke German to the only girl in the ferry booking office that could get a discount for our car and trailer on the Saturday night ferry from Finland to Lubeck, Germany. Meantime we looked for somewhere to stay for the night. We checked out a B&B some 8km away but did not fancy being alone. Finally rang Jorg and he booked us a room at his hotel.

We went there and joined the Germans in the hotel sauna with beer and sandwiches. Interestingly had a phone call from Per Sholberg who was on the wrong road on the wrong side of the lake as he drove up from the day ferry. Luckily I had the electronic map with me and located where he was. A couple of cellphone calls had him talked in to the sailing site where he found a bed.

Thurs, no wind, various briefings, hotel sauna, beer and sandwiches!

Friday no wind at 13.00, Dutch sledge races now lunch, we wait...

Regards
Gareth Rowland K11
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 17:
P h o n e  M e s s a g e :
9.08am: No wind! Light drizzly snow, visibility down to 4 kilometres but warmer today at -6 degrees. We're waiting for a briefing at midday but I don't fancy our chances. There's ice on the Baltic due west of here but it's considered too dangerous with rocks and stuff about. So we're staying put hoping that things'll improve. There's a weather system moving in fairly quickly and that might change things.

So, it's wait like we did yesterday. We sat around till the midday briefing then it was 1 o'clock then at 3pm we were told that's it. USA pilot Ron Sherry gave an informative one-hour talk on iceboating in general, then it progressed to some racing techniques, some Q&As and then on the finer points of the rules. After that we went up to Eura, had a look around the shops, did some shopping then came back to the hotel's sauna. All in bed by 10pm, rather refreshed after beer, sandwiches, lots of sauna visits in between times rolling around in the snow.

Question today is what can you do with 170 bored icesailors? Everyone's getting a bit frustrated. The Dutch are organising sledge racing for 10.00am. Everyone's in teams of 3 so Neil and I have joined the Norwegians and we're calling ourselves the North Sea team. Should be interesting. It's hard work as there's a fair bit of snow on the ice. The Polish are also organising a football match.

If the weather doesn't improve for sailing we've decided to head out with the Germans on Friday night. We'll catch the ferry to Lubeck.

Regards
Gareth Rowland K11

Phone  M e s s a g e :
9.14pm: No sailing today. We're all heading for the sauna with a few beers. Half dozen of the sailors have gone to an area 40kms west of here. They've been sailing but there's only sufficient room for 20 yachts which is no good. Forecast for tomorrow is -7 and 2 metres per second. Sort of breeze that tempts everyone out on the ice and then leaves you stranded. Saturday is -4 with 7 metres per second which is the bare minimum we need to sail on the ice so we might get some sailing in

Regards
Gareth Rowland K11
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 18:
P h o n e  M e s s a g e :
9.35pm: Not good day. Had a disaster. Heading back from sailing the Land-Rover met a tree! Done a lot of damage. Pushed the right-hand front in, the radiator into the fan, punctured one tyre. Have a big bullbar, bent that back well and truly. Trouble is it's Friday night, we're 100 miles from Helsinki and everything's closed for the weekend so no chance of getting a new radiator.

We'd had about an inch of new snow today. The temp's risen to about 0C. The old hard packed snow has turned to ice on the roads.With fresh snow on top and not much traffic it was pretty hard to see danger spots. We were doing only around 20mph and came over the crest of a small rise in the road literally 50 yards from our hotel, didn't see the ice. The Disco lost it. Went one way, then the other, then slid back again but going downhill with no control and the camber of the road shifting I couldn't do anything. Tried to aim for somewhere else but tree got in the way. If it'd been a big rock would've been fine, I have enough built in protection to go over it but a tree... bit of a b*stard!

I straightened everything I can and while there's still some light left I see if I can find some radiator cement I have in the back to bung up the holes. If it works we can get back to England. If not, I'll need to get a new radiator. Will know more when the breakdown truck gets here at 9 o'clock in the morning.

If I can't patch the radiator I'll get the Disco taken to Hanko on a transporter, catch the Saturday night ferry with the Germans as planned. They'll tow me off at Lubeck and I'll get a new radiator there. So that's it for me.

Had three races today. Wind picked up quite nicely, 5 to 6 metres per second. Neil had a 9th and a DNF. He broke something. I could have done better. Conditions were very sticky on the ice. With snow drifts you had to be quite careful what you did. Downwind was tricky.

Neil will stay on and race tomorrow and come down to Hanko with the Germans.

Regards
Gareth Rowland K11


P h o n e  M e s s a g e - Neil Marsden :
Been an up and down day. Bit of a shock but we've survived it. Tree's worse off!

I'm dead chuffed with the 9thin B Fleet. Bit disappointed with the retirement. I didn't get my head around something that I should've.

We had an hour's postponement with racing starting at 11 o'clock. We had our race then A Fleet had back to back races to get their championship then back to B and C Fleets. They ran them pretty quickly. We had 3 races each.

An Estonian guy I've not seen before is leading A Fleet with two firsts and a fourth then there's a young Polish guy. Ron Sherry's not happy. He's been struggling and is 5th or 6th overall. Had a 15th and two 5ths, not winning numbers I'm afraid.

More races tomorrow. We'll see how the snow affects the course. Should be OK as the wind is supposed to pick up which means we might be able to punch through the deeper snow drifts. Don't know how many races they'll run but they can keep going to 4.00 but they'll probably call it a day a little earlier.

Regards
Neil Marsden K10
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 19:
TXT  M e s s a g e :
7.25am: On tow truck. Germans bringing trailer to Hanko. Have fan off. Will use epoxy to fill hole and silicon sealer to finish then radiator cement.
Regards
Gareth Rowland K11


TXT  M e s s a g e :
7.25am: Radiator repaired. No leaks. Electrics repaired. Should now get home. Fueled up waiting for German team and Neil.
Regards
Gareth Rowland K11


Email  M e s s a g e :
3.05am: Friday started off with -6c and a half decent southerly breeze. Briefing at the launch site was at 9am. The start for B fleet was at 11am. With a light wind and warmer temps, (at least better than the -16 the day before) the snow was sticky and you had to push out just beyond the crack. That had filled in and a compression fracture was evident in places.

As the rules on runners had been waived due to the need to get an EC result I decided to try the slush runners. I am damn sure they fitted the chocks back home, but they as hell as like on the ice. Either the wood had swelled or the runners shrunk in the cold. Anyway out came the generator to start up the belt sander to make them fit!

With the slush runners fitted, I took the motorised option. It proved to be 50/50, motor versus saill with the order of the day being B Fleet, then three successive A Fleet races then C. Neil [K10] in B Fleet had a reasonable start and disappeared into the approaching gloom of light snow that started falling out of the sky. Neil finished a very creditable 9th. We then watched the A Fleet races together. It was pleasing to see that some A Fleet skippers can dribble round the bottom mark as well. Neil advised that the snow drifts were very sticky and the ice was rippled or pebbled with the hint of frozen slush. Hopefully someone will fill us in with the results of the A Fleet races as I was busy changing the slush runners to plates. I wished I had bought out the slots, the nearest thing I had to the narrower T runners that most were using. It would seem that these T runners may soon be outlawed, the reason being unless you are very very good at lathing out a block of steel it costs you an arm and two legs to buy them. The supposed advantage is that it's the narrowest section allowed.

With the three A races in the bag the EC was assured, then it was C Fleet's turn to race. In our C Fleet we had decided that the 'C' is for the "cruising fleet". The wind was blowing a good 6/7 metres per second - that was till we started! I am sure the wind dropped a little. Up wind was not too bad with the yacht wanting to hike as it ploughed the runners through the drifts of snow. The best option was to lay off a bit and get good speed and worm your way round the worst snow drifts. Sailing downwind was trickier with the drifts slowing you down rapidly. Twice after running out of speed I turned right into another drift. Three times round had you convinced that the right side of the course had less snow.

B and C Fleets did some more racing in the snow showers. With the temps now around zero we had 'English' snow - it was wet and sticky on the way back.

On the way back to the hotel, we decided that a look in the local village might be an idea to try the local eating houses but on our way through the woods the Land-Rover decided to make love to a Finnish tree. Fresh snow covered sheet ice and as the temps had risen the road was a skating rink. To top it all off we were within sight of out hotel cabin.

The bull-bar decided to puncture the front tyre and ominus dribbles with the smell of anti-freeze spelled trouble. With the 2-hour time difference from the UK, I was able to ask my local garage back in the UK how to reset the computer and the fuel switch. By that time the main battery was flat from the flashers, the Optimina batteries had taken the full force of the "coming together" but thanks to their design, remained intact. I don't think any ordinary lead acid battery would have fared the same.

With the engine running I made good use of the bl**dy tree and pulled out the front bumper from the tyre. I also pulled the front cross member off the radiator and the fan. Back at the hotel room a few phone calls were made and a tow truck called out to tell us what we already knew. The best option I had was to get to our booked ferry at Hanko the next day and ask the German team to bring our trailer. To drown our sorrows we went to the local pub for a beer. The karoke bar was interesting with tuneless Finnish, still they did better than us. We had another early night ready for the trials of Saturday.

Saturday 9am the tow truck arrived. By that time I had managed to unscrew the left-hand thread of the fan. The £1.99 leak stopper stood no chance against three good water jets. Any man would be proud of. On the way to Hanko I called in at the local AgriMarket and bought up their supplies of epoxy but could not find any radiator sealer. Along the way I called in at the launch site to make sure all was OK for the trailer. The only problem was the German cars have the new multi-pin Euro socket and my trailer has the old 7-pins plug, however someone had an adaptor.

Three hours later I was in Hanko and set to work on the now dry radiator, as most of the water had dribbled out on the ramp on and off the transporter. I let the first two lots of epoxy set where the holes were and jumped onto my fold-up motorbike to find a well stocked garage. With more epoxy and now radiator weld the second lot was applied. While that was hardening I went into town. There were lots of windows with 30% and 50% off but it must have been a half day as most of the town was shut!

Back at the port the epoxy had done its stuff and it was now time to see if I got my feet wet again. With enough power in the auxiliary battery the Disco stuck up... Hooray, no leaks. The only way to fully remove the airlocks in the cooling system was drive around till the main thermostat opened. On a cold engine and zero C it took forever. With the extra heat from the engine the epoxy finally "went off" and the top tank remained full. Seems electronics and computerised system don't like flat batteries. The fuel gauge would not work, so I went to the local garage and filled up with cheaper Finnish diesel, then on the way back all the gauges woke up and the airlock in the cabin heater removed itself to give me hot air at last.

I am now typing this up in the waiting room of the Hanko ferry terminal, another building that someone seems to have neglected on the outside. I later found the neglected charm of the building, turns out it's an old butter warehouse, the first to use concrete and steel in the early 1900s. It stored butter till the 30s, exporting the stuff from Finland. The company ultimately moved to Turku and it then the building became a cheese factory till 1990. In the last few years the Fastferry has used the old building. Hopefully the ice boaters should be here soon and they can tell me all about the day's racing.

The ice boaters turned up at 8pm and we sat in the cold car till 9.30 while flecks of snow blew around in the strong wind. The ferry was not very full so it was straight in to the buffet then a few beers to catch up on the day's racing. Seems that the racing was done in wet snow and sleety rain. A Fleet had two races and B and C Fleet had 1 race each. Neil started but retired. Seems he got damp and cold. Our Neil got damp and cold. The fast ferry from Hanko to Rostock is 600 miles of sleeping and eating whereas had we taken the other travel option, we would have had 800 miles of driving plus the ferry from Finland to Sweden.

Regards
Gareth Rowland K11
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 20:
P h o n e  M e s s a g e :
2.15am: We're on the supersonic ferry. Left Hanko at 10pm, Get to Lubeck 9pm tomorrow night. We're doing about 32 knots at the moment. We're knocking along. Had food, resting up. Bit of a boys' club on board. Stuff all happening. No disco or music so we're able to talk.

took four tubes of epoxy to fix the radiator. I waited till I arrived at Hanko. Didn't dare risk trying to fix it at the sailing site. Went back to AgriMarket in Eura where they let me use the e-mail on Wednesday. Told them I'm in trouble and need help. Bought some epoxy and radiator compound from them.

Took 6 hours to get to Hanko on the transporter. Got to the ferry terminal at Hanko, put first lot of epoxy in then jumped on the motorbike and went into Hanko to a garage, bought more epoxy and some other stuff. Asked for three of each!

Filled the radiator with epoxy. Trouble is it doesn't "go off" at low temperatures so got hot water from the ferry port. The battery was flat so ran the engine up to warm the radiator and re-charge. Trouble with Land-Rover diesels is they're so efficient they don't chuck any heat out so stood about for ages. Set in the end.

Took the Land-Rover into town and back. The dash dials weren't working which was worrying but on the way back everything suddenly popped up working again as if to say hi, we're back.

The Germans arrived with Neil and my trailer in tow. Neil was amazed I got the Disco running again. He was quite surprised.

Plan is now once ferry arrives in Lubeck at 9pm tonight [Sunday] we'll head to Joerg Bohn's place near Hamburg arriving about midnight. We'll kip down there and then go through Holland along the Zeidersee to Rotterdam. It's quieter driving through there. We'll hopefully catch the Rotterdam-Hull ferry Monday night.

Regards
Gareth Rowland K11


P h o n e  M e s s a g e - Ron Sherry [US44] :
Got two races in today [Saturday]. Third and a first. Two of us tied for second in the end. Needed 1 more point to win. Good way it ended and I'm happy to be in Europe.

Michal [Burczinsky] from Poland won on 13pts and Viko [Voorema] and I had 14 points. Viko did well. He dulled his runners. Almost like bobsled runners. He had 1-1-3-13 and 9. I had 5-15-5-3-1. I learned a lot. All for the better

It was blowing pretty good. Actually raining and the start was postponed. All of a sudden we were called to the line. Lot of us weren't ready, some were out on the ice testing. I sailed the first race in my sunglasses and it was so cold they iced up.

Conditions were very crusty and sticky. It was hard to get to warp speed, you know build apparent wind. Where the whole boat bends. It was slow conditions and you had to trick the boat to bend. You needed the right skates.

I'm heading home on Wednesday. Will stay with Joerg Bohn at Bad Zwischhenahn near Hamburg till then. Joerg stores my yacht for me and I store his in the US. It works well.

Regards
Ron Sherry US44


P h o n e  M e s s a g e - Joerg Bohn [Germany]:
We are all relieved and all relaxed after hesitating, changing sites, but we got it in all quite well. It was a tough week, tough on the 12 committee guys. They volunteer and take time off work. When you have a week like this one it is hard for them. But it all worked out. We're all a little tired after racing today but are now enjoying ourselves. We have the Polish championships next week then Sweden.

Next year the Worlds will be in Europe in March. Finland has some many lakes north and south and so many climates it is a good chance we will get to sail the Worlds in Finland. I have convinced the top five US pilots to come over.

Regards
Joerg Bohn G737


TXT  M e s s a g e :
11.39pm: Arrived at Oldenburg. Having beer and other strong liquids. Disco [Land-Rover] holding up. With Joerg, 2 USA icesailors and 3 Germans. Full story coming soon, hope to find internet cafe...
Regards
Gareth Rowland K11
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 21:
TXT  M e s s a g e :
MONDAY 6:03pm: Arrived Europort. Only 2 traffic jams. No fan so put cabin heat on full. We load 7.30. Snow in England!! Might go for a la carte to night as fed up with buffets.
Regards
Gareth Rowland K11
OPENING CEREMONY IMAGES from GARETH
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DAY 1 [SWEDEN] IMAGES from GARETH
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WED'S FINLAND IMAGES from GARETH
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Photos courtesy of AGRIMARKET's email
EURA, FINLAND

FRI'S FINLAND IMAGES from GARETH
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