BRITISH ICE YACHTING DIARY
2004 DN Worlds and Euros
Lake Balaton, Hungary
February 18 - 25, 2004
IMAGE LIBRARY:
JUNIOR DN and OPTIMIST RACING

OPENING CEREMONY and DAY ONE RACING

TUESDAY OUTING AT NEARBY MONASTERY
REPORTS: 
WEDNESDAY, JAN 14    THURSDAY, JAN 15
FRIDAY, JAN 17    SATURDAY, JAN 17    SUNDAY, JAN 18
MONDAY, JAN 19    TUESDAY, JAN 20
LATEST:  WEDNESDAY, JAN 21
PLACES OF INTEREST:  HOTEL FURED, BALATONFURED

INFORMATION ON AREA:  BALATONFURED
TRAVELS AND STRIFE OF THE
2004 BRITISH ICE YACHT TEAM

Gareth (K11) met Chris Williams (K1) at the Hull Ferry terminal, good timing as we were together on the car deck. The crossing to Rotterdam was uneventful with the crew trying to keep some squaddies amused at the bar. That was about it! We had a nice time in the a la carte restaurant. Somehow the steward rumbled Chris as an ex captain and spent all evening calling him "captain".

It was wet and windy on arrival at Rotterdam. Once I got "Starship Discovery's" GPS set up we headed off in convoy on the 880 miles trip across Europe to Hungary. The rain was terrible so we only do 50mph.

At 10:30 coming into Eindhoven [The Netherlands] the bladder weakened and I pulled in to a parking area. Chris who was travelling behind the "Starship" was at the time about to call me any way as he thought he could smell burning rubber and one of the trailer wheels looked at an odd angle. Just as well as the trailer bearing had completely collapsed, all the metal parts had a hot blue colour, and the wheel fell off when jacked up. By sheer luck the mudguard must have kept the wheel just on the stub. All I can say is thank God for European car cover! A telephone call had the boys in yellow on the their way.

Meantime I struggled with an almost fused inner bearing, or what was left of it. The 25mm stub had a large chunk missing at the bottom. Filing and good old WD40 eventually eased it off. The problem was the nut had welded itself on as well. On removal it nearly stripped all the thread. Fortunately I had a spare hub, but unfortunately it was off my old trailer and the bearings didn't fit. Calamity... try getting parts in Holland on a Sunday afternoon!! Had to have the trailer hoisted onto the pickup wagon and a very friendly guy from Kusters Transport took us back to the yard in Eindhoven. They booked us into a hotel ready for a Monday 8am hunt for parts. We shall see...



Had a good night in the hotel and was at the yard where K11's trailer was stored overnight. That yard had a few other sorry tales to tell as well - quite a few wrecked cars and a seriously damaged lorry that was pulled off the motorway.

The trailer was taken to a trailer specialist who was too busy on the day, so we were taken to "Truck Stop 8" where they fix trucks and bearings, but didn't have my trailer's bearing size. Discovered a shop in Eindhoven did so Chris and I shot off to get the bearing, well two in fact (one for insurance).

Back at Truck Stop 8 we found the inner shell was not a tight fit on the badly damaged hub. Also the metal that should hold the oil seal was missing. The truck engineer skilfully welded the outer shell to the hub and shrugged his shoulders as to whether it would hold up. As for the oil seal all we could do was put oversize washers on the stub to make up the distance. All was put back on and packed with grease. All of this took till 1:00pm!

Back on the road I was not happy with the wheel rim. It seemed to shake. Chris driving behind also concurred. On stopping we found the bearing warm. I then realised that the only thing I had changed was changing the wheel at home as the old rim had a slow puncture. On jacking the spare up we found it did have a warped rim. We changed back to the old rim and blew the type up. We set off again with a couple of stops in quick succession just to check how things were holding up and we found the bearing now cool and it looked true. An hour later it was still OK. All that was called for was some grease every time we stopped as the oil seal was not any good.

We proceeded into Germany and just past Wuzberg hit rain. Then in the failing light of the evening the rain got worse and worse. We stopped at Gieslewind, a place we had halted at a few years ago when on our way to the Czech Republic. Gieslewind is a 24-hour truck stop but the hotel has a swimming pool and sauna. The sauna was tourhe game plan followed by a good feed in the truck stop, then bed. We were on the road heading east by 7:00am and we clocked the miles off only stopping to relieve a weakening bladder and to put more grease in the trailer bearing.

Arriving in Hungary was a hoot. The girl at the passport check was so busy gabbing on the phone that it was in/out and on your way. So pleased about that as I was expecting the third degree of "papers, papers, documents, documents". We made Balaton by 4.30pm, found our accommodation, the Hotel Fured, right next to the ice.

We parked the trailers on the lakeside and offloaded our self-exploding baggage into our hotel room. It's amazing how such small baggage can somehow fill all the shelves and coat hooks in a room!!

After a beer in the hotel bar we had the obligatory "pig" in the hotel restaurant (that's why we had something else last night) then we had a real mystery tour round the town trying to find a pub. One bar was so full of smoke that a quick exit was required, the other we found shut. Then we got lost and found a nice bar but think we will never find it again as we had to walk a mile back to the hotel! Still, after two days of sitting on your arse the exercise did us good.
Cheers
Gareth Rowland K11
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 14:
Temp outside is 7.2, so hopefully the Junior World Championships (DN as well as Optimist) can start tomorrow. The ice is good but has slushy snow on top with some water as well. Hopefully either it will all turn to water [forecast is to turn colder] then it may re-freeze but then we may have double ice, who knows?

Cannot get the laptop to connect to the internet from my hotel room yet. Will have to tinker some more. Hope to send daily reports with pics for all the non-attenders.

Cheers
Gareth Rowland K11
THURSDAY, JANUARY 15 :
T e x t  M e s s a g e s :
8:53.5am: 3 - 4 degs out, dull, light snow/rain. Optimist start 10.30. Regdz, G

23:44.46pm: Off 2 bed. Rain till 11am then no wind till 2pm then gusty N wind. Took video in DN. Very good pix. Lots of people turning up. Will b busy for 2 days. Over 200 pilots. Regdz, G
FRIDAY, JANUARY 16 :
T e x t  M e s s a g e :
06:49.23am: Just up. Crack opening on ice. Might b moving 2 POLAND?? Bugger 1000km north. Going 2 get yachts off ice anyway. Clear sky and strong sun could melt ice. Rgz, G

13:07.20pm: Decision at 1pm 2 stay in Balaton. Good ice in Poland butsnow storms expected, so we stay. Juniors have made a championship with 3 races. Rgz, G

23:34.14pm: Off to bed. Wind blowin, 4-5 degs but very dry. No water on ice. Hope it gets colder soon. Problems with 200 pilots & access to ice. Out on ice it's OK. Rgz, G

23:45.01pm: Rooms so hot even with heating turned down and window open. 20 more pilots have arrived but hotel bar is closed. Rgz, G
SATURDAY, JANUARY 17 :
T e x t  M e s s a g e :
15:46.36pm: No sailing till Monday. Too warm. Wait for cold weather to come. Raining as we moved yachts to better site as ice has broken up near hotel. Rgz, G

E m a I l   R e p o r t :
This morning I was woken by a 7:00am phone call from Chris Williams saying that we might be going to Poland. A decision was made at 10:00am to wait till 1:00pm. In the interim I packed up the DN, my Class 3 and the Potty mini-yacht as an early start would be needed for the 650-mile trip from Lake Balaton to the Polish venue. The thought of an 800-mile drive home from Poland with a dodgy trailer wheel bearing had me full of confidence!

By 10:00am all was stowed except the DN which I left on the shoreline. As predicted the ice was breaking up in front of the hotel however with the bright sun and very dry air all the water had gone from the ice and out on the lake it was a good hard surface. The Junior DN & Optimist were still having their championship out on the ice. I took the ice scooter out and took some photos of the racing.

I was back for 1:00pm to hear the decision was to stay as the ice was now better and colder weather is coming. Also snow is forecast for Poland. So we stay for now. Tomorrow all the kit gets taken back off the trailer and out of the Starship Discovery and put back out on the ice (again)!

Cheers
Gareth Rowland K11
SUNDAY, JANUARY 18 :
E m a I l   R e p o r t :
No sailing today as the temps are still +2. There are rumours and talk about moving 650 miles north to Mickoliky, Poland, where there they have good ice, a forecast of -10 but with snow to come, whereas here in Balatonfured it will be below freezing by Monday.

The Race Committee went out on the ice at 1:00pm to assess the conditions rather than discuss it at the bar. The final decision was to stay in Balatonfured and start racing on Tuesday.

To fill in the afternoon we went to look at a church out on the peninsula in Lake Balaton. Some of the others went to Budapest sightseeing. Also a trip down to the hot springs, mud baths, etc which are about 20 miles away around the lake was talked about.

Yesterday we were invited to a Hungarian tradition of killing a pig and during the course of the day eating it. After it was shot the butcher got to work. First on the menu was the liver cooked in a nice sauce. We had to leave part way through to go to the ice and move our yachts as the ice near the hotel had broken up on the shoreline. We found a car park across the bay, nearer to the race area. Later I printed some pictures of the pig and returned to the party. By then they were down to the cutlets in a very nice onion and tomato relish. In the background the butcher was taking an axe to what was left of the pig and the bacon and skin was going on the barbie [BBQ]. Also on he menu with the pork was Hungarian schnapps to wash it all down. For a sweet nibble a Hungarian donut was produced, but it was like strips of dough tied in a knot. You put your own jam on if you wanted. Damned good though!! With the prospect of having a full stomach and getting plastered on the schnapps I made an exit and returned to see what the latest rumours were in the hotel. Chris Williams is writing a report which will be mailed also.

The Swedish have moved to an hotel up the hill. Maybe it's because it has a sauna and pool which ours does not. Still ours is clean and tidy. We'll go visit the Swedes tonight.

Tomorrow it looks like I may have to use the GPS and plot the area of safe ice as there is open water out there and I now have the ability to plot the track on a real map. There are also cracks and a large hole, so the Brits are hopefully going to provide an accurate map of the ice.

Time for another beer!

Cheers
Gareth Rowland K11

DEMOCRACY IN ACTION INFORMED DECISION MAKING
There were many rumours and counter rumours concerning ice conditions in Hungary and Poland so the Hungarian Race Committee decided to call a meeting of all nations present. 17 nations were present with their Secretary or substitute.

The Race Committee Chairman (Gustav Koltay) opened the meeting by welcoming all present and making it clear that he was an Engineer by profession and was in the habit of dealing with Facts rather than Rumours.

After a lengthy discussion which centred on the Balaton ice conditions and the access to the ice for the 200 competitors it was agreed that all the representatives would walk the ice and drill frequently to check the ice thickness and then return to the Committee to further discuss what they had walked and then make a decision by voting on whether we should stay in Hungary or move to Poland. All present at the meeting then walked the ice out to a distance of 1200 metres from the shore drilling about every 200 metres.

It was shown that the ice thickness was a minimum of 12cms and therefore safe for ice sailing in the area walked. On return to the meeting room further discussion centred on what we had seen and in particular the weather forecast for the next five days. This showed that at the possible Polish site the temperature would be well below zero C for the whole period but snow was forecast for at least three days in the coming week starting on Tuesday or Wednesday which were the days on which we could arrive if the decision was made to move to that site. The forecast for the Balaton area was also below zero C for the whole period but there was no snow forecast for that period. This consistent below zero temperature would ensure that the existing cracks would freeze over and increase the sailable area.

Following an assurance that the sailable ice areas would be surveyed in the next day and recorded using GPS and a guarantee from the Chairman that there would be sufficient safe ice for the 200 competitors a vote was taken from the 17 nations represented at the meeting and by a vote of 15 to 2 it was decided that the WC for 2004 would be held at Balaton and we would stay. Gustav Koltay was warmly congratulated on the way that he had conducted this democratic decision with the FACTS as seen rather the RUMOURS which were many.

Chris Williams K1
MONDAY, JANUARY 19:
T e x t  M e s s a g e s :
07:27.29am: Temps did not drop last nite. Now 2.5 degrees. Cracks and holes in places. Can see open water from hotel. Not good. Race Committee going out to map ice. Rgdz G

07:30.50am: Race Committee going out for 1.5 hours to map. Later think we will go to hot springs down lake once we know result. Dull, misty with light drizzle. Yuck. G.

09:13.32am: Going swimming in hot pools in Heviz. Ice is soft. Opening ceremony at 5pm. Race 11am tomorrow, maybe?

E m a i l   R e p o r t :
Today we went to the hot pools in Heviz as the weather was still at +2 and it was drizzling with no wind. The ice outside the hotel looked very unstable. I could see holes and cracks out on the sailing area. With the no sailing flag up we inspected the yachts across the bay then made our way to Heviz some 60km away.

After some driving around we found the hot pools at Heviz. The central section had two hot pools of 33c sulphurous water that apparently is slightly radioactive. For many years they have been used for the healing properties (that should get rid of that nasty rash)!

After the warm swim we ventured out in the 1 deg weather and swam outside. This was chilly with cooler water - about 26 degs with weeds and little fish. It wasn't long before we were back in the hot pools! On the way out the hot showers were of volcanic water so I am sure we smelt well of sulphur.

Walking round the town of Heviz we found a nice café-bar that had Hungarian Goulash on the menu, so we decided on the goulash soup and a Hungarian beer. Not sure the waiter was impressed by two sulphurous Englishmen invading the place, but it was damn good.

We made our way back to Balatonfured and found out the latest rumours. The opening ceremony was not held on the ice as it would have been a paddling party! Instead it was in the hotel restaurant at Hotel Fured where the ceremony followed by free beer from the Hungarian hosts (very nice). In a quick briefing we were told of a larger new area of ice at the western end of Balaton. This new spot is 60km away from the hotel so now the five days of mileage calculation goes on. Question is now do we move hotel? Problem is most places are closed for the winter but the prospect of 240 hungry and thirsty pilots in their vicinity might encourage a hotel to open.

Time 6.32pm: The National Secretaries are in a meeting to decide the location of the regatta. Meanwhile I can smell food from the restaurant. I hope to have an update later.

Cheers
Gareth Rowland K11

T e x t  M e s s a g e :
23:01.50pm: Tomorrow we move to the west end of lake. Keszthely or Gyenesdias. Large area of ice but unsailed. Look in morning. We're sailing first race at 2pm if OK. Will have to move hotel too. Rgdz G
TUESDAY, JANUARY 20:
T e x t  M e s s a g e s :
07:22.02am 0 degs. Good west wind but snowing. Drive one hour west to new site. Will send report there if poss. D Fleet sails at 2pm. Staying in hotel one more night then we see. Rgz G

10:10.49am 10am update. At new location. Access OK. Crack running along shore 50m out then 2.5km to a series open water pools. Other cracks around. Now no wind & bad visibility. G

E m a i l   R e p o r t :
22:00:22pm: Well what a day Tuesday was... Made the 60km drive and found the new harbour at the western end of Lake Balaton. We all unloaded and rigged our yachts. This quickly became an amusing event as the temps were still 1 deg and it had snowed a little but the ice near the shoreline became plastic in parts. As you walked on it you made your own depression in the ice which followed you as you stepped, all accompanied by ominous creaking and cracking sounds. The plastic ice finally broke up, but at least the lake depth was only 6 inches, although it might be deeper further out.

The course was laid out on a 2.5 km area of good ice, venture further than that and there were other cracks and holes, plus open water if you went too far. With very little wind we all pushed/sailed to the holding area, D Fleet qualifiers first the C Fleet qualifiers, each top 12 moving into the next fleet up.

My fleet (C Fleet) finally got going at 3.55pm. The deadline set by the local police was 4.00pm! I set of in a light wind over to the right hand side of the course, overstood the turn and made good speed till 300 metres from the mark, then the wind dropped and turned a little, just enough for you to pinch the mark and dribble round it. Downwind it was "hunt the gust" to make speed to the bottom mark. In the second lap the wind dropped very low forcing you to make lots of errors downwind. I gave up on the third lap as I could see everyone else within eyesight running on the course. Later I found out a lot were running directly downwind - definitely not allowed in the rules.

That was it for the day. We ended up packing the yachts up in the dark, then drove 60km back to the hotel. A lot of pilots have stayed in the local town where we're now sailing to save on the driving. We will stick with the Racing Committee at Hotel Fured in Balatonfured.

Feeling knackered after a day on the ice and the car park. The latter degenerated in to a mud bath on the bank side. Hope to fully update everything tomorrow. Temps finally dropped to -1.

Regards
Gareth Rowland K11
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 21:
E m a i l  M e s s a g e :
16:52.01pm: With only 0 deg C the Hungarian police, who hold jurisdiction over the lake here at Balaton, did not want us to sail but oddly allowed the ultimate responsibililty to rest with the Race Committee. So the committee decided, so as to preserve future sailing on Balaton, and for the safety of 200 skippers, to suspend racing for the day.

Even more oddly you were allowed to sail yourself but without any back-up in the form of a safety boat and Race Committee assistance.

s Throwing caution to the wind K1 [Chris Williams] and K11 [myself] decided to join the brave out on the ice in a moderate wind. At least the previous day's "plastic ice" at the shoreline had hardened to allow a creaky\crackly access to the yachts.

Rigged up we had to negotiate the cracking running 50 metre out parallel to the shore line. This had water in places and maybe ice underneath. Anyway we managed to cross it safely. Out on the ice it was good hard black ice with only small bumps of old melted and refrozen snow. I took the video camera out and mounted it on the front runner looking back with a wide angle lens then I had it on the tiller. I got some good pictures in the fast conditions. Watch out for the video files when I get home.

About 1:00pm we retired for lunch before we broke anything. We went into the local main town and did some shopping and had another even better Hungarian Goulash soup. It was served up in silver tureens and you were supplied the ladle and plates, spoons etc. We assumed it must be a very posh place as the bill for two goulashes and two beers came to 6000 Hungarian Forints [around 15 British pounds]. Turned out we were paying the bill for the next table! A more realistic 1500 Flt was handed over to waiters that before spoke no English but now apologised in English at least three times.

There were some nice shops in the town that I dared not go in as I would come out with something in hand. In one particular shop there were lovely fur hats and other things that had four legs. After a look around we made our way back to Balaton Fured to be ready for the evening meal at 6.00pm.

Might report later if I don't have too many ales!!

Regards
Gareth Rowland K11

T e x t  M e s s a g e s :
21:55.58pm We move to Hotel Helikon in main town next to sailing site tomorrow. Bit of a struggle with all gear. Want to be there by maybe 9am but briefing on the ice is 9am!! Rgdz G

22:00.25pm Race order is Fleet B, A, B, A then C so I might have time to book in hotel. All yacht parts are on the ice ready. Temps at last are -2.5 & dropping. Will try to TXT from ice. Rgd G

JUNIOR DN & OPTIMIST IMAGES from GARETH
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OPENING CEREMONY & DAY 1: TUES, JAN 20
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OUTING AT MONASTERY
GARETH and CHRIS WILLIAMS VISITED A NEARBY FRANCISCAN MONASTERY ON TUESDAY
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