BACK TO THE LINCOLNSHIRE LYC OPENING PAGE and CONTENTS   2001 DN EUROPEAN IMAGE PAGE   BSC CONSULTING Sponsors of the British Ice Sailing Team www.bscconsulting.com Lake Lipno, Czech Republic   MESSAGE ONE MESSAGE TWO MESSAGE THREE   MESSAGE FOUR MESSAGE FIVE MESSAGE SIX   MESSAGE SEVEN MESSAGE EIGHT MESSAGE NINE   MESSAGE TEN       The BSC-sponsored British Team all set up at the 2001 DN European Championships on lake Lipno in the Czech Republic. Team members, from the left, are: Gareth Rowland, Neil Marsden, Chris Williams and Howard Trotter.   MESSAGE ONE: Friday, January 26 From: "G.J. Rowland"holivans@enterprise.net Subject: FRIDAY NIGHT Date: Fri, 26 Jan 2001 20:36:30 The British Ice Yachting Team en-route for the European Championships 2001 mustered on board the "Admiral Scandinavia" berthed at Harwich. Chris & Jenny Williams Gareth Rowland Neil Marsden Howard Trotter 1550: The British team, now complete, were summoned to Chris and Jenny's cabin for briefing and "Screwdrivers"... The briefing went well but Wow, those screwdrivers. There followed an interesting meal of Pheasant, Wild Boar and how many "Death by Chocolates" Gareth? Chris and Jenny sensibly retired whilst Gareth took Neil and Howard in search of the holy (gr)ale and dancing girls, sadly we never found the latter. At about midnight (GMT) the junior members of the team retired hurt and slept soundly whilst sailing towards the moon on a calm and flat sea. Etc. Etc. Etc. 25 JANUARY 0930 I thought breakfast was a little expensive until Neil reminded me that it provided the makings of mid morning snack, Lunch and afternoon tea, never thought of taking a holdall into breakfast before. 1230: On berthing at Hamburg Chris discovered that the championships were to be staged at Cerna on Lake Lipna in the Czech Republic (approx 100 miles SSW of Prague). For the benefit of those readers that have never travelled in Gareth's "StarshipDiscovery" It should be pointed out that he quite likes his little gadgets (to make life easier of course) well "StarshipDiscovery" has more gadgets than "Enterprise" itself, it has inverters, converters, barometers, thermometers, altimeters even an air ram jet with preheater, (part of the Warp drive)??? VHF, cellphones, CB, GPS world maps and plotter of course, and once we find out where all the little wires go it should be great. We did get off the Ship and at least 300 yards along the road before up went the cry, "ONE WAY STREET" and "WELL, WHICH WAY THEN?" 1830: And 329 miles further along the Captain put "Discovery" in a holding orbit and we beamed down to a little oasis 20 miles south of Wurzberg. A special feature of this oasis was the huge warm hearted Frauline called "Aga" who took a special shine to Chris, Jenny quickly took charge of the situation with her excellent use of the German language, grunting noises and repeated use of the word shwine. Later on and before turning in Gareth and Howard made full use of the Pool and Sauna. 26 JANUARY Temperature 2 deg. Visibility 2miles wind light airs. 0730 We ravished the breakfast buffet before continuing south on the A3. At Hengersberg we turned towards the east in search of a Bohemian Forest and the Czech Border. Dramatic change in weather, visibility 100 yards, temperature 1 deg, altitude 2800 feet, lots of snow. Still no Bohemian Forest. Altitude increasing steadily and we think we are going through a real Bohemian Forest but the mist is too thick to see it. 1056: Altitude 3172 ft 1240: Arrived Cerna Howard At sunset, Lake Lipno, the venue for the DN European Championships this Monday.    [  t o p  ]    MESSAGE TWO: Saturday, January 27 From: "G.J. Rowland"holivans@enterprise.net Subject: SATURDAY Date: Sat, 27 Jan 2001 20:21:01 1240 Arrived Cerna: No flags or signs at Cerna, indeed we couldn't find the hotel. The hot-line message had not been updated and the Author was on the road somewhere near Warsaw! Some skilful telephone number juggling by Chris resolved the problem and the hotel loomed ahead. The situation is excellent, the accommodation is right on the edge of the lake and the ice was some 25cm thick. The prospects look very good.We started prepping the yachts, looking forward to a full day's practice tomorrow. The five of us went back into town for dinner and had a substantial and tasty meal, with lots of beer and were pleasantly surprised when the total bill came to a bit less than £14. Encouraged by this excellent start some members of the team decided to explore more thoroughly other parts of the town. 27 JANUARY, SATURDAY Temperature: -3.5 deg; wind: light airs, occasional 10 knots. Bad news, we have discovered that the Hotel (***) has only one telephone line and that is in the Reception. That coupled with suspect Czech communications is making e-mails difficult. Gareth is working on it. Final preps on the yachts and lots of runner tuning before going out for a practice. Being the novice of the team I kept clear of the Fleet and had three hours good sailing it was a mixture of exhilaration and frustration. I seemed to do more pushing than most, but when I did get her moving the adrenaline flowed fast and furious. All in all a very worthwhile day. At the registration this evening we were told that ALL the craft taking part will have to be measured tomorrow, so probably not a lot of sailing. The racing starts proper on Monday. Howard    [  t o p  ]      MESSAGE THREE: Saturday, January 27 From: "G.J. Rowland"holivans@enterprise.net Subject: PHONES Date: Sat, 27 Jan 2001 20:20:49 Communications look like being down to the mobile phone. We have a phone socket in the room but it's not connected in the hotel. Only other phone is the callbox outside. Being a mile out from a one-horse town anyway the mobile has a good signal but dialling out on dodgy phone lines means dropped connections etc. Only have a few numbers for the ipass network and they seem busy sometimes so it looks like we are down to SMS and text on the email via the mobile. We're at the local pub, there are three in town, all with interesting characters. Beer is 28p Johnny Walker whisky 50p, local rum 30p (hic!) We all went down to the restaurant which was a scene out of the wild west. Main meal cost about £2. Gareth K11    [  t o p  ]    MESSAGE FOUR: Sunday, January 28 From: "G.J. Rowland"holivans@enterprise.net Subject: NO WIND, CRACKS IN ICE Date: Sun, 28 Jan 2001 20:20:49 Sunny windless day. DN inspection took all day, no sailing. Had fireworks display by the Brits. Now -3 degrees. Maybe go to Poland is decision made. Large cracks in ice. Gareth K11    [  t o p  ]    MESSAGE FIVE: Monday, January 29 From: "G.J. Rowland"holivans@enterprise.net Subject: NO WIND, CRACKS IN ICE Date: Mon, 29 Jan 2001 07:30:00 7.30: -8 degrees. No wind. Briefing at 9am. Racing may be 3km down the lake. Large crack in ice. Sailing area small. Maybe move to lake 15km away or Poland. Not sure yet. Gareth K11    [  t o p  ]    Looking lovely but no one is going anywhere... DNs sitting on Lake Lipno awaiting wind to start the 2001 DN European Championships - photo taken Monday.   MESSAGE SIX: Monday, January 29 From: "G.J. Rowland"holivans@enterprise.net Subject: MONDAY Date: Mon, 29 Jan 2001 21:11:32 Woke up to no wind. Briefing on the ice was at 9am and we were told to wait for the wind. Gareth, Neil and Chris were in the first half of group C. Gareth is 22, Chris is 23 and Neil is 35. At 10.00 an anouncement was made that we might be sailing some 3km down the lake if the wind filled in. By now rumours were rife that we may go to Mickaljki in Poland, same place as last year some 650 miles north (14 hours drive!) Imagine 165 ice sailors decamping and moving! we heard that it had black ice and wind of 5 metre per second. Meanwhile we waited in -6 temps on the ice. Did not feel that cold as the sun was shining and with no wind it was not unpleasant. British team had a good look round some the DN trailers to see what the best trailer might be to build. Our landyacht trailer being open means that everything gets filthy on the journey. Long conversations were had with a German about his trailer that had everything in it. He made some errors in construction which will not be made next time. More info on that when we get home. The Brit team took the "sparks" (sledges you push) out on the ice following the crack up to where 3 cracks in the ice meet. Took some photos and listened to the cracking and groaning of the ice. Back at the pits sailing was cancelled for the day at 3pm. We were briefed for the next day's sailing. We are moving down to the ferry crossing, some 3km south on the ice, or 8km by road. Access is not easy on the ice as there is only one crossing place on a lake-wide crack. It's near the shoreline and is only the width of a DN. The Brit team did a recce of the new sailing site. Descision is that I de-rig my DN and take it by road to the ferry site. Neil and most of the others are going to sail down tomorrow - if there is no wind they are welcome to the 3km push!! Back in the room now - the hotel we're staying at is the Jestrabi - the Brit team is having some "Screwdrivers with Attitude" (vodka). It's amazing that although doing nothing, sitting around on the ice all day and we are knackered. Gareth is keying this mail while on the second refill (Screwdriver) so expect some typos. Comm links are terrible. Sending text messages on the phone and getting error messages back. Today I changed networks to Eurtel. One hour later I was received six text messages that were two days old. Bleeding phone kept going beep for the next two hours as the messages slowly got up to date. So comm links are not good. This email took about 30 mins to send and by that time the Vodka was running out and the belly is rumbling. Going for a refill!! Gareth K11      [  t o p  ]    MESSAGE SEVEN: Tuesday, January 30 From: "G.J. Rowland"holivans@enterprise.net Subject: TUESDAY Date: Tue, 30 Jan 2001 17:34:59 Made our way to the new sailing site and waited for the wind. Just after 1pm a light variable wind picked up from a northerly direction . We sailed to the other side of the lake where the grid was being set out. C2 fleet was on first. Neil, Chris and I were in C1. So we watched the C2 fleet float round. Then it was our turn. As we assembled on the line a Dutch man sailed back across the start line. He did it near the Race Committee and was disqualified. To add insult to injury the starting line is now made of steel wire, so he took the edge of his runners as well. Not sure whether he is disqualified from that race or the regatta. With a light wind it was our turn to start. I started on the port tack tacking a ziz zag to the top mark dead into wind from the bottom mark/start line. Upwind was steady in the light air. In the light err bits you had to push a fair bit, goggles steamed up as you huffed and puffed. Downwind was an art form with careful study of the telltails to keep any sort of speed going. Problem was you could not run downwind at all and each long tack only took you 200 yards back to the bottom mark. Even then you needed a couple of pushes in the light stuff. I turned the bottom mark to find the race had been cancelled. Back on the grid we started 30 minutes later in even lighter winds. Again I was on the port tack and was pushing all the time from the start. Casting an eye in the other direction you could see the starboard tack was sailing. A quick turn and another 100 yards of push had you sailing. At the top mark you could see yachts scattered about pushing, looking for the wind. Round the mark all you could do was sail across the wind and little else. By now the effort of getting in and out of the yacht and pushing was getting knackering. I gave up half way back to the bottom mark and pushed dead downwind as almost everyone else was pushing. Back at the pits we were to be put back on the grid. Chris put a protest in to the Committee as we were all knackered. By now the wind had gone anyway and it was 3.30. The Committe saw sense and we were sent home for the day. Back at the hotel we have just had a cup of tea and Neil has flaked out on the bed. I'm typing this and Howard is reading "The Loop" by Nicholas Evans. Going to attempt to mail this out. It took two exasperating hours to send the email last night. Problem is the dodgy mobile phone links and someone has sent me something big that takes me over the 30 minutes window accessing mail. Will have to ring the wife and get the kids to download the info to clear the "inbox". I will then have to ring again to sort through the mail. Some text messages on the phone take up to 12 hours to come through while some others come in minutes. It's been a bit of a bother. There is a banquet in the hotel tonight at 8pm. Now going for a shower. Gareth K11      [  t o p  ]    MESSAGE EIGHT: Wednesday, January 31 From: "G.J. Rowland"holivans@enterprise.net Subject: WEDNESDAY - ONE RACE! Date: Wed, 31 Jan 2001 17:44:58 Morning looked like no wind. We sat around in 1cm of overnight snow till midday when the light wind came from north. Setting up the grid across the lake C1 fleet, which all of us Brits were in, set off. There seemed to be a large hole in the wind on the right side of the course. Anyway, the Sailing Master was checking the time limit with the sticky ice from the snow the race timed out, with 10 seconds to go before the leading yacht passed the line!! I suppose rules are rules but it would be nice get a race over. So it was back on the grid. I had heard a rumout from a Polish guy that the wind was better on the left side of the course and we were not going far enough. So I started and took a good long up-wind run. It really paid off as coming up to the top mark I was in 5th place. Conditions were still very slow with a light shifty wind. The race timed out again with me getting a "would-be" 6th place. Back on the grid again feeling slighty knackered. We set off for the fifth attempt of the championship. I made a bit of a balls-up of the first lap. Instead of getting way out left I tacked following a Polish boat P55. Since he was fast thought it might pay off. It didn't! Second and third lap I had a good run, picking up places. Final result Neil was scored 13th, I was 20th. By this time we had had enough and prepared to go home as the B fleet set sail. Now back at the hotel and going 20km to a Medieval town for some better food as we had been through the hotel menu and the meat on potatoes! Gareth K11   A good number of the DNs out on the lake on Wednesday ready to start a race at the 2001 DN Euros. B and C Fleets managed to get one race completed after false starts but A Fleet, following a start late in the day, had their race postponed through failing light and the wind dropping off. Winds were about 1 or 2 knots and the snow on the lake surface made sailing conditions slow.   Oh, hell! No one told me that the ice breaks up! One of the three cracks running the width of Lake Lipno.        [  t o p  ]    MESSAGE NINE: Thursday, February1 12.25AM!! From: "G.J. Rowland"holivans@enterprise.net Subject: SOMETHING TO MAKE YOU GIGGLE Date: Thurs, 1 Feb 2001 00:25:01 Weds late night. Well alright, very late! Oh bugger, actually early Thursday morning. Brit team in dire staights! Run out of vodka, run out of something to mix it with and the beer supply in the fridge is reduced to scrap aluminium. The emergency supply of wine held outside in the car at -4 has gone slush puppy. There is only one desperate measure left... go to bed!!! Hic!... Gareth K11 or is it K800?   WEBMASTER'S NOTE: It might be worth noting here that the British team fancied a change in their diet and managing to jampack themselves into Chris Williams' Volvo, travelled 40 kilometres nor'east from where they're staying at Cerna to a small medieval town for a bite to eat. From the "ramblings" in the above email Message 9, one can deduce that the bar was hit harder than the menu and one or two Brits fell victim to over-indulgence of the local firewater! Gareth phoned me from the restaurant earlier in the evening to give an account of the ambience of the restaurant, an old converted brewery with huge ceilings and arches. Gareth also relayed the story of several keener iceboaters who ventured to the town ahead of the Brit team. The early iceboaters were looking rather grim when Gareth and the team arrived having fallen foul of the local Czech constabulary for parking their vehicles within the town. Seems no one is meant to take vehicles onto the town's cobblestone streets. The unfortunate iceboaters headed off to dinner, their wallets 1,000 Krona (£40) lighter - a very expensive 3 minutes parking fee! Does remind me of Dave Green and Chris Wright's brush with the law and conservation officers at Borkum two years ago when they decided to take a short cut home off the beach and sailed through a seal sanctuary. They too had their wallets well aired which meant fewer rounds at the bars of Borkum for the remainder of us over the week of the 1999 FISLY Euros!! Mervyn NZ350   Found on the lakeside... the elusive Lake Lipno Yeti! Or is it the vodka that's getting to the British team and they're starting to see apparitions?      [  t o p  ]    MESSAGE TEN: Thursday, February 1 From: "G.J. Rowland"holivans@enterprise.net Subject: THURSDAY Date: Thurs, 1 Feb 2001 20:00:30 Woke to 1cm of new snow. Temps -3. As we had breakfast more heavy snow showers started and by the time we arrived down at the sailing site a couple inches had fallen. With a light wind the Brit team decided to call it a day as the snow kept falling. We packed up the yachts and loaded the trailer. We heard from the better informed that more heavy snow is forecast coming in from the north maybe Sat or Sun. After packing up the the fleet was summoned to the race start as the conditions lightened a little and the wind picked up to a light breeze. We expected only A & B fleet sailing as they needed a result. Anyway by now we could see the top mark from the pits so we loaded up the "spark" with a tent and photo gear and filled 3 bottles with "Screwdrivers" (you must know that one by now)!!! Pushing the spark through the snow was hard work. Arriving at the top mark we set up camp and proceeded to take pictures. We were glad we took the tent as the exposure out on the ice was penetrating. We took a few photos and noticed the difference in sailing between the Gold Fleet and the Bronze Feet. Bronze Fleet had one race, we missed out, but not quite the same as one skipper in Fleet B that was up with at the top mark when he realised B Fleet was about to start. It's amazing how many European swear words come out in English!! The poor blighter set of in the vain attempt to the start line. By 2pm we were getting a little cold so decided to push back to the pits and go and have a daylight look at the local Medieval town again (Cesky Krumlov). What a pretty place it is set in the "horseshoe-shape" of the river. More on that later on our return. Bought some pressies and ate in one of the local restaurants. which was better than what we smelt on our exit from our hotel. I reckon it was boiled beef and carrots. Talk tomorrow, too tired to key anymore and the Screwdrivers are mounting up!! Gareth K11   Gold Fleet racing downwind in the snow.   Some of today's (Thursday) racing   Nothing like falling snow to make sailing conditions tricky.   [  b a c k   t o   t h e   t o p   o f   t h e   p a g e  ] 2001 DN EUROPEAN IMAGE PAGE BACK TO THE LINCOLNSHIRE LYC OPENING PAGE and CONTENTS