DN yacht performance gears
This time Swedish winter has delivered as expected. Initially we planned to stay 8 days but snow on Friday and light breeze for the weekend forced OC to postpone Swedish Championships by a week.
We had great 5 days of sailing. It took a while to get used to icesailing again. From day 3 I started feeling very comfortable. Proper manouvers, boat handling just the way it should be. When I come to this point I start sailing instead of fighting my boat and body.
I am happy moth owner since March this year. For a sailor dealing with traditional sailing for couple of decades moth sailing is whole different sailing experience. Very , very demanding class. I have only few more days sailing scheduled for October.
The good thing is downwind is alike iceboat.
Icesailing is coming in fast!
Welcome onboard for race #3 of Polish Championship 2021. Yachtsmen.eu installed this fancy 360 camera on my deck. I added my comment to what’s going on and here you have the result. Enjoy.
Finaly sweet taste of victory! Consistent sailing in the top paid dividend. It was a big challenge to free up my head from all bad emotions after epic fails in Warsaw Cup. I knew that in order to win any event I need to win with myself first. An extra week of no sailing helped a lot as well.
It was a painful experience on day one of Warsaw Cup. I was in the lead in race 1 and 4 and finished both after two laps. What happened? I have no idea. For sure I put a big smile on many faces including myself. The rest was just fine. Boat speed was great. It was a narrow 1.8km long race course forcing multiple maneuvers and unconventional strategies due to shifty winds.
Early January 2021 Robert and myself could not wait for first ice in Poland. At the same time ice report from Sweden was very promising. We delayed the trip 3 times and finally we found best weather window to enjoy sailing. And weather defeated us. All wind forecasts were wrong. Fellow snow showed up and after one day at beautiful Orsa Camp we decided to go back home.
In sunny windless day we had fantastic skating. This is also part of iceboating.
P.S. Lake Orsasjon is on our black list due to unpredictable wind forecasts.
Another challenging weekend on the ice. Caligula Cup is a kind of family business as my father Jurek, the owner or 7-seater Caligula ice yacht powered by Tornado sail and 45HP propeller has published notice of race. Jurek is running this event for teen years already. And each time starting line is filled with icesailing champions. Last weekend was no different.
Finally first sailing in Poland since March 2019! Big cold coming from east locked most of our favorite lakes. What a great 5 days of intense sailing with Polish top sailors crowned with Polish Fleet Cup over a weekend.
Lots of sailing, from sunrise to sunset every single day. I tried new Moore mast, new planks and new hull. Busy period and no pressure – this is what I needed. And this is what I got.
Great ice and great sailing conditions but no wind. The attempt to sail both events failed due to no wind. We manage to sail only 3 races in R3. Surprisingly I managed to win the regatta using the stiffest mast. And in order to make mast work I also reinforced my plank just before the event. The reinforcement was fundamental: initial bend was 48mm and ended up in 42mm. This operation forced mast to work more which was cruicial in light air. Racing in very light breeze with consisten 2, 2, 3 was big challenge. Usually light sailors have big edge on 90+ like myself. I also used a new hull that worked well. The next stop: WC/EC.
What a great opening of the season. At least in the last 10-15 years i don’t recollect a situation with 7 days sailed out of 7 day stay. 100%. Black ice. 500km+ sailed.
I managed to test soft and stiff mast together with different planks. Some interesting conclusions and new to-do list.
Waiting for ice in Europe.
