First leg

First leg from Copenhagen to Saßnitz (Rügen)
July 20-21, 2007, a total of 88 nautical miles

We gave it all! As we had hoped, winds were light and mostly from abaft the beam, very favorable conditions for our Hanse 430. She won the trophies for the first yacht to finish, the first yacht in class A and first place overall at the award ceremony in Saßnitz. „Frühstücksdirektor“’s forestay also sported the yellow flag reserved for the overall leader. She will now have to defend the right to fly the yellow flag in the following 4 legs.

It wasn’t an easy race since winds were very fluky towards the South of Sweden (Falsterbo). Twice, winds came in from astern and allowed the trailing boats to close the distance on the leaders. We kept having to change sails and pay close attention to trim to stay in the front pack of the fleet. It was evident early on that „Gunvor“ (X-46), „Emil Reiseschwein“ (X442) and „Philomena“ (Grand Soleil 46.3) were our biggest competitors. They all have similar ratings.

Going upwind with 12 knot winds out of the East, we were able to extend our distance to the rest of the fleet during the night. Close to the finish line, we passed the last two yachts ahead of us with a well-executed spinnaker maneuver right in front of the cliffs on Rügen. At six o’clock in the morning, we were the first yacht to finish, 1.5 min ahead of „Gunvor“ (X-46) and „XXL“ (Sunfast 52). Despite lack of sleep and food, we weren’t tired at all. The first race on a new boat is always exciting. The Hanse 430 performed great in all conditions.

With a crew of six we were a little shorthanded. But we modified the deck layout – in part by including 2 additional winches for the genoas - so that a small crew could easily manage maneuvers on the racecourse.

This Hanse 430 Special was stripped of some of her standard equipment and modified to include a somewhat larger sail plan. The genoas are slightly larger because we did not install roller furling or the standard track for the self-tacking jib. The foot of the main is longer. Three gennakers are on board for reaching: The upwind gennaker and the light all-purpose gennaker are flown from the masthead; the smaller, flat gennaker is flown from just above the forestay (a flat sail that significantly contributed to the first win of „Früstücksdirektor“).

The preparation of hull number 1 took longer than expected. Two weeks ago, sails and necessary safety equipment had still not arrived. It wasn’t until a week before the regatta that we first had the opportunity to test the new sails and other modifications.

We are very happy with the result of the first leg - and so is the HanseYachts, since Saßnitz is only a stone’s throw away from the yard. A home win!

Bad news on the morning of July 22: The race committee announced the weather report for the 200 nautical mile long leg to Danzig.
60 knot winds out of the West are expected for the night – enough reason to postpone the start until 10 am on July 23. The forecast rain kept us from enjoying the day in port. But the weather is supposed to improve in the coming days.

We’ll be back from Danzig; hopefully with good news.

„Frühstücksdirektor“’s crew::
Jörn Bock, Ralph Moser, Nico Jeschonneck, Jörn Diercks, Timo Jakobs und der Bootkapitän und Bordchef Jan Dabelstein