2nd leg

2nd leg from Saßnitz (Rügen) to Gdansk (Poland)
July 23-24, 2007, a total of 200 nautical miles

„Frühstücksdirektor“, a Hanse 430e, defends her lead in class A and remains in first place overall

The leg from Saßnitz to Gdansk (shortened by 30 nautical miles to 170 nm) could have started better. The weather forecast promised about 25 to 28 knots out of the West, getting lighter throughout the day. In other words, we were supposed to have a nice, fast upwind day.

At 10am and under sunny skies, we made a big mistake. Our foredeck guy was busy with the gennaker, the responsible guy in the cockpit disappeared all of a sudden and the helmsman could only guess how much time was left until the start. We raised the gennaker and „Frühstücksdirektor’s“ speed went up to 10 knots immediately. Then we got the bad news over the radio: Over early!

It could not have been worse: It took 10 minutes to douse the gennaker, raise the Genoa, and cross the starting line again.
Then the race began: It took us four hours to catch up with the leading yachts. Our top speed was 13.8 knots! We wanted to sail the shortest distance and avoid a Southerly course that would have placed us closer to shore, where we feared light or no wind in the evening.

The wind got lighter in the afternoon and we used shifts in the wind to jibe twice. At 6pm, we finally got the lead. Except for „Tui“, a Bashford 41, the rest of the fleet disappeared on the horizon. We had great boat speed flying the gennaker.

Once it got dark, winds were fluky and light. Our decision to douse the gennaker paid off. The boat sailed a lot faster with the small Genoa. Yet something else we learned today.

During the night, we sailed close to the Polish coast on a course of 72°. The wind came forward in the dawn hours, something the weather forecast had not called for. As a result, we had to go upwind for about 50 nautical miles in 6 to 8 knots of wind. And on top of it, it started to rain.

It turned out that our Henri Lloyd foul weather gear was put to the test. Well, at least there were no more incidents and we stayed dry on this grey day. At some point „Tui“ passed us. She was sailing about a half a knot faster with her overlapping genoa. But since she has to give us considerable time, we were not particularly worried. At the finish line in Wladiwowo at 3:17pm, we trailed her by about 40 minutes. But we were still well ahead of her on corrected time thanks to our ORC rating of 586.8 seconds per nautical mile. Other competitors were way behind. The last yachts arrived during the early hours of the next day.

We really enjoyed „Früstücksdirektor“: The boat was up to everything we asked of her and handled the 170 nautical miles very well. It was dry below, the sails stayed in one piece, just one bulb burned out on the starboard running lights, the house batteries were almost empty though – not a technical problem it turned out but due to continuous use of electronic equipment and running/ navigation lights, something we had underestimated.

Another thing we had underestimated was „Philomena’s“ (Grand Soleil 46.3) weather tactics. Her crew was alone in deciding to go an extra 40 nautical miles. She first sailed towards Bornholm instead of taking the straight route. And it paid off because she avoided having to tack in light winds. We did not realize this until we arrived at the city marina (after 3 hours of motoring) directly across Gdansk’s crane gate. „Philomena“ had finished 2 hours ahead of us. We had never even seen her.

We are happy with our results: A 2nd place in Class A and overall for this leg, which also means that we will still be defending our lead in Class A and overall during the 3rd leg.

The next leg:
Gdansk – Klaipeda/Lithuania over 113 nautical miles will start tomorrow, July 26, at 4pm.
The weather forecast calls for about 20 knots out of the West.

We’ll be back from Klaipeda; hopefully – again - with good news.

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