3th leg

The first part of leg 3 from Gdansk to Klaipeda was stressful and hard work. Alan Green from the race committee set a short upwind course followed by a reach before letting the field continue on the 118 nautical mile course. Unfortunately, the West wind died about 3 minutes before the start and shifted to Northeast/East.

As a result, the upwind start turned into chaos with lots of right of way problems everywhere. With a little bit of luck, we maneuvered “Frühstücksdirektor” through the fleet with our big, light-wind A1-gennaker, changed to a light genoa soon after, and were the first ones to reach the upwind mark. We reached our limits during the chaotic maneuvering just before the start, since we are somewhat short-handed with 6 people on a 43 foot yacht.

We decided to fly our ‚magic sail’ for the next 2 nautical miles, a small and very flat A3-gennaker. It is designed for more wind but we found that it is the ideal sail for light winds of about 100 – 115 degrees true.

We rounded mark number 2 with a lead of at least 100 meters and started tacking out the bay of Gdansk. With about 15 knots of wind, we flew the number 1 jib light/medium, which is more powerful than the heavy jib when the seas are choppy.

After 40 nautical miles – we had long changed to the A3-gennaker and later to the big A1-gennaker, since the wind shifted south as forecasted – we lost our lead to an X 61. Shortly after rounding the imaginary point alpha about 60 nautical miles before the finish line, “XXL” (a Sun Fast 52) was the second yacht to pass us. We might have pushed the light A1-gennaker to its limits with a wind direction of 130 degrees and a maximum of 16 knots of wind, but it lasted and we were the third yacht to reach the finish line at Klaipeda at 7am.

The result: Another win each in Class A and overall thanks to  “Frühstücksdirektor’s” excellent sailing characteristics and Jens Christensen’s (North Sail) power of persuasion. He had discouraged us from using a Code 0 sail and recommended the small A3-gennaker instead. In our opinion, “Frühstücksdirektor’s” reaching sail plan for light to medium winds is perfect with 2 mast-top gennakers and the small A3.

We were especially happy with how well Friedrich Böhnert’s „Schüddelfrost“, a Hanse 371 did. She came in second overall after this leg and won Class B. As a result, Hanse yachts are leading both Class A and Class B. Overall, our Hanse 430e is leading Böhnert’s Hanse 371, followed by a Comfortina 42.

Tomorrow, July 29, „Frühstücksdirektor“ will be leaving this beautiful city towards the East and Latvia. We’ll be back from Ventspils.

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

Baltic Sprint Cup „Result Service“

„Frühstücksdirektor’s“ sail plan:
I  -  18.00 meters
J  -  5.03 meters
P  -  17.85 meters
E  -  6.15 meters

Sails:
Jib 1 light/medium; Jib 1 medium/heavy; jib 3.5 heavy; all 3 DL
top-gennaker A 1(0.5 oz) and A4 (0.75 oz), 7/8el gennaker A 3 (0.75 oz)
main 1 reef 3 DL