Races
Sjambok finished 3rd at Eurocard Gotland Runt in Sweden - Crew arrested at price giving party!
We don´t know what is the bigger sensation – but the 3rd in a quite competitive group is Sjambok´s highlight in the 2008 season so far. Following our report from this fantastic event scroll down:
Derlivery to Sandhamn
The place of battle is somewhere in the nowhere north of Stockholm called Sandhamn. Coming from Keel we passed lighthouse Sandhamn under grey skies in light rain, asking ourselves “Why do well travelled gentlemen like Hasso Plattner (Morning Glory) taking so much effort to do this race??” The last 3 miles of the delivery and just around the corner and we knew why… A beautiful, all blond & bumpy environment, elegant Clubhouse and it seemed to be heaven on earth. Our eyes were richly awarded for our effort to come here! Of course, after the 450 nm delivery we were a little bit dehydrated not to say thirsty.
And of course we very more than happy to meet the lazy part of our crew who arrived by plane and speedboat. The Sjambok family was complete and some welcome drinks and dance performance helped us over the very short darkness between 2 and 3 a.m.
Boat prep was no problem next morning, although a power package internet upgrade was bought from a local supplier and installed to see the soccer final. Briefly, it did not work and that´s why the German's probably lost against Spain (I was lucky they did lost, because Marc would have quit sailing for sure).
Eurocard Gotland Runt: 460 m zigzag around the Island of Gotland
In the pre-start phase we decided to go for the right part of the line. Anybody else who was not blind did the same…big traffic all around the starting vessel. Just 30 sec to go the 80ft monster Royal Blue decided to bear away and everybody on Sjambok believed the nightmare is now becoming reality. The 2m bow juuuust passed our stern. A bit under shock but still dry and sitting on one piece of boat we pulled in the sheets and started the race in sunny weather and lovely 10-15 knots breeze. 24 hours later we were clearly ahead of our direct competition, but lost our advantage when we passed Farö inside instead of going 1,5 nm extra and outside this little island north of Gotland (like the others did). We still do not understand why extra miles were faster since we did not see big shifts and no current. After we were all reunited again, Bank of Bremen (JV54), Norddeutsche Vermögen (Andrews 56) and Essex Girl (One Off 49) chose an easterly course while we went close along the coast hoping for the right shift we saw in our grip files. And slowly the right shift came in and set us again in front of the group again. Meanwhile it was blowing upto 30 knots from the front accompanied by a nasty seastate. Passing the south cape of Gotland, the wind lost some of its strength and dropped. Sjambok led the fleet of the three 49+ feet round the next mark by 10 minutes. The chute went up, it was half dark at 1 a.m. and it was a fun downwind in 15 knots with speeds around 10 knots. It seemed we worked out our lead. At least we lost sight to the competition. Passing the buoy at Visby early morning it was blowing again. We spiked the kite and tried a heavy Gen 1 plus full main for a 90 degree TWA power reach. We were slow. Essex Girl on the horizon came up quickly. We were faster when we switched from Gen 1 to Gen 3, but it was impossible to hold them. After 3 hours they passed us surfing and they worked out a 5 minute lead at the next mark back in the north of Gotland. From there it was approx 120 miles to the finish and the wind prediction showed uncertain conditions decreasing and followed by a lull. Being close to shoreline we received a text from Gunti how raced on Morning Glory. They lost their rig! At least nobody was injured…. We decided to go south right after the mark waiting for the big left shift. Lucky again, we closed the gap to the same rated Essex Girl. The other boats stayed north of the rumbline and lost big time.
Everybody was happy, because we knew Sjambok can make Essex Girl a hard time in this light downwind conditions and distance to go from mark Gustav to the finish was relatively short. We passed Essex pretty soon after the mark under Code 1. Happiness did not last for too long and the wind died completely. The last 40 miles were no pleasure and our “dinner ETA” became a late breakfast finish time. Obviously we were not the only one who struggled with the slackness.
Price giving and after party
The price giving was held by the sponsor. And in the case of Eurocard it was a lady who was Thank you!-kissed on the podium by 10 smelly Sjamboks. Great result and definitely a good reason for a proper party. Make a long story short. In Sweden it seems to be hip to escort guests out of the bar at closing hour – either by police or security! Fact is, Sjamboks crew WAS gone home one after the other. All peaceful and very happy!
Overall Results Grand Open Class:
1: Ericsson, Vo 70
2: Hyndai, 40m Maxi
3: Sjambok, R/P 48
4: Outsider, Elliott 52ss, canting
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Crew:
Jens
Dr. Götz
Bob
Henri
Geri
Marius
Christian
Marc
Frank
Homo