Races
Sjambok sailed 1st time with an all German crew
We are surprised to having more than 10 nations who visit our site regularly. For those who don´t know where Skagen is – this is the most northern point of Denmark where the girls are pretty and where sailing means endless downwind surfs in 25 knts breeze in big Northsea waves. And that´s exactly why we came here…. The 508 mile race starts in Helgoland and is leading up the west coast of Germany and Denmark, through the Belt of Skagerrak and round the northern tip of Denmark and from there down the Baltic Sea and the eastern side of DEN passing the Islands of Laeso, Anholt and Langelad before we finish in Kiel, famous for the 2001 Volvo Ocean Race and the Illbruck victory.
We arrived from a 300 mile delivery just the evening before the start of the race. Good that we delivered the boat in race mode with an empty Sjambok and everybody in race dress. A quick boat preparation and enough time for sundowners and welcome drinks with the rest of the crew arrived by ferry– unfortunately followed by a massive headache the next morning.
The race:
The 90ft Wild Thing, Grant Warrington´s ex maxi, now called Calypso and the Volvo 60 SEB 1 “Jever” were the chefs of the ring chased by Schokakola, R/P 57, Bank of Bremen, JV 54, both 2005 designs. Norddeutsche Vermoegen the Andrews 56 and Sjambok were only outsiders for line honours. Anyway, we know about the weakness of our bigger rivals in the light to medium stuff and we hoped to finish in front on corrected time on ORC. This rating is loved in Germany since it is based on IMS – Germans still do not love IRC and rather would still carry wood in their keels and sail on slow and ugly looking IMS designs. After 3 seasons in the Solent und Netherlands is should be the first race in home waters.
The Start:
A downwind start was leading the fleet to the east around a water national park. The fleet continued to the East after they passed the first virtual mark. We wondered why everybody went the short leg first. Time to attack the Volvo, Schokokola and the Bank. We tacked to the left and went right north, separating from the fleet. We were aware of the risk to sail straight into less pressure, but after 5 hours the Volvo and Bank of Bremen passed our stern in 10 knts of breeze, Schokokola still 0.5 miles windward of Sjambok – Allright, that was obviously a cool call. After 10 pm the wind picked up and our brand new No 3 from Quantum Annapolis went up. A broad reach in 17-23 knots pushed the boat up along the party island of Sylt until the wind let us down at dawn. Frustrating 3-4 hours of drifting – watching other boats passing us only 5 miles west in a steady breeze.
With the wind back in the sails we tacked up the coast until we had Schokakola back in sight only 40 m in front of Skagen. Norddeutsche close behind us and we all asked ourselves “where is the Bank and the Volvo??” After midnight we found the R/P 57 only 2,5 miles next to us. Instead of covering them we let her go and they quickly gained an advantage of 6-7 miles passing the first official mark east of Skagen at 6 am. The Volvo must have picked up some chicks in Denmark – they were still behind us….
The last 250 miles down the coast of Denmark Sjambok was not too lucky when we decided to keep on port tack instead of tacking into the right shift like the others did. Still feeling great with what we are doing we lost a big portion of our lead against the fleet and our rivals until the Volvo passed us in a 22 knt upwind close to the Island of Anholt. Schokokola was approx. 10 miles further south – still enough to beat them on corrected, but out of reach for a tactical control. The next morning the Andrews 56 was just 200 meters behind us – what a disaster. It should follow another very long but sunny day of upwind sailing. This race was exactly what the Volvo Race was in 2001 – drifting backwards from The Big Belt Bridge followed by 42 tacks against current up the coast of Langeland in 2-5 knts of breeze which cost us hours on the smaller fleet reporting 13,5 knt downwind speed.
At almost midnight we passed the finish line at Kiel lighthouse after 508 miles mostly upwind sailing and almost 80 hours on the water. We were all super happy with the race, the crew and weather conditions.
But the race was not finished when Sjambok´s crew stepped ashore and the bars of Kiel were conquered un-showered, smelling and in sailing gear until the sun was up again. This crew is bullet proofed onshore as well and once more we are more than happy to having had pretty cool guys on board.
Calypso, Ex Wild Thing, 3 days, 2 hours, 13 minutes
Schokokola, R/P57, + 30 min
SEB 1 “Jever”, Volvo 60, + 1h, 47 min
Sjambok, R/P 48, + 5h, 45 min
Norddeutsche, Andrews 56, + 6h, 17 min
Corrected Big Boats:
1. Norddeutsche Vermögen
2. Sjambok
3. Schokakola
4. SEB 1 Jever
5. Calypso
...
Crew:
Jens (Sjambok)
Dr. Goetz (Sjambok)
Stefan (Sjambok)
Marcus (BonBon / ex Shockwave)
Henry (BonBon / ex Shockwave)
Christian (470 Olympic trials)
Marius (Sjambok)
Albrecht (Sjambok)
Gereon (Sjambok)