Rødhaette is Unloaded

Arrived a little late, but in time to get her ready for the SF Cup.
This time the wood was nailed in and laced with this gnarley Danish grease.

Oh.... so that's how you are supposed to do it. I love the drawing!
This sexy shot appeared from the back of the container... I snuck in and looked around to see how these boats are actually "tied down".
Opps, a broken spreader... we'll get that fixed ASAP.
Ok, put a rope here and there, unstuck a couple pieces of wood....
... and drag her on out, slowly. See Video for details.

Safe and sound in her cradle... we'll do a little work to the keel, got a bit scratched up in the unloading.

Decided to try this video thing...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-CZAYO5y_Y

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2UoPF12Uqo

... sorry to use same song twice. Couldn't figure out how to add 2nd song.

Is Mine Bigger Than Yours?

The pole on the right is the John Mast pole that came with the boat. The one in the middle is one my father made and called his "high performance pole." I guess it's not the size of the pole, but the magic in it? And the one on the left in Wilson's big assed pole. Dave had joked about his pole being bigger than mine a little while back, but I didn't give too much thought... until now.

In the second race last Sunday, Wilson's crew dropped their pole in the water just in front of us before the leeward mark rounding. I saw it, hiked out over the side, snagged it and said, "Hey guys, I'm gonna need a little help with this." Patrick was stunned... said something to affect of 'Where did you get that?"

As I lifted it out of the water, one handed, it seemed to never end. And as it came to the surface it got really heavy too. I began thinking... was this the Wilson's big downwind secret? Did I just happen to stumble upon it? Now you'd think after seeing the boat behind you pick up your pole in 25 + knots that you might... oops blow the jib sheet and make it look like a mistake that you got passed. Seems like the nice thing to do, right? No such luck. Wilsons' covered us the whole way back to the finish line. Too bad there wasn't another lap around...
... then got to thinking, are there any class rules about the length of your pole? There is in the Knarr fleet which is what raised our suspicions. Turns out there is no length maximum and unfortunately... it's legal. Sure would make the final results of the season better for me.

The Wilson family are a class act. At last night's final Wednesday Evening race of the season, Don was gracious enough to bring over a very nice bottle of wine as a thank you...

Anytime Don... those things are expensive and I'm sure you'd do the same for me.

The Kid's Got Good Taste... and Talent Too!

Dear Chris,

We were in San Francisco July 18th. My Friend was visiting from North Carolina. He is a part-time professional photographer. He took some amazing photo's of you guys which he will send along to you. We had no idea who you were. Just watching you guys sailing along from the shoreline at Marina Green. My son John is an artist. He is 10 years old. My friend sent along to us the photo's of you guys sailing. They were so impressive that my son John had to paint one of them. My son John is very well known globally as a young artist and receives comments from around the world on a daily basis for artwork that he does. He posted his painting ( originally called "Sailing" ) on his Flickr Gallery ( You can see his work by simply googling Artist John Woolley 4th grade. That will take you to his Gallery or you can click below ). After he posted the painting a guy from Europe saw it and commented on the fact that the boat was a Nordic Folk Boat. Well, out of interest I looked up Nordic Folk Boats. After some brief research I found NFIA and some other sites and pics and low and behold, there was your boat. My friends pictures are so incredible of your boat, better than every other picture I saw on the internet. At least in my opinion. He is very good. You will like them. Below though, enjoy my son John's painting of you guys out in the Bay July 18th sometime after 2pm. It's certainly a small world. Please confirm that you received this email. You have one beautiful boat Chris. Really beautiful. My son would be more than happy to send you a print of his painting if you would like one. I am sure my friend will be happy to send you a copy of his photos also. Best Regards, Dave Woolley for John Woolley

http://www.flickr.com/photos/backyardjournals/

Adam In Eureka Finally Launched his Boat!

http://dickneyland.blogspot.com/

This guy has put in some work... here is his photo link too:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/eurekafolkboat/

Enjoy!

Moseley Cup 2009

Sean asked me to race with him in the Moseley Cup, an annual regatta out of TYC (Tiburon Yacht Club) a few weeks before the regatta. Johnny had sailed with Sean in the past and was on board again this year. Panda, another of Sean's regular crew was on as well, so we were set. On a whim, Sean asks Johnny to see if Paul Cayard would be willing to come out and race and amazingly, he said yes... so I was out. However, being patient has it's rewards and at the last minute, Panda had to bow out for some family event which meant, I was in... sweet.
I've done a little racing with the Knarr's before and a full season with Sean when he first got Sugar, now known as the periwinkle colored Svendkist USA 140. She is as tricked out as a racing sloop can get, everything light weight and spectra... a very user friendly boat. I can say with certainty that I have 20 years experience doing foredeck on this type of boat, mostly Folkboats of course... but the rolling over the cabin thing on each tack when you are 6'5" and weigh 230... well, let's just put it this way... I knew I was going to get a little bruised up.
The pin end was grossly favored and so was the right side of the course. In both the 2nd and 3rd races we won the starts and tacked over as soon as we wanted. We picked good lay lines all day and our boat speed was very good. Better speed than point, but that's OK. We had a 3rd and 2 firsts to win the regatta and our names will be inscribed together on the Moseley Cup perpetual trophy... Needless to say, Sean and I were very pumped to do so well.

German Team Sends Boat To Race In SF Cup, Then Send It Home?

In all the time I've been around Folkboating, people have been bringing boats over to the U.S. with the intention of selling or keeping them over here. However, in an unprecedented move, one we may never see again, Christoph Neilsen has put his boat in a container and sent her to SF with the intention of racing, I assume winning, then putting her back in a container back to Germany.... wow. Most guys ship the boat to race then sell, but this boat is special.
Last year Christoph and crew were 2nd in the Gold Cup and 1st in the German National Championship... I'm quite sure there were other impressive finishes in other regattas too.
This year they won the Kiel Week Regatta, Swedish International Championship, and the Gold Cup.
I guess they are going for the one regatta that has eluded them the past two times, the SF Cup. If it weren't for a bad mast situation, I think they would have taken top honors in 2007. So, to solve that problem they decided to ship their tried and true Chiquita, then send her back?! Crazy.
I'm looking forward to being there when she is unloaded to get some pictures...
Check out that smooth, no paint polished bottom...
and see if Torben fixed that old man seat he stepped on during last year's Gold Cup... I thought I saw a picture that indicated he hadn't, but I could be wrong.
It never ceases to amaze me how easily a Folkboat can be just slid into a 40 foot container.
All tucked in... and now the story from Torben's point of view:

So what's the story? The idea was that it might look nice to have some cool pics of a yellow folkboat on SF waters with the Golden Gate Bridge as background picture.. ;-)
So what to do when you won the Gold Cup? Well, we left Marstrand straight after the fine tradition of drinking champagne out of the Gold Cup with all the present former winners. Our appointment for shipping Chiquita in the container at HHLA Container Terminal Burchardkai GmbH was not later than 12am on the 31st of July (yep the Gold Cup took until the 30th..) and we had to do some customs before too.
Christoph and I drove all night, we decided to take the two ferries on route to find some sleep.. A hell of a trip but we made it, hit the customs at 9.30 am, had some luck with the customs officer and arrived one hour later at HHLA Container Terminal Burchardkai GmbH.
The staff of HHLA did a really good and professional job. Within another hour Chiquita was shipped "safe and sound" in the container.
Now Chiquita is on her 27 days trip to Oakland aboard a OOCL Container vessel..
ps. if you find the Gold Cup somewhere aboard Chiquita we would very much appreciate it if you could keep it safe until we will arrive. And we are not going to tell anybody if you drank some champagne out of it..

Well, I guess we'll see just how good they can be in their own boat on the bay.

More Pictures from the Gold Cup in Marstrand

http://picasaweb.google.com/folkbat/Marstrand2009#

Congratulations to Christoph Neilsen and crew for impressive wins in both the Swedish International Championship and the Gold Cup... their boat is now on its' way here to SF for our international regatta, the SF Cup.

Thanks to Wetstuff for this link.

Enjoy!