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.