After months of planning and three chaotic weeks preparing for the trip to Poland, Tammy and I were finally on our way. My brother Phil dropped us at the airport where the usual obstacle of getting equipment on the plane was seemingly painless this time. Huge thanks to Jesper Vesterstrom who is lending me a Starboard Formula 162 after last years excess baggage debacle. The check in guy managed to get my sails, masts, boom, and many fins checked all of the way to Berlin for no charge, or so it seemed.

The flight to Hong Kong was pretty uneventful, except some how we again got stuck next to a feral who didn’t seem to know how to use deodorant. Landing in Hong Kong, the transfer counter insisted we pay for the excess baggage. I’d done some homework on Air France and knew that they had a Windsurfing allowance, so we escaped from there with only a $250 excess baggage bill…

A long, long flight to Paris, and very little sleep, meant that the dash to the terminal “D” was a very rude awakening in Charles de Gaule. Landing at Tegel Berlin, unbelievably our bag was second off the carousel, and the quiver and boom bag came up the baggage lift 2 minutes later, got to hand it to the efficient German baggage system, a far cry from the lost equipment last year in Portugal.

James Briggs, who you may remember from visiting Sydney last Summer, was there to pick us up in his pimped out Volkswagen Sportline. Some transport re-shuffling was required as Sean had been waylaid picking up his new sails from Lake Garda, and wouldn’t reach Berlin until 2 am the next morning. A quick rendezvous and equipment exchange with Jesper, and we drove off to Pobierowo minus Lewis who was waiting for Sean in Berlin.

Arriving into Pobierowo we met up with Markus Bouman, and most of the Polish team, for Pizza. We then set about trying to find some accommodation for the night, after 3 hours of walking the streets it became pretty obvious we were not going to find any rooms for the night, so it was into the vans, on top of empty boom and board bags.

Pobierowo Challenger

Friday morning was registration, followed by racing in the afternoon. I was feeling pretty exhausted after the travel and I was soon to pay for the lack of rest before the event. A very light westerly was building so time to rig the 11.8…….the final bit of down haul caused a tear in my calf muscle, I could barely walk, but attempted to race anyway, fortunately the race was canned due to lack of wind. I really regretted losing my winch days before the trip, and the 2 days of travel, and de-hydration had taken it’s toll. My event was over before it had started. Thankfully we had found some accommodation in the next town.

Saturday dawned with a really swollen and bruised calf which meant I was hobbling around the beach, but my day was brightened when I met a couple of guys, Karolis from Lithunania and Maris from Latvia who had bought fins this year.

All of the Polish team and Steve Allen had entered, missing was the guys still in Fuerte for the PWA Slalom event and Jesper who was working in Berlin, still there was 60+ entrants.

Two lightwind races on Saturday had Wojtek leading followed by Steve Allen, and the Polish RSX sailor Pont. Markus and Sean sitting around the twenties. (did I mention that Sean was doing the “Full Rick” with new sails, board and fins?) That afternoon Sean’s board had been holed while on the beach which meant that he would sit out the next days racing rather then rushing the repair.

Over night Allison Shreeve arrived for the start of her European tour, and to rest a few days before the Allegro cup.

Sunday morning it was blowing 28 knots down at the beach. As Sean and I were both sitting out, we caught up on some work, and finally completed and launched our new website, check it out at www.vmgblades.com Sean has done a fantastic job on the website, and we have received many compliments on it.

Meanwhile down at the beach racing got underway around lunch time, and four races were completed, with many sailors unable to get through all of the races in the tough conditions. Steve ended up winning, Wojtek second, and Pavel Hlavaty third.

Equipment wise the interesting thing is that all of the Polish guys and Steve are using the new Neil Pryde RSR EVO 2. With the correct tuning you can make these sails very fast and stable. Steve Allen told me they are the most stable sails he has used, almost too easy. Luckily I took a mental note of his settings(I’m open to offers : D )

If you look at www.formulawindsurfing.org and www.aus120.com you’ll see an event report, as swell as photos from Tammy.

Allegro Cup, Leba

Monday morning Markus was kind enough to give Tammy and I a lift to Leba(webber), while James went straight to “Hell” for a couple of days. After picking up some “Plantecki”(tarp) for rigging on and marking our 20m x 12m territory on the beach, we got into Leba around 4 pm.

Tuesday we explored the event site, and caught up with a few friends such as Magne from Norway. I’ve got to say, everything you’ve heard about these Polish event is true. Windsurfing is BIG in Poland. Banners lined all of the streets with Steves face on it, the event site is massive, with stages, sponsor booths, cafe, media centre, and competitors rest area. Apparently Windsurfing is the second largest sport in Poland.

In the afternoon a 12 – 15 knot breeze came in, and against my brothers advice(about to graduate physiotherapy) I went for a sail. I was able to test my new fins, and was pretty happy with my speed against some of the other sailors. My leg was only a problem downwind on port, but by the end of the short session it was very swollen, and starting to turn blue.

Tammy’s efforts at Pobierowo has earned her a media pass in Leba so expect to see more of her great pictures on www.formulawindsurfing.org

Wednesday morning we awoke to the sad news that Graeme Morris had passed away after his battle with Cancer. Condolences to Brett, Ev, Grae and Scarlett. I know that all of our Windsurfing community will miss Graeme immensely.

The rest of Wednesday passed quite quickly with the gear shuffle down to the beach, registration, and then the opening ceremony. Live music and buffet dinner for all of the competitors. The opening ceremony also attracted many of the public to watch the festivities.

An light offshore wind was forecast for Thursday, and that’s exactly what we got. Very similar to our Westerlies ie extremely frustrating sailing. Over 100 men meant we were split into two seeding groups. The Women and my group(blue) were sent out first. The women got away, and just after the mens start the races were AP’ed which was a shame, as I was in a pretty good position. For the next 3 hours we were drifting around waiting for the wind to return, and just as they sent us back to the beach the wind came back.

Men’s Yellow fleet was sent out as we returned to the beach, and they had two good races. Meanwhile I was replacing the boom batten in my 11.8 which had broken during the first session. Just as I had finished Blue fleet was called to the water, which meant I’d missed lunch.

First gybe and the replacement batten had broken. A really tentative second row start, but I managed to make up a few spots on the first lap, somehow James is always my shadow on the race course, and we constantly traded tacks and gybes, but we were well down the fleet. The wind died on the second lap, and James and I were lucky to finish in the time limit.

The second race and again I held back for another second row start(I need to change this before it becomes a habit), so tacking off for the starboard lay line I made up a few places, but again James my “shadow” was right there. The wind died again on our second lap, with James finishing just in front of me, but I must have missed the time limit. I’m definitely finding it tough in this fleet, as not being 100% everything is just a bit harder. Sitting in 89th looks like I’ll be in Silver fleet.

Mean while Markus was having a good day sailing around in the top ten, and Sean not far behind. The day was dominated by the usual suspects Wojtek, Steve, as well as the rest of the top guys who had now arrived from Fuetre.

Friday’s forecast was for 20 – 25 knot westerlies. In the morning it looked as though it had blown out, and the first race was abandoned, but not long later it came back with a vengeance. A large steep swell had built up overnight from the storms blowing to the west of us, so I decided to live to fight another day, rather then risking further serious injury. I can say I wasn’t too envious of the guys racing, as conditions were really tough. So I played shore crew all day, swapping fins, carrying boards rig, and lending out my equipment. Surprisingly Jesper listened to some of my tuning advice which worked out pretty well for him : D The SAR guys were flat out all day performing multiple rescues every race, but some how poor James was missed with rig damage, and was left to swim ashore a couple of kilometres down the beach. Wojtek revelled in these conditions, but all of the minor placings were hard fought between the regulars with different winners every race in the opposite fleet. Sean finally hit some form and was finishing near the top ten most races.

Saturday’s forecast is not too good, and some possibility of racing on Sunday, so fingers crossed I’ll get some more races under my belt before the start of the Formula Europeans in Sopot next week.

Saturday and a surprise westerly wind 10 – 12 knots meant I would be able to race, and wouldn’t have to pump too much. So Gold fleet, followed by Women and then my fleet ,Silver. A pretty average start, and I was getting a bit of dirty air from the guys, in front, but somehow managed to hold my line while others in front tacked off. I rounded the top mark in the top five, and had cast off my shadow James. Downwind I lost a few of spots with an over lay, but on the second work, I gained some spots to get into sixth. Down wind I sailed a little deeper, out of the first gybe, and the last gybe into the mark I caught a wave and won the drag race to finish in FOURTH…..WOO HOO!!!!!!

The next race I again broke the boom batten for the third time, arrggghhh. The worst start you could imagine, multiple tacks getting across the line and falling in, I’d given the fleet a few minutes start. I caught up a few spots and didn’t finish last, but I wasn’t far from the end. Hero to zero in a very short space of time.

Sunday’s forecast was a little better, but we sat around all day waiting for wind. The AP was dropped to attempt a start, but was soon raised again. The event was over. Steve Allen in First Pavel Hlavaty in Second(he changed back to NP RSR) and Ross Williams in Third.

A huge closing ceremony with the “Stereo MC’s” and “Kosheen” the major acts, and then a Vodka supplied party all night, where all of the sailors let their hair down. It’s good to see that once the serious business is over, the whole fleet relaxes and celebrates together.

Formula Europeans – Sopot

The morning after – Monday, looked like there was a lot of sore heads about……

Around 2 pm we finally hit the road for Sopot. James was giving Tammy and I a lift. His GPS took us through some very narrow roads, and small country towns, finally getting to Sopot around 4 pm.

The windsurfing club in Sopot is very impressive. This is a Windsurfing club only, but would put many yacht clubs to shame with its range of facilities and infrastructure.

Registration, and then marking out our rigging territory, we’d found a great shaded spot for Markus, Sean, James and I.

Racing starts on Tuesday at 2 pm with a light wind forecast so that will suit me with my calf muscle improving every day, but still not anywhere near 100%