Well, we have just got back from the 7th Hanse Cup in Greifswald and thought the website visitors would be interested in getting an UK perspective on the Regatta and I hope we manage to create some enthusiasm for more foreign entries next year.

For those of you who don’t know about the Cup, the Hanse Cup is an annual regatta for all Hanse Yachts sailed in the waters around Greifswald (Baltic) and starting at the Hanse Yard. The Regatta started on the 4th September and took us around the Island of Ruegen to finish (again at Greifswald) on the 7th September. The format is very informal, and the only sail combination allowed is mainsail and self-tacking jib. No spinnakers, no cruising chutes, no genoas etc (you get the picture). A rough handicap system allows for minor adjustments e.g. deep keel, fixed or folding prop and starts are split into 2 groups: the “big” boat group of 331, 341, 371 and 411 and the “small” boat group of 291, 301 and 311.

Now, how did we end up entering a regatta in Germany? Primarily, we sail our Hanse 311 Lady McG on the River Medway (UK) and we have, over the years, established a “racing team” of 5 who come out with us regularly to take her around the cans. We found out about the Cup through the organiser’s excellent web-site (http://www.hansecup.org/, only available in German) and decided that this would be one for us. So we investigated chartering a 311 in Greifswald and entering her into the Cup! This was actually easier than we thought as firstly a lot of charter-yachts around Greifswald are Hanses and secondly once they find out you have got your own Hanse they don’t mind you putting their charter-yachts into the Regatta.

We have also had a lot of support from Peter and Hanse UK who shipped our own sails and some gear over to Greifswald and provided us with some fancy Polo shirts to emphasise our “Hanse UK” connection. So all we had to do was get there.

After getting up at 3.00am to catch a Ryanair flight from Stansted to Luebeck we had to catch 4 different trains and 2 taxis to arrive at the Yard in Greifswald at 2.30pm, which only shows that the German train network is more reliable than the UK system as we managed to get there on the same day!

We spent the first one and a half days taking all unnecessary gear off the charter boat (“Arielle”) and putting our “go-faster” sails on. We were ready to go. Friday evening started the event off with a free spit roast dinner and lots of German beer courtesy of the Hanse Yard. Of course there was lots of talk about Hanses, tuning, strategy, handicap and anything else related to sailing and the regatta. All this happened while they were (still) building the next generation of Hanses in the neighbouring production units. I can tell you that it is a very busy yard. The woodworking workshop (right next to our berth) was busy 24/7.

Saturday (Day1)
As we were basically living within the Yard, we had a shower in the staff showers and then a very good breakfast in the canteen. After that, it was time for business. The Regatta started with a short Skipper’s meeting and after that, the whole fleet made down the River Ryck for about 3 miles to catch the lifting bridge opening at 10:00am. After that we gained open water (our first sight of the Baltic) and we were ready for the start. We were the first group to start, and had some considerable confusion about the start line on board “Arielle” as we are used to huge orange inflatable markers and as it turned out the marker used at Greifswald was even smaller than the usual East Coast lobster-pot flag! Needless to say our first start wasn’t the best one, but we got away about halfway down our group. What followed was probably the best light wind sailing I have ever done: about 20ºC, no cloud to be seen, 8 to 10kn of wind and a long beat in no tides. It was all about wind-shifts and the favourite site of the course. We opted to stay more towards the starboard site of the course, which ended up to be the right decision, even though we should have gone further in and tacked longer, but without local knowledge we decided it would be safer not to go to extremes. It was fascinating to go on a tack for 15 or 20 minutes, totally losing sight of your opponents and than meet them again in close quarter situations on the next tack, when you, would find out if you had gained or lost 10 seconds on them. We had some wonderful battles with the other 311s in the fleet. Unfortunately, because of the light winds and the total distance to our next destination, the race committee had to shorten the course to allow us to sail (or motor) directly to Sassnitz on the Isle of Ruegen. Arielle came 18th overall (out of 40) and 6th in our group (out of 14) which we thought a reasonable result for our first outing. However, one thing had already become apparent most yachts had a folding prop fitted (we didn’t) and the handicap system underestimated the negative impact of drawing a bucket behind you.

Sunday (Day 2)
This time we knew where the start line was, but a 371, which shall remain nameless, sat right in the middle of the start line (exactly where we wanted to tack to) 10 seconds before the gun, and forced us to jibe instead and we ended up all the way down to leeward of the fleet. This was already bad news as again in bright sunshine and light winds, every second counted. Having started all wrong, we took our time settling into a sensible rhythm towards the windward marker and lost more valuable time. After rounding the windward mark we had to settle on a run for about 3 hours on the same jibe. We found it hard to concentrate after the night we had, with the light winds and no spinnaker to play with so we had a couple of bad calls when the bigger boats overtook us which saw us dropping even further down the leader board: Arielle came 23rd overall and 9th in our Group. Again the course had to be shortened and we made our way to Kloster on the Island of Hiddensee, which clearly was the gem of the tour. Hiddensee is the picture-postcard island of the region. It is only accessible by ferry or watertaxi and is a car-free zone! All transport between the little villages on the island is made by horse and cart. Again the dinner was provided for by Hanse, but the drinks had to be paid for, which did not stop us to make a heavy night of it at all.

Monday (Day 3)
We were settling down into a fine routine: waking up with a headache, blue sky and sunshine, shower, breakfast, skipper meeting and we were off! However, this time there was no wind at all, and the race committee decided to have an up-and-down race closer to our destination to take advantage of the sea-breeze building up. And indeed we managed to get some exciting up and down action. It only lasted one hour but it was much closer to what we are used to at home, with a lot of shouting around the marks and all sorts of close quarter battles between 40 boats on a stretch of less than a mile between the two marks. As you probably know by now we do have some difficulties with the starts. We had just worked out that port was the preferred corner and started to make our way over there when the wind died a little and we never made it. So, again, late at the start in the middle of the line on port tack gave us a lot of catching up to do, but catching-up we did and came 18th overall and 5th in class.

On our way towards Stahlbrode, our destination for the night, we decided to anchor and go for a swim as we had time on our hands until the bridge opening at Strahlsund which was scheduled for 17:00. We left the main channel and motored towards the shore on the Ruegen side, when we spotted a wooden boat very close inshore with somebody waving frantically. We saw 2 people waving through our binoculars and it looked like the yacht was hard aground. We decided to move in to take a closer look and after some careful navigation which showed that we could get very close to the yacht without endangering ourselves we ran aground too (mental note: Must brush up on taking bearings). However, our engine was strong enough to get us off and we anchored about ½ mile offshore of the casualty. One of the crew and I swam over with a rope attached to ourselves, which as it worked out was not needed as we managed to get them off by dangling on the end of their boom. The skipper and his crew (and elderly German couple) could not believe that a whole fleet of yachts and their support vessels sailed by without stopping and the only help they received was from the only (quasi) British boat of the fleet. Anyway, they got some whisky and beers out and we celebrated their rescue for a while, which was very handy as we had been out of beer for quite some time (only one bottle per person per day because of the weight, we are a racing team remember).

The race committee had also decided to have a special event on our way to Stahlbrode and requested all entries to come up with some special performance once we had cleared the bridge and were sailing past the committee boat. We were wracking our brains to come up with something typically British and were at a loss for quite some time. The only performance which repeatedly offered itself symbolising Brits abroad had to be a “moony”, and mooning we did: 3rd prize for our performance, this was the best result we have had so far! We were only beaten by a steering dog (on a wheel steered boat), and some mad people dancing on deck with clothes made out of beer bottles!

At night the usual, wonderful food lots of beer and a late night.

Tuesday (Day 4)
Our last day of racing! I now think I could do this forever (apart from the lack of sleep). Blue sky, light winds, bad start (we had got used to that by now) and a lovely sail down the Strahlersund. Like the first day, it was all a question of picking the right side of the course. We decided on port this time and were right again. However, the wind was from behind and there was only so much you could do without a spinnaker. The big guys started overtaking us and we were sitting in a lot of dirty wind which did not help our overall score. However, we did have some good fun with the other 311s trying to get past us (fixed prop v. folding prop syndrome). The result was OK: 23rd overall and 8th in our group. We went back through the bridge and up the River Ryck to the Hanse Yard and the final prize giving.

Prize-giving
As you probably have already gathered, we did not expect to be at the podium during the prize giving, and were pleasantly surprised when we were given a special prize for the crew who made the most effort to attend the regatta. We were given a wonderful picture book about sailing and the sea. The final results and prizes were:

Big boat Group: Hanse 331 Morgenstern
Small boat Group: Hanse 311 Anika II
Best Charter Yacht: Hanse 341 Blue Wave

Out final results were:

Overall: 22nd
Our Group: 6th
Charter Yacht: 3rd
311s: 3rd

Generally, we were quite pleased with our results. We had hoped to win the charter yacht competition, but the two yachts ahead of us were both 2003 models with a folding prop (341 and 371) whereas Arielle was one of the earliest 311. A fine ship by all means and in very good order, but several years of charter had left their marks. However, we did have a fabulous time and really appreciate the efforts that the Hanse Yard, the ladies and gentleman of the support vessels (Bounty and Sayonara) and the race committee (Roland Michael) put into this. Not to forget the money Hanse and the event’s sponsors have spent to subsidise it all. Anyway, to end all this with a quote from a famous "German speaking” gentleman: “ I will be back!”

Big, big thank you!
I would also like to take this opportunity to thank a lot of people (and organisations) who helped us to make this happen:

Hanse UK, who supported us with logistic help and introduced us to the right people in Greifswald. http://www.hanseyachts.co.uk/

Hanse Germany, who seamlessly integrated us into their daily life and specially Anke Reinert who organised this event and still found time to support us “Brits” with our special needs. http://www.hanseyachts.com/2004/

Yachtcharter Gruenke, for letting us “optimise” Arielle with our sails and gear and who were letting us sleep on random yachts in the Marina while we were waiting for Arielle to arrive and while we were working on her. http://yc-gruenke.de/

Sue and Nicola, who I have not mentioned at all, were our shore team and followed us by car to each location to provide: moral support, food, cash (not many cash machines in this part of the world), spare parts (the crew loves dropping things over the side) etc.

Wendel & Rados: Dietmar was looking after our sails until we arrived and is looking after them now until they deliver the next boat to the UK. Dietmar is also a very keen sailer on his 291 and a sailmaker! So if any of you need some “go faster” sails Dietmar is the man to talk to. I doubt you find anyone more knowledgeable about Hanse yachts than him. W&R do all rigging work for Hanse! http://www.yachtausruester.de/

And last but not least Marval Marine, who as our sponsor contributes to our outings wherever we go. They provide a wide range of services, general valeting, anti fouling and the unique Marine A Glaze polymer coating. http://www.marvalservices.com/

Lessons learned:
1. We will not only take our own sails but also our own prop next year.
2. One beer per person per day while racing is not enough.
3. It helps to be at the start line at the gun (not miles away).
4. Sauerkraut prevents scurvy.
5. Germans are very friendly.
6. The Baltic around Greifswald is one of the best sailing areas in the world.
7. It never rains in Germany.
8. Hanse Yachts are wonderful sailing boats.
9. Germans in the Baltic tend to sail naked.
10. Billy the Barnacle and his friends are not going to be invited next year.
11. German beer is better than English beer.
12. Even German beer gives you a headache in the morning (subject to quantity)

If you can, go there and do it, it was one of the best things I (we) have ever done.

Heiko Schupp
Hanse 311 “Lady McG”

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19. September 2003