Saturday was initially characterised by light wind conditions. Thomas Edom, head of RC sailing in the DSV and race director of the IDM, showed strong nerves: "We certainly won't start shooting lottery races, especially at a German championship." Especially in a championship, you have to be patient until the conditions allow for fair racing. And he was proved right, as was the weather forecast: it was possible to sail on Saturday afternoon after all.
On Friday evening, the regatta had to be postponed due to a thunderstorm front. Races were then sailed on Saturday afternoon and Sunday. On the last day of the regatta, it came down to the big showdown: Torsten Fildebrandt from the Association of Model Yacht Sailors (VdMYS) went into the last race with just a one-point lead. However, his first place in the final race ensured that Fildebrandt was able to secure the German championship title in the IOM for the third time in a row. Second and third place went to Norbert Heinz from the Segler-Vereinigung-Wuppertal (SVWu) and Peter Tans from the Netherlands.
"Unlike in virtually all other classes, we don't work with flag or sound signals in RC sailing," says Thomas Edom. Only the starting procedure is played by a megaphone, the rest of the announcements are made virtually "on call". Ebon stands in the middle of the crowd of sailors on the jetty during the races. Judging is carried out using the "direct judging" method. If a sailor wants to complain about another sailor, he does so directly on the jetty. During the races, regatta participants regularly want to have the behaviour of their competitors checked.
They then shout "Protest, your own sail number, against your opponent's sail number". Edom and Marcus Stein, the IOM Sailing Class Officer, then act as referees. In most cases, however, the sailors sort themselves out after the protest call. Nevertheless, they do sometimes express their displeasure. "I don't know why you're protesting, but then I'll just turn a kringle for you," is one of the things that echoes over the head of the jetty during a race on Saturday afternoon.
We will soon be reporting in more detail on RC sailing and the IDM of the IOMs at Lake Dümmer in a major report.
