In the "Sailors confess" series, we confess our stupidest sailing mistakes. But we are also keen to hear your confessions. Send us your text, if possible with pictures, to mail@yacht.dekeyword "sailor's confession". If desired, publication will be anonymised.
Promotion to the league is perfect
As we all know, celebrations must be celebrated as they fall. This also applies to regatta successes. Like at last year's German Sailing League final on Lake Starnberg. I had argued in favour of attending the award ceremony in our club jumpers, but my suggestion was rejected by the crew and so I bowed to the majority opinion that our black Musto jackets would look more appropriate than our hoodies.
It took some time from the certainty that no-one would be able to dispute our promotion to the ceremony to which we were invited as the promoted team. We already had a cold drink or two. Eventually the corks popped and I got a few good showers of champagne. Luckily I was wearing my good oilskin!
The party episodes
Although I was already a little "beaming", I still managed to stow my clothes - the good sailing jacket and the rest of the expensive equipment - separately in a plastic bag in my bag. After "dressing up", we went to the official champions' party at the Bavarian Yacht Club. The party lasted well into the early hours of the morning.
As our team - apart from me - tends to be early birds in the morning, I was still in the van heading home to North Rhine-Westphalia before nine o'clock after the extensive party. Arriving home exhausted, I didn't manage to do anything else that Sunday apart from take a shower and go to the couch.
The surprise
Exactly two weeks after the league final, we wanted to set off together again: At least part of the team was planning to sail the Commodore Cup from Kiel to Travemünde. Although a nasty infection had knocked me out for almost a week and a half, during which I couldn't even think about sailing, I wanted to go. "I haven't been this ill for a long time, but of course I'll be there," I said. On Friday, when we were due to set off, I wanted to pack my bag.
The bag! Because of my illness, I had only put it in our garden shed as it was after the final. One look in the bag was enough: Sailing again with these clothes? Maybe. This weekend? No way! The contents of the bag - the Musto jacket, my trousers, my shirt and my cap were completely covered in a new pattern. White, green and blue - all the colours could be found on the plain black items. Although it wasn't warm in the garden shed in October, the wardrobe was infested with mould. And the stench! It almost made me retch.
The cap went straight into the bin and I tried to clean the rest with a brush - no chance. Other things had to be found for the weekend, the UV shirt was later also thrown in the bin and the oilskin could only be saved by cleaning it.
The moral of the story? If you can party, you can also work - with a brush...
