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.
For me, Kiel is the most beautiful city in Germany. Nowhere else is the water so close, the beaches so beautiful and the variety of sailing areas so great. I loved my student days and the vibe that surrounds the capital of Schleswig-Holstein. The people of Kiel are open, the student parties were great and every free minute was spent sailing or kitesurfing on the Baltic Sea.
I wanted to share this good fortune with a close friend from my home town of Heidelberg, who came to visit me for a long weekend. She was studying medicine in the south and had nothing to do with sailing - which I wanted to change.
The setting was perfect
The weather forecast for the May weekend was great. Sunshine and a westerly wind of around twelve knots. Perfect. We drove to the Olympic harbour in Schilksee, where "LetzFetz", a 470 that belonged to my brother and me, was moored on the apron. The harbour was busy, people were rigging up everywhere and there was a pleasant atmosphere. It was one of the first sunny, warm and windy weekends of the year and many sailors were out on the fjord. In addition, there were several regatta fields in front of the Bülker lighthouse, which a number of yachts and dinghies headed for.
We had no competition in mind and took it easy. We put on our neos and waistcoats. I also handed my friend a trapeze and explained to her what it was for and how she should put it on. She looked astonished when I explained that thanks to the harness, you could ride out with your whole body and sail the boat upright in gusts. Balancing on your toes on the edge of the boat. Wow, she was impressed.
The novice is inducted
Anyone who has ever sailed with a novice knows what follows: an introduction to the basic terms. Mast, boom, jib, sheet, halyard, downhaul, port, starboard, etc... You also know the overwhelmed look on the face of the chosen co-sailor, who is unsettled by the wealth of unfamiliar vocabulary for good reason.
The weather was great and I wanted to get on the water as quickly as possible. We rigged the 470 and pushed it over the ramp into the water. My girlfriend climbed in, I pushed us off and we sailed through the harbour out into the Baltic Sea.
But as soon as we had left the harbour entrance, I noticed that the easterly wind of the past few days had left behind a long swell that didn't look high from the shore, but looked considerable from the coaming of a dinghy. The now offshore westerly wind, which incidentally was blowing much stronger than just twelve knots, ironed the chop smooth - completely offshore - and made for perfect planing fun over the wave crests.
Sailing is marvellous!
It quickly became clear that my friend would spend most of our ride in the harness, which obviously got the adrenaline pumping through her bloodstream at the beginning of the ride. Marvellous! As the westerly wind was blowing over land, it was quite gusty and we often had to react quickly to avoid capsizing. We shot across the bay between Strande and Schilksee and had a lot of fun until it finally caught us. We capsized, and with force. While we were both swimming in the water, I realised that I hadn't prepared my inexperienced co-sailor for this eventuality because I was so excited about sailing.
Which wasn't particularly dramatic, as she remained impressively calm, we laughed and climbed onto the centreboard together to right the capsized "LetzFetz". We quickly managed to do so and were able to climb back on board. Once we had sorted ourselves out, we tightened the sheets and headed for Schilksee to fortify ourselves with coffee and cake and digest the spin cycle.
From now on it goes wrong
Unfortunately, the upper batten had broken during the capsize and torn parts of the mainsail. The wind was coming right from the front and had freshened up. Thanks to the broken sail, we were unable to gain any more height and struggled to avoid being driven further out into the Baltic Sea towards the Kiel lighthouse. After fighting hard and bravely for another two hours and the Olympic harbour just wasn't getting any closer, we thought about our options. Running off to Strande seemed like an easy option, but we wanted to get back to the car and our dry clothes. And by now we were also very desperate for something to eat! We were both exhausted.
In this state, we saw a small DGzRS rescue cruiser in the distance, whose course crossed ours and which was obviously coming from one of the regatta courses. We held our course and when we were within hailing distance of the cruiser after ten minutes, we pointed to our broken mainsail, whereupon the crew stopped and asked if we needed help. Yes, we gladly accepted the help. They towed us into the harbour entrance, we hoisted the sails and paddled the last 200 metres. Thank you DGzRS!
Insights
In hindsight, it was reckless to sail so far out onto the fjord in offshore winds with a beginner who had never sailed a planing dinghy before. I had also relied on the weather forecast in my naive anticipation. Back then - this little sailing episode was around 20 years ago - there were hardly any smartphones, no wind finder, Windy or anything similar. The weather and wind forecast for sailors and for the weekend was available in the newspaper or on the radio and was nowhere near as precise as we know it today. Unimaginable from today's perspective!
Of course, there was also a bit of bad luck involved. Capsizing when sailing a planing dinghy is part of it, but almost never breaks a batten. This happens when the wind picks up strongly and comes from exactly the wrong direction - Murphy's Law, of course.
We were in no real danger, because we could have called at Strande or Marina Wendtorf.
And my friend from home? She later even got a sailing licence at her university. All's well that ends well.
It's great that you exist, DGzRS!
