Last weekend the 2023-24 European Icesailing season was officially opened with the traditional week46 Regattas in Finland:
the Johnny Köhler Cup & All Saints Regatta.
Our very own Vice-Commodore, John Winquist (L601) was present as a competitor as well as an organiser and was kind enough to share a short report of the event:
We had three days of good racing in wind conditions varying from very light to gusting up to 10 m/s. 39 Sailors from five countries showed up: Finland (19 sailors), Poland (8), Sweden (8), Germany (3) and USA (1) were present.
Several sailors arrived early and had one or two training days on Lake Uljua before the Race Committee decided to arrange the Regattas at Säräisniemi, where wind predictions were better and Ice conditions were also good.
Racing started on Friday with the one-day Johnny Köhler Cup. The wind was fairly strong to begin with, gusting something like 8 m/s and dropping a little bit during the day. Ice was partially black and partially covered with snow. Most snow drifts were light and soft, but some of them were hard. Some sailors felt they presented a danger, as one found oneself airborne when unlucky enough to hit one.Due to the unfortunate nature of some of the snow drifts, the race committee decided to have a practice race to start with. Further more, the practice race was to be sailed in two fleets. Said and done. The worst drifts were marked, the sailors helped to smoothen out some of the semi-bad drifts and after the two practice starts sailing was deemed sufficiently safe and we commenced with the actual racing. The decision was also helped by the knowledge that the wind was supposed to go down a bit during the day.
In the end, we managed to get three races done. To the surprise of no one, Karol Jablonski was dominant, winning all three races despite the left-hand side of the course having a small advantage on the first upwind legs. Kardas and Zarnowski completed the Polish domination narrowly beating Berger (US5166), Lönegren (S8), and Winquist (L601).
On Saturday and Sunday racing commenced with the All Saints regatta. Wind on Saturday had come down from the previous day gusting around 5 m/s. Ice was more or less the same except the black parts were now covered with a hint of light snow. The wind was tricky, shifting in both direction and strength. Jablonski continued his domination again winning all races. This time all five of them. Followed by Kardas and Winquist.
Some sailors chose to sail on Medium sails all day, whereas others found Speed sails to be faster. Most sailors started with Flat sails and changed to fuller ones after the second or the third race.
Runners with long crowns (55-60cm) and 100° were fast. Some sailors also were fast with a 95° angle.
On Sunday we found that air was slightly damper and as a result, ice was a bit slower. The wind was dropping during the day, too. This made racing tricky, at times very slow and at times fast when in a gust.
Most sailors chose a fuller sail but there were successful races done on flat sails as well.
Long runner curves still worked, as long as the runners were not too sharp, although many sailors found it faster to use shorter curves.
We managed to get in three races until the wind more or less died on the last lap of the third race. So the race committee, not expecting the wind to come back, ended the regatta here.
The racing continues in Finland with the Independence Regatta (Itsenäisyysregatta) on Week49. For more info, visit icesailing.fi
To see all the regattas in the International DN Class Calendar, visit our Events Page: idniyra.eu/calendar
.