Andre Bernheim, SUI 182, writes: First of all the positive: the four-day event was very successful. The Yacht Club Spiez gave everything. On land we lacked nothing, very efficient launching, helpful and friendly service in the club, and the race management always sent us out on the water at the right time, with a lot of sensitivity for the wind, and brought us back to the port without sitting out there for nothing. Many thanks to all helpers. The town of Spiez, the pretty bay and the great view - if the weather allowed it - of the iconic mountains made our stay very pleasant.
The wind, the wind ... it was weak for all four days. But we could sail with a lot of sensitivity, not move too fast around the boat, tack as little as possible, and still take advantage of the larger wind shifts. Unfortunately, only seven Swiss boats took part, but thanks to four foreign teams, two from The Bahamas, one from Poland and one from Germany, 11 boats were present. Ali Baba (GER Wolf-Eberhard Richter, Beata Kallkowski, Wolfgang Schreiber), the only Evolution taking part, was able to win a race. I would like to thank all the foreign teams from the bottom of my heart for making the very long journey to us. Without these boats we could hardly have carried out these regattas.
Class Championship
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The class championship from 3-4 June was clearly won after five races by Ali-Baba (BAH 1, Craig Symonette, Flavio Marazzi, William Alloway), ahead of Marie-Françoise XV (SUI 217, Jürg Menzi, Jürgen Eiermann, Christof Wilke), (Jack Frei’s boat, since Jürg’s boat burned down in winter storage) and New Moon II (BAH 24, Mark Holowesko, Christoph Burger, Peter Vlasov).
On Day 1, Marie-Françoise XV took the early lead after two very light wind races. After winning the opening race, Marie-Françoise XV placed second in the next race to lead overnight from second race winner Ali-Baba. Ali Baba were second overall from New Moon II. The third race was cancelled, as the wind was too light.
Then On Day 2, wind problems made for a slow and long day. It was a difficult day with three painful races and a return to the harbour after 7pm. The first two races were painfully slow, with boat speed between under 3 knots.
Ali-Baba took the first win of the day to take the overall lead before the other Ali Baba (GER Wolf-Eberhard Richter, Beata Kallkowski, Wolfgang Schreiber) won the second.
After a long break and then a 180 degree wind shift, a third race was sailed in almost 7 knots of breeze. European champions, Aspire (POL 17, Mateusz Kusznierewicz, Przemysław Gacek, Simon Fry) took the win, but another great second place for Abi-Baba left them at the top of the leaderboard. Second overall and first Swiss boat, Marie-Françoise XV had a tough day with 4-11-4, while New Moon II picked up a 2-3-5 to end the day in third.
As the fleet returned to the Spiez harbour a monster thunderstorm rumbled in to welcome the tired sailors with a torrential downpour and hail.
No racing was possible on the Saturday for the final races of the Swiss Championship, or the start of the Eco Challenge, with very little wind and rain, though a few starts were attempted.
Eco Challenge
The subsequent Eco-Challenge on 5-6. June went to Mateusz's team with a Polish 1-1, unfortunately after only two races were possible. Ali-Baba (BAH 1) came in second, Pungin (SUI 213 Hans-Peter Schmid, Walter Dürr, Gilbert Dürr) came in third. Bravo and congratulations to everyone.
The organized evening programmes were attended by almost all sailors, which of course makes me very happy as President, as I consider social issues to be very important. On Thursday we ate an excellent and very lavish buffet with all kinds of grilled dishes and a very long salad buffet in the fully renovated Rohrmoos farmhouse, which is over 250 years old. It was really excellent. On Friday we organized an extended aperitif in the club, and many sailors stayed in the club for the chicken curry afterwards, despite the violent thunderstorms. We spent Friday evening together at the Italian restaurant da Elio's in the harbour, the atmosphere and the food were very good. I was very happy that Jack and Barbara Frei came especially to spend a few hours with us.
As a farewell, the Yacht Club Spiez has prepared a farewell present for all sailors on my behalf: a pretty bag with a 5.5 mm engraved wooden cheese board, a local half cheese and two bottles of local beer.
Many thanks to all the teams for coming to Spiez, for the fair sailing and the cozy get-together. I hope that such occasions are also a motivation that more 5.5s will come to future regattas.
Results on this website (PDF)
Manage2Sail Class Championship
Extensive photo gallery available on Flickr
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