News / Program

Sail-on Finished Second !!!

Thu, 16 Jul 2009 10:17:14 +0200

Yes! After 4 days, 4 hours & 5 minutes we crossed the finish Line :)

We had a nice match racing style last 24 hours with Flicka 4 who was able to finish 1 minute & 40 second before us (well done guys), it all looked nice until let’s say 25 Nm before the finish; the wind changed direction from NW into NE, meaning we had to tack our way into the finish.
As Sail-on is not really made for upwind conditions we realized that we needed a miracle to maintain our first spot...

First Three Monohulls who crossed the finish line:
1 Flicka 4 (Open 45)
2 Sail-on (Class 40)
3 Merena (Class 40)

Some Facts:
Our first day didn’t went well, Upwind conditions up to Bf 5 (Gusts 6), our ballast System wasn’t working (so we had to sail at least 16 Hours without water in our Ballast tanks ) lost well over 25 Nm during that period, I think at that time we where the last boat who reached the English Coast.
Gaining something back, that was our Goal, we took some nice options & managed to clime from the last spot somewhere into the top 15.
Rounding White, maybe we went in there the wrong way, never the less rounding the island as we did put us into Closed Reaching & Reaching conditions after passing the Needles. And that’s what we needed.
Passing Nap Towers, I think it's there that we came into the Top 10.
Down to Sark, we did it a bit different then some others in the fleet, resulting in gaining a few spots again.
Arriving at the Alderny Race we had current against us, wind against us...
Everybody knows never try to enter there against current, but going around would take some extra hours, so we decided to try our Luck, for those of you who don’t really know the current between Alderny & France : the water can reach up to 14 knots tidal stream there and we arrived 3 hours too early!! Meaning we where sailing upwind 10 knots on our log (Speed trough water) & reach 0 knots (Speed over ground) So we where parked well over 2 hours there.
Then we had to Tack our way up to Sark, heavy conditions where forecasted, wind 25 up to 35 knots, I have seen some gusts around the 40 knots during that night. High seas ( up to 4 meters I guess ), a broken reef line, but everything worked as planned. Rounded Sark, & back to Newport :)
This had to be our day, heavy conditions but from behind, these are the conditions that Sail-on Loves. To give you guys an idea, from Alderny to the button of Sark took us well over 8 hours, but way back up took us maybe 2 hours ? :) We surfed our way back up into the Channel with full main & Solent, later that day the genaker went up & stayed there for at least 16 hours ( winds up to 35 knots ). Did some well over 25 knots surfs that day, this was great sailing. Our goal, taking this conditions as long as possible & try to reach spot 1 in the ranking, & that’s what we did.
Arriving at the Capes Ranking 1 with Flicka 4 right behind us.
Course 520nm as known, we had to sail 797 Nm ( average of 8,29 knots), and after 4 days, 4 hours & 5 minutes, we safely crossed the finish line.

Thanks to you all for the great support!

Bye for now.

Best,
Markus, Vera & Christophe.

Sail-on Ready for NCR 2009

Sat, 11 Jul 2009 10:58:38 +0200

Preparations done, minor issues solved, ready to go.  Start will be Sunday july the 12th at 3 pm Local Time. 
Course 520nm non stop:
Nieuwpoort - Sail to Oostende - Round Island of Wight - Leave Island of Sark BB - Return to Nieuwpoort.  Double handed this time:
Skipper: Markus Hackenjos Co-Skipper: Christophe Bleyenheuft

Follow the race @ Nieuwpoort Channel Race

 

Bye for now.

Best,
Markus

Start Wednesday July 9th 10.02u !!

Wed, 9 Jul 2008 00:32:12 +0200

Start will be held yes... today at 10.02u.

Course will be:
Nieuwpoort - Middelkerke Bank - Ruytingen - CS4 - Galopper - Twin - Ruytingen - Thorton - Nieuwpoort.
160nm & approximate 60nm upwind.
Weather looks moderate to stormy......
As we had this collision with another boat on Sunday’s course we will not be able to run any big sails as we lost our bow-sprit ( more details to follow on this incident !!! )
but anyway if the wind keeps up to 5 BF we probably are not going to need any big sails :)

Keep you posted....

Follow this race ?? Please visit the NCR 2008 website directly. NCR 2008 photo Gallery, click here ( we try to add each day some nice pictures )
 Best,
Markus

Start postponed for the Second time :)

Mon, 7 Jul 2008 23:50:57 +0200

Because of the not expected storm we have right now, gusts up to 40 to 50 knots the race organization decided to postponed the start again. Second time that this happens, but believe me you don’t want to be out there right now, upwind conditions with waves up to 4 meters & more. As it looks today we could start on wednesday july the 9th, the forecast shows us 5 to 6bf SW to WSW & decreasing.
But because of the fact that we are running 3 days later then planned by then, they also decided to short the race down to approximate 150 Nautical Miles, we are getting more details on the exact course no later then tomorrow i guess.
We also found our 4th crew member today !!! Geert Leurs will compete this smaller leg together with Thierry, Christophe & Myself.
Keep you posted on that.
Follow this race ?? Please visit the NCR 2008 website directly. NCR 2008 photo Gallery, click here ( we try to add each day some nice pictures )
 Best,
Markus