Musto Skiff Eurocup
Report: Kristiansand, Norway 1-2 Sept 2012
Report : Rolf Nossum
Photos : Renathe Haugen renathe.haugen@me.com
 During
the first weekend of September, Kristiansand at the
southern tip of Norway played host to the Musto Skiff
Eurocup, in conjunction with the Norwegian Open Dragon
Championship.
Seven Mustos started, five local boats and two German
ones.
The first racing day dawned with clear
skies and very light airs, making the committee boat
fly the postponement flag for the better part of an
hour into the designated racing time.
Then a westerly breeze rose and quickly
built up to 6 m/s allowing the fun to begin, with the
top mark about 1NM from the starting line. The competent
race officials interleaved the Mustos with the Dragons
in a quick succession of alternating starts, and by
the end of the day, each class had had four races.
The visiting German sailors, Florian Kemper in GER347
and Iver Ahlmann in GER370, proved to be in a league
of their own, taking the top two places in each race.
The next morning served up sparkling conditions
with a steady westerly breeze which increased to about
8 m/s during the day.
Five Mustos lined up that day, and again the visiting
German boats took the lead, relegating the local fleet
to third place and below in each of four races.
By the end of racing, Iver and Florian
were tied with four wins and four second places each,
Florian prevailing due to a tiebreaking win in the last
race. Geir Odmar Heldal in NOR463 took third place overall.
After the prizegiving ceremony,
Florian and Iver gave a "debriefing session",
answering questions and offering advice to novice and
aspiring Mustoskiffers. A much appreciated gesture!
Race
results >>>
"The visiting sailors perspective
(Iver Ahlmann)
Geir and Gunnar are regular visitors to
the north German fleet and so it was natural for me
to enter the Christiansand EuroCup to return the visit.
As the weekend came closer, the logistical overhead
of driving from Germany to Norway for a weekends' sail
started dawning on me. As it later turned out, none
of that was justified. Not only was the journey efficient
- the ferry from Denmark lands one kilometre from the
Yacht Club. It was also cost effective thanks to Geir
helping us get massively reduced ferry tickets. The
journey was also very enjoyable as you get a 3 hour
mini cruise on the North See. Once we were there we
were greeted with the finest in Norwegian hospitality
including ferry terminal pickup, a place to stay and
cooked breakfast every morning!
Sailing-wise, the venue is nothing short
of spectacular and very suited for skiff sailing. Christiansand
is a huge natural harbour with good protection from
the very rough North Sea. That way, one gets sea-like
wind conditions in combination with very controllable
sea-states. Even more surprising it is to see that dinghy
sailing is only attracting moderate attention in Chrisitansand.
The Musto Skiff is, with three local boats, the most
wide-spread dinghy!
Big thanks go to Gunnar, Geir and Rolf
for their great hospitality and for getting so many
local boats onto the start line.
All up it was a hugely enjoyable
weekend, and we look forward to an even bigger event
next year!"
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