JABBADABBADOO Wins The Party!
(Travemunder, Germany)- in the first weekend of August, the J/22 German class hosted their renowned Travemunder Woche Party--- er, sailing regatta. Here's an amusing story from Team JABBADABBADOO that hail from the Netherlands J/22 fleet, daring to venture across the border, trailer their boat after the J/22 Worlds to parts unknown up north where different tribes of J/22 sailors lurk, awaiting in the shallows to launch an ambush on unsuspecting sailors who haven't cracked a smile in weeks (if not years!). Here's JABBADABBADOO's report-"From all the German J/22 sailors, we had heard that we had to go to the Travemunder Woche to party and sail this huge event. So nicely convinced by them, we packed our JABBADABBADOO! and went to Germany!
We even convinced our favorite German sailor to join us (and even more important) to train us- "Welcome on board of the JABBADABBADOO Mssr. Falko! And training we needed, from rigging to trimming to maneuvers.
The first day brought wind, a lot of wind-- our cowboy attitude in hoisting the spinnaker was instantly punished-- we broached big-time, and we went swimming (a complete Stan and half a Nadine), "J down for the count", we're in the water, but Falko was already at the spinnaker halyard, rescuing us, our J/22 and keeping our third place in the race! Lessons learned-- release the spinnaker, don't panic, and enjoy the ride, the J will be up in 20 seconds!
With a third and a ninth place we were completely happy with that day, having already exceeded all our expectations. Time to celebrate with all the other J sailors on board the beautiful four-masted ship PASSAT and later for cocktails and music to the Travemunder Party (all promises proved true-- it is an excellent place to sail AND to party)!Two more days ahead and we started the second day again with more wind than predicted (but thankfully a bit less than the day before). After a 5th place (involving some more swimming crew-members) we went on with a steep learning curve, leading to an incredible (for us) second and first place in our J/22.
We celebrated this in all forms at the end of this day with a BBQ organised by the class association (yummmy, such nice Bratwurste) and well deserved German beer!
The third racing day brought no wind and we could just enjoy the sail (and tow back).
It was such a great weekend, a superb party, a fantastic sail and even more important great company on our boat, but also on shore with all the other J/22 sailors!
And we know that we have so much to "thank" Falko who coached us perfectly and proved to us that our boat can be fast and point! The race results were great, but the learning curve thanks to Falko's training was much more important to us. Thank you!" Most respectfully, Team JABBADABBADOO- Nadine Fritz, Audrey Paterson, Stan Heltzel und Falko Braun- pictured here. Team website- http://jabbadabbadoo.eu/ For more Travemunde Woch Regatta sailing information.