ÖSTERSJÖMARAN - BALTIC MARATHON 2007
The challenge!

“One boat and two sailors, the racecourse of 550 Nm. You will not know if it takes You 3 or 6 days before the finish line is cleared!”


This was basically the “thing” which got me interested in this double handed race because it’s something different from the usual club racing and the typical offshore races in Finland and Sweden. Our boat VindUngen, Finngulf 28e, seemed suitable to be competitive managed in various conditions on the Baltic Sea by two sailors. Luckily my sailing fellow Jori Kaunisto had this same idea and we found our selves on the starting list after a couple of years joking about participating. A few main things have to be in order to make this kind of a race sound and safe. First you have to rely on the boat and equipment on board. I have done 12000 Nm with VindUngen since launching her in year 2000, a family cruiser which has logged more than half of the miles on race courses. Secondly the sailing mate has to be somebody you really can rely on in all circumstances with good knowledge of the boat and life aboard. Jori has sailed along with VindUngen all the way and is usually hiking on our Star boat so he was happy to sail a boat which is dry even in choppy seas. This year the Baltic Marathon was sailed for the 13: th time and the host club Oxelösunds Segelsällskap managed the arrangements with confidence for the 8: th time in a row. The start was the 10th of June in Oxelösund, Sweden, followed by rounding the lighthouse Gustaf Dahlén from where the course heads towards South to Klintehamn, Christiansö (Denmark), Hanö, which are the rounding marks before the lighthouse Gustaf Dahlén again and finally the finish line in Oxelösund. During the day before start we had a safety inspection where no remarks where found. I found it not surprising due to the equirements for safety equipment according ISAF Special regulations, cat. 3 are as basic safety equipment on VindUngen, only the life raft has to be carried onboard for these offshore races. The skippers meeting included presentations about safety on sea by Sjösäkerhetskomppaniet and a long term weather forecast by SMHI. The safety lection got us through the main tasks about staying onboard, matters to consider if rescued by a helicopter or entering the life raft. The importance of water to avoid dehydrating, you need more than 4 litres per day, was a surprise for the most of the sailors and to disappoint You all that can’t be beer. The weather forecast did not give us any unpredictable weather fronts coming up except a local low pressure in Southern Baltic in Tuesday afternoon with 10m/s wind and gusts up to 15m/s. The UV-radiation was considered quite strong so effective sun protection should be needed. The evening was rounded up with a dinner at the OXSS clubhouse together with the other participants.


Sunday 10th of June, Oxelösund,1300
The race has begun! We decided to start on port tack due to the favored end of the line and managed to slip in front of all our competitors that way. During next two hours we had to look back for the other boats but then finally when the wind angle opened up to reach we had not enough of waterline in the light breeze. When rounding the lighthouse Gustaf Dahlén we tacked and started to sail close hauled towards Klintehamn in Gotland. Decided to sail on without spinnaker even the wind angle opened during the night and had the rest of the fleet struggling with their spinnakers heading 20-30degrees too low.


Monday 11th of June, Klintehamn, 0530
Up with the spinnaker! In a wonderful summer morning with Easterly gentle winds we started the chase with the spinnaker laying 11th over all at the rounding, 41 minutes to the leader. This leg of approx. 170 Nm will be the most difficult we taught due to the weather forecast giving us a bumpy ride later on towards Christiansö when the SW fills in during Tuesday. Before that we managed very well catching up on the ones ahead of us, wind angles allowing spinnaker to be set are the most powerful for these Stråhlman designed boats. In the evening we had already the SW wind and tacked south after dropping the spin. Waves are building up quite rapidly and the frequency of these makes living onboard uncomfortable, it gets impossible to sleep inside the boat due to the noise of all the pottery in the galley slamming around together with the bounces “free falling off the waves”. Sleeping was most pleasant on the cock-pit floor where it was “silent” and dry dressed up in foul weather gear and hooked up on the life line, as all the time during the race. The last 120Nm to Christiansö beating against the waves and wind, according the prognoses, was not our best leg even we gave “maximum attack” wondering how fun it really was on board the flat bottomed J80 in these circumstances. On this leg one boat did drop their rig overboard when the forestay ripped off the deck and because of the rough seas one other decided to give up.


Tuesday 12th of June, Christiansö, 2330
Rounding the small island Christiansö in darkness was a relief as the course would go north and we would have a smoother ride with a more pleasant wind angles further on. At these point we where 10th in the fleet, 3h 47min to first. Fishermen had trigged their fish traps around the island and we made several last second turns to avoid the nets. Impossible to know which side of the flag to choose when the other one could not bee seen, black flags are not very visible in darkness. Later on in the finish we heard that these nets are usually surface nets, luckily we had avoided these Danish “boat traps”. As it was dark and we turned homeward we celebrated this with one cold beer to cheer among the crew, as tradition requires on board VindUngen in overnight races.

Wednesday 13th of June, Hanö, 0645
After a nice ride reaching with average speed of 6,8 knots we reported the Hanö rounding in the morning, standing 11th, 3h 42min to leading boat. The night had been simply sailing on rhumb line except for the incident with a huge rusty freight vessel which presented a “90 degree hand brake turn” for us. We made a clear change in our course in good time to keep clear from this monster, our policy with freight vessels was not to get even close to them. Probably somebody did spill coffee on his pants when the radar started beeping and without any insight what was going on grabbed the panic brake. A bit like the match race pre-start chasing procedure but this time David and Goliath. Now the sailing really starts when we expect to have the spinnaker flying all the way to finish line.


Wednesday 13th of June, Kloten, 1130
Nice downwind sailing with good surfing hitting the 10 knots barrier frequently. Reporting at the Kloten buoy, North of Utklippan gives us a hint of what we can achieve by active spinnaker sailing, standing 4th, 4h 27min to leading boat. There are 7 boats within one hour in corrected times on this point. We have to take a decision now how to manage the 90Nm long Öland island. We have no actual knowledge if the Kalmarsund between Sweden and Öland or the Baltic Sea outside of the island would be better, we decide to take the Kalmarsund because it’s 6 Nm shorter. The shallower water makes the sea hard to manage in 10-12 m/s winds with the spinnaker. I have to admit that I’m not in shape to handle the boat with full sails and trying to wake up Jori seems to be nearly impossible, he usually gets on deck in a minute or two, this time he simply slept further. What to do when can’t let off the tiller and can’t keep the boat in control? Dropping the kite and continuing with the main and jib was the solution, still doing 9kn in surfs but much more comfortable.


Thursday 14th of June,
Lighthouse Gustaf Dahlén, 1625
Sailing through Kalmarsund during the night was easy going even if the wind did play its own games occasionally and decided not to blow at all. We had the companion of our competitor Impuls, Avance 33, all the way through the Kalmarsund which was sailed well by Gösta Stavre and Hans Lindberg. I have to thank them for sparring us through the spots without wind during the night time, without them we probably would have parked for an additional hour or two. When sunrise arrived also the wind got awake starting from NE strengthening to SSW 9-12 m/s during the morning. The kite flew up and VindUngen was “screaming” again, the “screaming” is typical when the log hits 10 knots. What a lovely noise. Once again it was time for “maximum attack” and the sleep was nothing to consider because when you put the spinnaker sheet in the cleat you probably end up in a flogging broach. So we sat on for the whole day enjoying the ride hitting almost the 13kn barrier several times, this was the result of sailing a few hours with only main and jib collecting strengths yesterday. Vindungen was really doing progress at this stage. Since Kloten 190Nm back, we had enjoyed a couple of coffee breaks with no wind and no speed, still our average speed for this leg ended up on approximately 6,6 knots during 29 hours. Do not try that one if you are not well prepared or do sail something bigger than 28 feet. The rounding report gives us the standing 2nd over all with 6min 57sec to the leading boat.


Thursday 14th of June, Finish line, Oxelösund
The last mark rounded and time to pin for the finish line 12Nm ahead in 2hours, that’s what we thought. How wrong can I be? Very wrong I learned, as we dropped the kite we had the new wind building up changing the direction so that we had to do several tacks before finishing. This was not the problem we soon noticed, when the wind kept on blowing 15 m/s and I said its only a puff is seemed that it actually was a lull. Two reefs on main and only one square meter of head sail in use we made progress with 3-6knots and actual tacking angles between 120-140 degrees, still pointing as usual. Our “family calibrated” wind instrument did not register more than 18 m/s as I could see but probably when the boat was heeling more than 45 degrees, the scale on the compass ends there, the wind did blow over the transponder. Can’t be worse I said to Jori who smiled back to me and said: wait and see. Shore he had to have right. 2Nm before the finish line the waves got smoother but only because the wind did blow the tops away! We had later the report from the lighthouse with 20m/s and it was still increasing towards the harbour. Finally at 20:28:53 we crossed the finish line after spending 103h 28 min 53 sec on the race course.


Finally
Finally tied up along the dock and doing ship shape what actually was only to dry up 0,6 litres of water from the bilge and finding clean clothes and a towel to bring along to the sauna. Our competitors where already enjoying their beers at the club house, but nobody did mention that we were on a second place over all due to the two last boats who had made the decision to abort the race. The wave height at this moment at the lighthouse was estimated to 6-7 meters in steady 20 m/s winds. If we would have been there now I would probably have made the same decision. We lost 1h 21min 25sec to Trollungen, Maxi 999, sailed by Anders Linden and Bo Skarström. As the arrangements were very professional arranged by OXSS and this kind of racing is really something else compared with club racing or Gotland Runt. Those who already have solid boats need only a reliable sailing mate to meet this challenge!


Sandhamn 17th of June 2007
Paul “Palle” Eklund
VindUngen FG 28e

www.oxss.nu/omaran/default.asp