New owner to SWE772

Frank Eckard bought SWE772 and towed her the 1600km to Berlin where he lives. As I understand he will keep the boat in Germany up to the spring when he takes it back to Lorient in France. It will be intressting to follow Frank in his campain and I will post a link to his future blog when I know it.
Hopefully I will sail Demi Cle with him as a co-skipper.

Time has come to move on.

After 3 wonderful years in the Mini class it has now come to move on. The boat is most likely
sold and will be delivered to the new owner in Germany. I will probably still do
at least one race on the French mini seen as a co skipper during 2012.
So whats next?

If things goes well I will be sailing a Pacer27 Sport in Sweden. Bruce Gaily
and Björn Freels who I raced against
during the last two years in France will join me for some great blasting in local
Swedish races as Åf Gotland runt. We
will also add another 2-3 people to the future “Mojo” team
Moore news comming soon……..

Short clip from Transat 2011

Victims of the ocean

I was unfortunately forced to withdraw from the race in Cape Verde due to a severe knee infection which has spread into my bone, three doctors, unanimously, informed me of the high risk of blood-poisoning and other possible complications if I carried on.
The start of the second leg went well and I was just where I wanted to be on the evening of the 13th of October, things started to change during the 14th when my starboard lower rudder fitting broke. I decided not to go into the Canaries , as I thought i had made an sufficient repair. After the temporary repair I knew that I could not push the boat as hard as I wanted to. My aim to start with was to qualify next was to be able to finish the race. The result was never so important.
During the night between the 14th and the 15th of October my left knee started to grow at an alarming rate so I decided to start with an antibiotic I had onboard (Anoxillum). At the same time I totally lost my appetite. I was starting to fall behind now, 29th place, I pulled myself together and decided to started to push more, despite my rudder problems, on the 19th. 10 hours later I heard a big bang from my port rear and I quickly realized that my port lower rudder fitting had exploded. I was 93Nm from Cape Verde and decided to divert into Mindelo. The progress was very slow with just one rudder working and as the waves were hitting me at starboard rear where my previously repaired rudder was. My previously repaired starboard rudder finally gave in 42 Nm north east of Cape Verde and I was left with no rudders. I tried to lash my oar to the stern without success. This left me with no other choices than to call upon a support boat for assistance. A hard decision but the only thing I could do to save the boat.
In Mindelo I quickly started repairing the rudder fittings, with a big portion of luck they may have lasted to Bahia. As the infection in my leg did not want to go down and the fact that I suspected that I had a fever I asked for a medical opinion from the doctor. The first doctor said my illness was very serious so I took a second opinion and contacted another doctor who subscribed me another type of antibiotics. One of the race doctors onboard one of the support boats had heard about my leg and came over for an inspection. She harshly informed me about the high risk of blood-poisoning and strongly advised me not to stay in the race. Three doctors, independent of each other, advised me to withdraw from the race and I respected their advice and withdrew from the race.

I have to say that these 2 years of challenge has been the most fun thing I ever done. It has really been an epic journey which should have been impossible without the sponsors; Grpms, Ursuit and Pateneius insurance.

If the occasion was to occur that I would have the possibility to do this over again I would jump at it any minute. So if you are a possible partner out there please let me know urgently and I am sure that we together can accomplish great things during the next two years.

First Leg Finished

Photo: Pierrick Garenne/GPO
Congratulations Ulf! You've finished the first leg of Mini Transat 2011! We are proud of you! 26th of 45 in the series class is not bad in tough competition. How was it?

324 Nm left to Madeira

Ulf seems to be sailing really well and is now positioned 22 out of 45 in the series class with 324 nautical miles left to Madeira. Check out the tracker and Go Ulf!!!

Ulf's ready to go!

The start of the La Charente-Maritime/Bahia - Transat 650 2011 now only 24 hours away! Ulf Brändström has finally done the last preparations to the Nacira 650. But still in the race village the activity is high and the sailors and their shorecrew always seem to find new things that have to be sorted before the leave tomorrow. Many of the sailors are fully sponsored and have a shorecrew with them and others have friends that help them with the preparations and some seem to be working alone. One of the professionals I spoke to envied Ulf with his help. He´s almost a little bit posh, he said with the glimps in his eyes.

- I´ve had some trouble with my autopilots that did not work two days ago, now thats fixed I hope. Best would have been if I had the possibility to go out for a trial but we are not allowed to leave the harbour. The "NKE guy" worked with my boat until five this morning. My friend and Nacira representative Aymeric Belloir, have also helped me with the preparations of the boat. To night I will sneak under the boat and clean the hull, says Ulf.

The sailors are not allowed to dive into the water before the start but at many boats there are drysuits hanging and diving equipment on the kay.
The weather for the first leg to Madeira seem to be quit light upwind. This is not the strongest side of the Nacira.

- I have to be focused on steering on this first leg, to be able to keep the speed up. Sail a little bit lower and go for the 6 knot speed. Not to much sleeping on this firts leg. My strategy will be to sail rumbline down to La Coruna or Finisterre and follow the Portugeese coastline and then aim for Madeira. This is the current strategy for most of the production boats but some of the protos seem to go further west to hope for stronger winds but it´s too much of a risk. My hopes will be to end up around the places of 25 to 30 within the production class, Ulf says.

When I look into Ulfs boat the stacking is prepared for lightwind, all sails are in the front of the boat and all the 60 liter of drinking water is stacked at the hullside in front of ther middle. Ursuit foul weather suit and just one set of clothes is brought on the boat. Shorts, t-shirt and one pair of underwear! Ulf will use a special kind of soft "chair" when resting and steering to save an aiching back. It will be interesting to get feedback from that. All food is of course freeze dried.

- The water for the food will be boiled in a kettle that my father have used during his sailing trips so it has some special feelings attached to it, Ulf says.

Before I leave Ulf for his swim under the boat I ask him who will be the winner of the mini transat 2011.

- I think for the protoclass that at least I wish Guillaume Le Brec (FRA667), Antoine Rioux (FRA800) and Thomas Normand (FRA787) will be fighting for the victory.In the production class it´s almost impossible to pic a winner. The TipTop and the D2 boats may have a chance in the upwinds but Nacira and Pogo2 are faster downwind. So probably one of the french top sailors in a Pogo2 will win, Ulf says.