There have not been many racing events in 2020, so we were very grateful in the UK to be able to gather for some informal racing and training in July, in place of the cancelled Lymington Regatta.
We are also very grateful to Liam Willis for capturing some high quality footage of key moments, and have spliced this into a video which we hope will provide long enough shots of all the key parts of a race to be useful to new sailors in the class.
The event covered a range of wind and tide conditions, and it is also clear that different sailors sail ...differently, so remember that you will need to adapt your technique to your own conditions, weight and fitness. Best of all, come and sail with D-Ones near you!
Our next event is the Gold Cup at Lipno (CZE), preceded by the open event at Wolfgangsee (AUT). Both wonderful places, and both actively sailing already after the lockdown earlier this year. Our next UK event is at Warsash in October.
Comments are welcome. If anyone has better video editing skills then I have please feel free to get in touch and improve on this, but I hope it is is interesting, and in places, amusing....
Click 'Read more' for the video, which is also on Youtube at https://youtu.be/wTdj-qsaZ5k
'Not the Lymington Regatta' 11/12 July 2020
Robust, energetic and exciting single-handers like the D-One are the perfect escape vehicle from recent troubles, so we were delighted to be able to co-ordinate 10 boats for a great weekend's sailing at Lymington, in complete compliance with all regulations and with visitors taking advantage of the recent re-opening of B&Bs in the beautiful New Forest area.
Even most mark roundings kept 2 metres between boats, although it did get a bit noisy at times, mostly with helms cursing themselves as they tried to remember how to sail.
With Keith and Liam Willis providing an excellent family race team from their own yacht, we ran 5 races in a chunky sea breeze running against the tide on the Saturday, followed by a 6-mile single-lap to Hurst and back home for those who did not hurt enough already.
On Sunday a lighter and shifty sea breeze gave some respite, albeit with a lot of place changing as the tide and wind confused everyone, and another 5 races.
D1 Tuning Guide, June 2020
The D-One is a powerful, demanding boat yet highly refined and sensitive. Unlike the people who sail her ?. That mix of power and sensitivity is one of the reasons the D-One is such a great boat to sail!
Static settings i.e. those adjusted on shore
Mast foot position
Mast foot forward shifts the rig forward so your push point (centre of lateral resistance) moves forward whilst your pivot point (centre of effort) is fixed. So your boat will naturally track lower upwind with the foot forward. This is good in breeze and chop.
Moving the mast foot aft (turning the mast foot through 180 degrees) moves the push point aft so your ship will want to point higher upwind. This is good in flat water. Also in very light winds, it is hard to generate lift off the foils with little energy through the sails and foils. Moving the foot aft increases weather helm so generates lift which would otherwise need to be generated through leeward heel. Being able to sail flat in light winds whilst still generating lift from the foils is fast because a flat boat has a fair underwater hull shape and presents an upright rig to the wind. There is more wind high up due to turbulence near the water’s surface in light winds which has a disproportionate affect in light winds
A lot of theory! The short story is I sail with the foot forward in 6 knots+. Foot back in light winds is better but not by much. Foot back in 10knots+ is slow. So sailing with foot back is high risk if the wind builds so I need to be pretty sure it is a light wind day before putting the foot back because it is hard to change on the water, especially in a building breeze which is just the time you would want to reverse the foot!
I have just spoken to Stefan Hess, in lockdown in his apartment at Palamos, and we feel we have no choice and have to cancel the European Championship at the end of April.
With governments in Spain, France, Italy, UK and Czech Republic all advising against travel at the moment due to coronavirus, it seems very unlikely that a satisfactory event could occur in April.
We have decided to cancel instead of postpone, not only because the picture in so uncertain, but also because we still have our Gold Cup scheduled at Lake Lipno in September, and we must all hope that in better circumstances this will be able to go ahead.
We very much hope to organise an event in Palamos in our schedule in 2021, since without a doubt it is a fabulous sailing venue - as was proved by the winter training sessions. Thank you to Stefan and Carles for putting all the effort in to organising what promised to be a great event. We hope they will do so again.
Obviously, everyone who has paid to enter will be refunded by the club. Details will be sent by the club.
Our real sympathies go to those who are having much more serious problems than this. In the meantime, if you can, head off and go sailing - you have a great single-handed and can stay on the water away from everyone else.
Best wishes to all
More...
Thank you to everyone who sailed and organised events in 2019
We had a very multi-national Gold Cup in France, with a great deal of wind to start, and then a lot less. The French lost at 'boules' to the Italian-Czech team, which amused everyone else, but put on on a great event with much champagne.
The Italian Nationals at beautiful Rapallo allowed a great group of new Italian sailors to find out much fun a D-One can be in a tempest, while the British fleet travelled to South Shields for some equally awesome, if rather terrifying, big wave sailing in the North Sea. The Austrian fleet continued to grow and enjoyed close racing on their beautiful lakes.
The European Championships in Switzerland ended the season wonderfully hosted in a stunning location, and maybe the light winds were overdue for the fleet to enjoy some more peaceful sailing.
We are delighted to unite the growing British, French and Swiss fleets with a continuing strength in Austria, Italy and the Czech Republic, as well as our very good friends travelling from Hungary, Belgium and occasionally Germany. It is now likely that every major D-One event will have visitors from many European countries, and it was wonderful to join such a friendly circuit in such great places.
...so here is the Calendar for 2020 ( see sidebar --->> )
We have put together a fantastic set of events for 2020. We have ensured that they do not clash dates, and there are some very tempting possibe groups of dates for those who fancy a proper holiday around their sailing. Click 'Read More' for details of the 2020 circuit of events:
The Swiss D-One fleet hosted this championship in the hamlet of Wingreis in the far west of the country, on a grassy meadow by the stunning lake with a view across vineyards to the snow-covered Alps. The Swiss watch-making capital of Biel, three miles up the road, provided enough hotels, bars, restaurants and expensive watches for anyone.
The event started with a break from tradition - no T shirt! Instead we were given a D-One Swiss (not army) multi knife. No complaints there.
As expected The Swiss were great hosts : Barbecued sausages each lunchtime, wine tasting, historic tour and two great evening meals with plenty of boxer old beer and strangely addictive local milk protein soft drink Rivella -all first class.
Yacht Club Bielersee have a lovely little club and an amazingly helpful group of volunteers in a great setting but also, as feared, a slight absence of wind.
We did manage to get out for some practice racing before the main event, so a chance to check we had all rigged our boats correctly.
On Friday we gathered at the club and..no wind. OK a postponement, no problem the sun is shining more boat fine tuning. I made a nice uv cover for the pole with recycled water bottles and duct tape and made some small adjustments hoping to get s little more power in the expected light breeze. Just when we thought there would be no racing for the day enough breeze appeared to get us out for one light airs race. Sadly my tuning efforts resulted in no pointing and no speed. Glad we just had one race.
South Shields Sailing Club, 9th – 11th August
Supported by Rooster & Diamond Drilling Ltd
Prologue: Before any major D-One event there is always something that sets the tone for the weekend, bizarrely it appears to always come from the same person. The tone for this event soon became apparent on the training day (8th August). The post goes out “the camper has failed (again)”.
Many offers of support were provided by the ever friendly D-One sailors and with the poorly camper safely ensconced in a nearby garage the wayward sailor once again began his journey with the knowledge that alternative accommodation had kindly been provided by local lad Ken Ward.
Several hours later and whilst the normal greetings were being had there was an almighty shriek I’ve got no clothes”! Answers on a postcard please stating where you think they were…. you may win a camper! A quick trip to a local store and several t-shirt purchases (albeit a little snug in great colours) later, a must have trip to the curry mile was much needed and appreciated by those that chose to partake. As you can imagine the training session was not high on the agenda.
Since the D-One was launched 10 years ago, it has been sailed in a huge variety of conditions, from calm alpine lakes to full-on sea sailing, and by all shapes and sizes of competitor. We are fortunate to have a very wide base of friendly international sailors.
The boat has always had a fairly crude form of weight equalisation, whereby sailors below 86kg are allowed slightly wider wings. As with all classes, there has been occasional discussion as to whether this is adequate. We were fortunate at the Gold Cup this year to have very clearly defined windy and light days, and a full international fleet weighed in for the event. This gave a perfect opportunity to crunch the numbers, as shown in the graph, which reads from first to last place left to right.
