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Account of this years "Tornado Camp" held in Stockholm, Sweden in conjunction with a mixed fleet multihull regatta known as "Liding Rundt". Story by Rolf Nilson, pictures by Stefan Boman
Eight Tornados attended, 5 from Sweden, list member Heine Foss from Denmark, two times (?) Tornado Olympian Hannu Jarvela from Finland and one boat from Norway (us). The plan was to do some training on friday, participate on the major regatta "Liding Rundt" on saturday, and another training session on saturday. Monday was a holiday in Norway, and this suited us nicely as we had 900km to drive home from Stockholm.
Friday started with a briefing and intro session held by Martin Strandberg (sailed T's both in Sydney and Athens, I think he also participated earlier with Mats Nyberg..). He shared quite a bit of information in compressed form, so all were listening with ears perked. Then we went on the water, and the weather gods blessed us with sun and around 8m/s of wind. Launching at "Ranangen" boatclub was 'interesting' as the ramp was framed by all kinds of obstacles (buyous, rocks, weed, piers etc). But everybody handled the advanced launching routines without to much drama. My crew fell between the bows, and hit the bowsprit full on with his forehead. Thank god the bowsprit wasn't damaged, but he sailed the rest of the day with a blistering headache. We did some initial speed training, with Martin trying to keep up with the T's in a coach boat, before we did some start procedures and one lap races. Obviously, Hannu knew how to make a T fly under those conditions.
In the evening, there was the required barbeque at the clubhouse. And we got briefed on what was to happen the next day, saturday. The Danes had brought some "Gammel Dansk" liquor, while the Finns supplied the beer..Lidingø rundt is one of the major regattas in Stockholm, for all classes. The course is around Liding, a smallish island just outside of Stockholm more information about the race (in swedish) To get to the start in time, we had to pass under a 6m high bridge.. (do I need to say that our drysuits have lots of leaks, and are more like spraysuits).
Not all teams had practice in capsizing their boats, a skill that came in handy at this event. Fortunately, we had a small motorboat to tow all T's under the bridge, and helping keep leaky masts above water (more about that later).
Saturday was unfortunately a day with light winds, so the T's did not get to demonstrate their potential. We had start nr. 3, with the Formula 60 tris and other multihulls sailing under handicap starting before us.Those 60 foot tris sure are large! And they move quite well even in the smallest wind.
We shared the start with the F-18's, but the line was so long that there was plenty of room for everybody on what was a downwind start in fickle winds. We picked the port end of the line, and after our evaluation we still think that was the right place to be due to the mass of boats upwind from the starting line blocking the wind. In the beginning we had the F-18's to contend with, but they mostly fell aft during the race.The wind was very light, and it sometimes disappeared completely. We lost Hannu and the fastest F-18's when we sailed into our own private little hole about halfway into the race. About 7 bitter meters was enough, we got stuck, while they worked up an unsurpassable lead, as the wind filled in for the rest of our race.Fortunately, Hannu saved the T's honour, and beat all F-18's to the finish line.
There was two swedish Formula 60 tris competing in Liding Rundt, but only one completed the race. Media reported that one of the tris had trouble with their boom, but rumor amongst the sailors said that this was not true. The leading tri had raised their daggerboard, and skimmed above an underwater cliff. The tri behind saw this, did not check their draft (map) and ran into the underwater cliff at full speed (for the windstrength they had) with the daggerboard fully down..We met the winning F-60 returning from their finish line under engine while we was about halfway (dammn they are fast).
Sunday Martin inspected all T's, and made suggestions about rigging and improvements that could be done, before we went out on the water again. The wind was up again, and we had really nice conditions for T sailing. The program was starting procedures and one or two lap races. With strong winds, experience in handling and working systems made the difference in speed around the course. It also helps to see the marks you are supposed to round if you want to be fast. Many did not see the top mark, and footed off in the wrong direction after the start. It was impossible for Martin to catch up with them in the small coach boat and direct them to the correct marks.
We had some small drama, as one of the boats flipped sideways after a driver error, and turtled. As it turned out, the mast was leaking and soon it turtled. A passing powerboat tried to right it sideway, and did get it upright, but all the water in the mast made it highly unstable so it flipped again immediately. Martin finally god the mast up on deck of the coach boat, and the waterpressure inside the mast made a 2 meter long waterspout stand out of the holes in the masttop.
Afterwards, it was a dragrace back to the ramp, and time to pack the boats on their trailers for those who did not live in Stockholm before we said our goodbyes.
On our way back to norways west coast, we got hindered by a snowstorm, so we used quite long time. Driving on summertires with a trailer behind is nerve wrecking, especially as we drove trough some deserted parts of the countryside..
There was some positive discussion during the camp about starting up a race circuit, and how to make the class 'fly' again in Scandinavia. Work have started on this.. Perhaps we even get our own class in the high-profile annual Marstrand event next year!
Rolf Nilson
Articles: 2005 Scandinavian Tornado Camp, Stockholm, Sweden
Account of this years "Tornado Camp" held in Stockholm, Sweden in conjunction with a mixed fleet multihull regatta known as "Liding Rundt". Story by Rolf Nilson, pictures by Stefan BomanEight Tornados attended, 5 from Sweden, list member Heine Foss from Denmark, two times (?) Tornado Olympian Hannu Jarvela from Finland and one boat from Norway (us). The plan was to do some training on friday, participate on the major regatta "Liding Rundt" on saturday, and another training session on saturday. Monday was a holiday in Norway, and this suited us nicely as we had 900km to drive home from Stockholm.
Friday started with a briefing and intro session held by Martin Strandberg (sailed T's both in Sydney and Athens, I think he also participated earlier with Mats Nyberg..). He shared quite a bit of information in compressed form, so all were listening with ears perked. Then we went on the water, and the weather gods blessed us with sun and around 8m/s of wind. Launching at "Ranangen" boatclub was 'interesting' as the ramp was framed by all kinds of obstacles (buyous, rocks, weed, piers etc). But everybody handled the advanced launching routines without to much drama. My crew fell between the bows, and hit the bowsprit full on with his forehead. Thank god the bowsprit wasn't damaged, but he sailed the rest of the day with a blistering headache. We did some initial speed training, with Martin trying to keep up with the T's in a coach boat, before we did some start procedures and one lap races. Obviously, Hannu knew how to make a T fly under those conditions.
Not all teams had practice in capsizing their boats, a skill that came in handy at this event. Fortunately, we had a small motorboat to tow all T's under the bridge, and helping keep leaky masts above water (more about that later).Saturday was unfortunately a day with light winds, so the T's did not get to demonstrate their potential. We had start nr. 3, with the Formula 60 tris and other multihulls sailing under handicap starting before us.Those 60 foot tris sure are large! And they move quite well even in the smallest wind.
We shared the start with the F-18's, but the line was so long that there was plenty of room for everybody on what was a downwind start in fickle winds. We picked the port end of the line, and after our evaluation we still think that was the right place to be due to the mass of boats upwind from the starting line blocking the wind. In the beginning we had the F-18's to contend with, but they mostly fell aft during the race.The wind was very light, and it sometimes disappeared completely. We lost Hannu and the fastest F-18's when we sailed into our own private little hole about halfway into the race. About 7 bitter meters was enough, we got stuck, while they worked up an unsurpassable lead, as the wind filled in for the rest of our race.Fortunately, Hannu saved the T's honour, and beat all F-18's to the finish line.
There was two swedish Formula 60 tris competing in Liding Rundt, but only one completed the race. Media reported that one of the tris had trouble with their boom, but rumor amongst the sailors said that this was not true. The leading tri had raised their daggerboard, and skimmed above an underwater cliff. The tri behind saw this, did not check their draft (map) and ran into the underwater cliff at full speed (for the windstrength they had) with the daggerboard fully down..We met the winning F-60 returning from their finish line under engine while we was about halfway (dammn they are fast).
Sunday Martin inspected all T's, and made suggestions about rigging and improvements that could be done, before we went out on the water again. The wind was up again, and we had really nice conditions for T sailing. The program was starting procedures and one or two lap races. With strong winds, experience in handling and working systems made the difference in speed around the course. It also helps to see the marks you are supposed to round if you want to be fast. Many did not see the top mark, and footed off in the wrong direction after the start. It was impossible for Martin to catch up with them in the small coach boat and direct them to the correct marks.
We had some small drama, as one of the boats flipped sideways after a driver error, and turtled. As it turned out, the mast was leaking and soon it turtled. A passing powerboat tried to right it sideway, and did get it upright, but all the water in the mast made it highly unstable so it flipped again immediately. Martin finally god the mast up on deck of the coach boat, and the waterpressure inside the mast made a 2 meter long waterspout stand out of the holes in the masttop.
Afterwards, it was a dragrace back to the ramp, and time to pack the boats on their trailers for those who did not live in Stockholm before we said our goodbyes.
On our way back to norways west coast, we got hindered by a snowstorm, so we used quite long time. Driving on summertires with a trailer behind is nerve wrecking, especially as we drove trough some deserted parts of the countryside..
There was some positive discussion during the camp about starting up a race circuit, and how to make the class 'fly' again in Scandinavia. Work have started on this.. Perhaps we even get our own class in the high-profile annual Marstrand event next year!
Rolf Nilson
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