20240723

Raid Extreme Germany 2024

Draft version: need a photo of the winner and a spreadsheet with results.

The Raid Extreme Germany was held during the International Canoe Week on the EM2 campus. See also Danny Hildebrand's video documentary about the Extreme Raid Germany and the International Canoe Week at EM2.
Around 14 boats from Germany, Netherlands, United Kingdom, Czechia and Switzerland started at daybreak to collect treasures at 6 locations around the Strelasund.
Apart from the sailing canoes, there were an inflatable catamaran, a Vivier-designed Ilur, Norwegian pram Hatseflats and two Michael Storer designs: Ladia's Goat Island Skiff and Rene's Viola.
Ingo E. had brought a Europe dinghy as his weapon of choice to finally defeat Koos Winnips. Unfortunately, Koos was not around due to work obligations so the Artemis-Europe showdown will have to wait for another year.
At the skippers briefing Bert described the treasures and shared their GPS locations. Racing was to start at daybreak.

The Racing

At daybreak (around 0600 hours!) the competitors rushed to get their boats from the EM2 beach into the water. There was a gentle SW2 which to slowly build during the day. The bigger group went west towards Wamper Wiek to start hunting treasures. On Hatseflats I joined the smaller group sailing east to collect 'Bodden Eier' as their first treasure and then work westwards before finally returning to the EM2 campus. Out in front were two sailing canoes chased by Mark in his Prospector and Rene in his Viola. Vincent and Inge were close behind with Hatseflats in 6th position. The gap widened as I had to sail behind the ferry to Rugen. After the ferry I enjoyed a sunny reach with a W3 along the coast to the beach at Tremt where I found my painted egg in a hollow tree.

Our next treasure was an ice cream at the Hafeneck restaurant at Stahlbrode. To earn the ice cream you had to mention the code word at the counter. Since there were Bitburger parasols all over the place, the code word seemed pretty obvious, but I was wrong. The lady behind the counter took mercy on me and I took my undeserved ice cream to join Rene, Mark, Vincent and Inge on the terrace overlooking the harbour.

For our next two treasures our little fleet sailed west all the way to the Wamper Wiek near the Stralsund bridge. We sailed into a creek with boats at anchor. We looked for the 'Walnut Castle' but could not find it. Eventually we found that two youngsters were camping right on top of the Walnut Castle. They handed us a walnut each and we started looking for our next treasure.

Our little fleet now sailed to a small beach at the far end of Wamper Wiek to look for the 'Peanut Bay. On Hatseflats I wanted to get back into the hunt and sailed over the shallows and promptly ran aground. At the beach we could only find empty peanut shells and took these back as proof. On the way back to the Strelasund I managed to run aground twice. But on the upwind leg towards the EM2 campus I got a series of lifts and sailed past Vincent and Inge.

The first of the remaining treasures was at the 'Ruby Landing' on the beach at Deviner Haken. If I remember correctly, 'Ruby' referred to the Stortebeker beer brand logo. the spot would be marked by a circle of stones on the beach. The clock was ticking away and dark grey clouds were now rolling in from the west of Stralsund bringing more wind. Without a useful GPS location I did not want to waste my time scouring the entire beach for some stones, so I sailed on.

The last treasure was dubbed 'Apple View' and had to be found on the beach at the harbour at Gustow. This was going to be easy because I had seen a forest of masts on the way to Wamper Wiek. I also wanted very much to reef at Gustow because the dark clouds had brought strong gusts.. While I lowered the sail I lost one oar in the waves and had to use my spare oar to retrieve it. I was tired when I got on the beach and asked two local boys if this was Gustow.
It appeared I had landed at nearby Drigge. I put in two reefs anyway because the waves were getting worse. What to do?
Sail to Gustow around the corner, make another landing at another lee shore and get disqualified if I returned too late at the EM2 campus? Or get away from the lee shore while I got the chance and save myself and Hatseflats for the upcoming Baltic Sea Challenge?
I decided to forfeit the treasure at Gustow. I made it safely out of Drigge under reduced sail and made my way to Marina Neuhof and then on to the EM2 beach.

Aftermath

Just like the previous year, the winning strategy was to paddle instead of sailing, despite the fact there was more wind this time. The winner was Michael who was just passing by on a trip through the waterways of Europe with his folding canoe. He paddled over 50km and collected all treasures well before the competition.
This year more competitors had collected all six treasures. Well done! The excellent meal of pasta and pesto at the prizegiving helped greatly to recuperate and relax.
Falk from Hamburg had come with a RIB to watch and help competitors in trouble. Fortunately everybody made it safely back to the EM2 campus.

GPS locations: the GPS locations had been taken from a smart phone with Google Maps. Unfortunately these coordinates cannot be used by conventional GPS devices like Garmin. Request to Bert and Ingo for next year: create an additional set of coordinates for us Garmin users!

Safety: at dawn most boats went west and a smaller group went east. You would think that during the day the two fleets would cross each other. As it was, I only saw very few boats of the fleet group: Axel and Thomas sailing towards Stahlbrode, Michael paddling powerfully on the Strelasund and a couple of small sails in the far distance. I found it alarming that Mark and Rene had been hit by a squall on the Strelasund and were not noticed by anyone.
This underlines that you must create your own safety on the water and not hope that someone comes to your aid!

Finally: it was great to be back on the Strelasund and at the EM2 campus. Bert and Ingo: thanks for this Raid Extreme Germany edition!