The Beginning
I learned sailing at the age of ten in a small boat called Optimist. It's a very small dingy and many generations of sailors have made their first experience on this boat with 3.5 m2 sail area. Everything started on a tiny lake called Margaretensee in Lippstadt (Germany) at the lovely and very family friendly club: SCLi. I'm still a memeber of this club today.
However, I grew too fast and became big for the FJ quickly. So, already at the age of twelf I started to sail in the FJ, a two-man boat with 10 m2 sail area and an additional spinnaker.
Racing
I started sailing FJ in 2003 and since 2005 me and my sister, Katharina, are forming a successful team.
My Boat: The FJ
The FJ was designed by Uus van Essen and Conrad Gülcher in the 1950s. It is a two-person dingy nowadays featuring trapeaze and spinnaker. It is sailed equally by young and old. I started sailing FJ in 2003 and since 2005 me and my sister, Katharina, are forming a successful team. The FJ is 4 m long and weighs 75 kg.
The special thing about the FJ is that wooden boats, often more than 50 years old are still very compatitive in racing. Most of the recent World and European championship have been won by wooden boats. Nowadays it is too expensive to build wooden boats. But with proper care those wooden boats can basically last forever. I have sailde wooden boats in the past myself. However, I'm currently sailing a fibre-glass boat, built in Italy in 2004 at the Poletto shipyard.
The FJ is spread in the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Slovenia, and Japan. There are also a few boats in Belgium and the USA. I'm reagularly participating in national and international Championships. I'm memeber of the German as well as the International FJ class organization.
Achievements
| Year | Event | Place |
|---|---|---|
| 2006 | Eurpean Championship in Porto San Giorgio (ITA) | 10 |
| 2016 | Geramn Open Championship | 2 |
| 2017 | Geramn Open Championship | 2 |
| 2017 | World Championship in Porto Roz (SLO) | 6 |
| 2018 | European Championship in Travemünde (GER) | 8 |
| 2019 | Eurpean Championship in Porto San Giorgio (ITA) | 6 |
| 2019 | German annual ranking of the FJ class | 1 |
| 2022 | Italian Open Championship | 4 |
Yacht sailing
Spending some time on a much bigger yacht can be a nice change after tough competitions on the FJ. Living a few days on a boat with friends allows me to forget everything else and calm down - a real holiday. Nothing is better than feeling the gentle movement of the boat through the waves and the wind blowing through the hair. With a yacht, you can reach beautiful and more remote places.
On my last trip, I went out in the Stockholm archipelago on a Bavaria 39 Cruiser. The natural harbors where you fix the boat directly on the rocks of the little islands were a whole new experience for me. This way I felt more independent and closer to nature than before. I definitely want to repeat this.
Picture: Karoline Hill
