FDF Viborg Sejlads - Raid Finland logbook

Logbook for "Freja" during Raid Finland 2002

Dansk udgave

Text: Ole Nagel, Photos: Bjarne Lohmann, Brian Schjøtler, Jesper Rasmussen, Steffen Skov Møller, Tom Schou, except if mentioned.
Thanks to Mike Hanyi for proofreading.
Click at the pictures for larger format.

From FDF in Viborg, 6 persons participated in this year's voyage to Finland. Our youngest man was 16,and the oldest 38. Together we were Brian, Bjarne, Jesper, Ole, Steffen and Tom.

Wednesday 10/7 Departure from Viborg at 15.30. Ferry Frederikshavn- Göteborg, crossed Sweden in the night to Stockholm. Near Jönköping it was heavy thunder and the air was warm.

The crew ready to depart from Viborg

On the road from Viborg

Photos: Henrik Nicolaisen

Thursday 11/7:At the harbour in Stockholm we picked up Bjarne, who had arrived by bus from Oslo. Together we boarded the SeaWind Line ferry to Turku. Even on day passages travellers have cabins on board and the prizes are lower than the other ferry companies. SeaWind primarily transports trucks and goods and has only room for 260 passengers. Arriving Helsinki at midnight we stayed overnight at Helsingfors Segling Klub (HSK).

Friday 12/7 We were up at 0800 and met Johan Kock, who had departed from Inkoo, west of Helsinki on Thursday in his motorboat with his Megin dinghy in tow. Ole had e-mailed with him earlier and we arranged, to bring a lead ballast from Denmark for his Megin. Mr. Kock's motorboat was going to be the committee boat for Raid Finland with skipper Johan Fransson, who is from the southern part of Sweden and understands quite a lot of Danish. "Freja" was made ready and launched into Finnish waters and some of the boys played with our rubber dinghy. We also met Mike Hanyi, founder and leader of Raid Finland. "Time & Tide" from Holland arrived with their crew of five, and Jesper and Ole gave "Rustne Søm", a Danish sweet to their boys. When we met the Dutch family with their three boys in Scotland two years ago, they told us that they loved that sweet after a sailing in Limfjorden, the largest inlet in Denmark.
Soon we sailed in fresh wind and clear sunshine outside the port of Helsinki. Jesper got dressed in a wetsuit and we used him for Man-Overboard practice. In the evening came the opening Skippers Meeting introducing the staff and participants, special conditions of Finnish waters and the first day's sailing was gone through. Brian and Ole moved our cars and trailer to the finish for tomorrow in Karhusaari before sleeping in the boat.

Making "Freja" ready for sailing.

The boys out playing...

Saturday 13/7. Now came the day for the first sailing, and we got ready for the start. The first leg was from HSK to Suomenlinna. We had the "pleasure" of meeting some fishing nets on the way. Lunch and siesta was at Suomenlinna, an old fortress made by the Swedes for the defence of Helsinki and is still in use by Finnish military and customs. Lunch was sponsored by Subway and was excellent. Then back in the boat to discover a fresh wind blowing against us coming out of the harbour of Suomenlinna, where we found our first stone with no serious damage, but we got a warning of what could be hidden below the surface. We sailed to the sound south of Laajasalo. That afternoon, Bjarne was crew in "Coquina II", Mike Hanyi's boat.

"Time & Tide" from Holland.

"Coquina II", Mike Hanyi's boat.

At Laajasalo we had to wait for everybody to pass a swing bridge, before second leg could be started. We had our worst start of the entire week to come, almost the last boat to pass the starting line, but we managed to overtake some boats before the finish. On the way the utility vessel handed out some extra sandwiches from lunch. The boats were landed on the beach. We were accommodated in a hostel at 17.50 Euros per person. Camping was not allowed, but on the other hand real beds and rooms with showers was wonderful.

Sunday 14/7. Two sailings were again planned today. The first leg started from Karhusaari and then turning to port after the first island, then into a labyrinth of islands. We were told that we should be VERY CAREFUL in knowing where we are.... when sailed among so many small islands. The Committee boat bombed us with candy, e.g. a lot of boxes of energy bars. We followed a route that guaranteed minimum depth of 1.2 metres and our draft is 1.25 m. with centreboard down. Skipper was watching the sea chart and GPS all the time. Halfway in, the route splits in an inner, very shallow and with a low bridge making demasting necessary and the outer with lots of room round the islands Löparö and Kitö. We decided to find the way to the outer route. Skipper suddenly orders course SE, instead of E. "But why?" ask some of the crew, "It seems to be lots of room and the others are sailing that way?" "There are stones and shallow water, change course to SE!" 1½ nautical mile later we got into open waters and a little more wind. We had to row behind some islands. We were doing well for a time with some distance to the competitors. Then there was absolutely no wind less than a nautical mile from lunch at Spjutsund. We row across the finishing line while competitors further back were being towed.

The start from Karhusaari

Jesper is helmsman ...

while skipper finds the way out.

After lunch of a nice creamy mozzarella tomato soup, we started on the second leg to the island of Emsalö, south of the town Porvoo. We had little wind on this leg. We tied up and cleared out our entire luggage, amazing how much junk there is room for on board that boat. We were at a holiday centre with sauna (to be found everywhere in Finland) and indoor swimming pool. Our boys aged 16 - 31 dominated the pool immediately, it ended up with all other kids and young people versus us in a big water fight. Everybody had a fun time. Later we had an evening barbecue down by the boats and the standard ritual before sleeping on board the boat was not missing. We learned to put up the tent early in the evening before the arrival of the mosquitoes and to keep the tent closed for these small devils. Before night's rest could be established we had ten minutes of hunting mosquitoes.

Monday 15/7. Today we had only a short leg to Porvoo, aprox. 6 nautical miles. Starting in light wind, we added some rowing. Some competitors are trying a shortcut, we can hear and see that the idea was not that smart, the water there was shallow and full of stones. The woman in one of the French boats is rowing almost permanently. We asked her if she is a competition rower daily. "No, but we live in a part of France that is often flooded. We can only leave our home by rowing. I row my kids to school.", she answers. After only a couple of nautical miles the last wind disappears. We were doing nothing for a while, then Jesper and Steffen jump into the water and push the boat. It looks funny, and it didn't work that much. While they are still in the water Johan Fransson came with the committee boat and offered us a tow to Porvoo.

Rowing towards Porvoo.

Now we lost the last wind...

Let's try and push.

After tying up in Porvoo, a steamboat came and gave us a little tour, all except Skipper and Bjarne, who had a job to do: deliver a present at the city hall, a picture showing "Freja" on her maiden voyage at the lakes Viborg with the cathedral in the background. Viborg and Porvoo are friendship towns. The picture was taken by Brian.

Ole is giving the picture of "Freja" to head of office Seija Österman, City of Porvoo.

We found the city hall easily and gave the picture to head of office Seija Österman.

The steamboat "Kirvesniemi"

Old storage buildings at Porvoo.

We went to the cathedral and found the rest of our company on a sight seeing expedition. The boys were very interested in the cathedral - mostly because of the Finnish girls choir practicing inside..... Late in the afternoon we got thunder and a little rain, just to tell us that it can rain in Finland.
We dined at a pizzeria, and along the quay there were some cosy sidewalk cafés. It was a warm summer evening, making you think you are in a more southern place than 60 degrees North. Everybody stayed overnight at Svenska Folkakademiet.

Tuesday 16/7. Yesterday we got our van to Porvoo and reduced our luggage on board to a minimum. The car was driven to the next place by some of Mike's helpers. Mike needed transport capacity for some mattresses to a house for those sleeping indoors. Today again we could choose between two routes with a few variations:
The inner: Through a narrow canal with low bridges, where you have to row and demast.
The outer: Out through Äggskärsfjärden, where high wind and heavy waves could appear. Both routes have the finish at the island of Pellinge. The wind could have been better, so we chose the outer route. At last we got some fresh wind near the finish, and we arrived early in the afternoon. The rest of the day we waited for the other boats, so we all relaxed and swimmed from the nice sandy beach. In the evening Tom and Ole helped Johan Koch mount a topsail to his megin dinghy. The day ended around the campfire on the beach.

Johan Kock's megin.

"2nd Luv" from Estonia.

Wednesday 17/7: The sun was shining from the early morning, another warm day was upon us. Tom decided to join the committee boat to take some pictures and Mike joined us, he wanted to try the Stormegin. He is more daring in his sailing than we are, but ok, he has local knowledge to the waters. We had some fun with orders given both in English and Danish.
Lunch was served at "Algots Lykte", which is an old converted boat house on the edge of the water. The innkeeper and her family were dressed in traditional clothes from rural Finland of a hundred years ago, while eating we read stories and tales about the alcohol smuggling there was going on at the coast.

We had Mike Hanyi

on board "Freja".

2nd leg was short, up to Isnäs/Såg, where a saw mill had once been. The saw mill used a steam engine for power. It still exists and the place is going to become a museum. The old office building has recently been made into a small, cosy hotel, run by the people who have been cooking for us the last few days. We stayed here for the night and camped in the garden. We borrowed a car and got my van from Pellinge and we had another nice evening.

Thursday 18/7: Today we were going to end up on a small island. Departure was set at 1100. 1st leg is only-sailing and had the finish near a museum for traditional boats of the archipelago. This morning Jesper was on board "Coquina II". In the beginning the wind was reasonable, but it didn't last. We were almost lying still behind some small islands, then suddenly the topsail came down! But nothing serious happened. After landing Tom went up in the mast to get the topsail halyard down again. After lunch we visited the museum, Ole went with Johan Kock, who's father had been fishing from such boats.

Waiting for start.

The 2nd leg was to the island of Sandö. Bjarne sailed on the Estonian boat "2nd Luv". The skipper is Danish, working for A.P. Møller's (Maersk) shipyard in Estonia. First we sailed, then we rowed supplementing the sail, and the last 1½ nautical mile we rowed only. The wind had almost completly disappeared so the race committee shortened the course by approx. 1½ nautical miles. Other boats were in tow from the safety boats- except Johan Kock, "The man, who never took a tow". Not even after passing the finish line would he accept a tow, but we took a tow after the finish. We had rowed very fast the last part, at up to 3 knots. The inlet to Sandö is very treacherous, three small marks are placed AND THEY MUST BE RESPECTED. Brian was on lookout and he had a busy job getting us round all the stones that could have given "Freja" some bad scratches. After tying up at a dock, Johan Fransson brought the big committee boat alongside us. On the island we used the village house and a sauna. You can only reach the island by small boats. It is about one km long and a few hundred metres at the widest place. We had a fine evening until the mosquitoes made us go to sleep.

The smallest boat in Raid Finland was "Faravid",
sailed by Fredrik Koivusalo and Antti Tenetz.

Friday 19/7: Raid Finland's last day! We departed Sandö, Tom was sailing with "Coquina II" on the first leg. Our course was more to the west than most of the others and it seemed to be a good idea, because we actually made a shortcut to the inlet, giving us time to follow the marked route around a lot of stones. Some of boats were trying a shortcut trough the rocky area, we saw "Time & Tide" get stuck for a while. The wind was building when we came closer to Svartholm, the finish for first leg. It freshened so much that we had some trouble tying up at the unprotected dock before having lunch. Svartholm is an old fortress built by the Swedes late in the 17th century, later the Russians conquered it and during the Crimian War (1853 - 1856) the British destroyed it.
The Last leg in this year's Raid Finland was from Svartholm to Skeppsbron in Lovisa. The sailing-only leg had fair wind all the way. After arriving Lovisa, Brian and Ole went to pick up the cars and the boat trailer. We got a room in an old converted salt stockhouse at the harbour, which is now Lovisa's Sailing Clubhouse. Mike and his wife Susa planned to stay there, but because Susa stepped on a rusty nail at the beach in Såg it was difficult for her to get up of the steps. Upstairs has a place for sleeping, downstairs a living room, bath, toilet and sauna. We were asked to participate in "Lovisa Small Ships Race" for traditional boats, which was to take place Saturday and Sunday. All our crewmembers joined immediately, so "Freja" was signed in, even though we couldn't participate in the Sunday race as we had ferry tickets for Sunday evening from Turku, 300 km away.
There was a farewell-dinner and handing over the prizes. The French boat "Le Seil" with the strong rowing woman won, in 2nd place was a German boat "Kleiner-Kerl", of the type Norwegian Sjekte, and the French boat "Pirmil" came in 3rd, "Time & Tide" took 4th , and we got 5th. Johan Kock's small megin came in 9th.
Outside the tent the harbour party was beginning, it was going to continue all weekend because of the small ships race. A lot of the participants from the raid joined at the Saltboden pub, which is in one of the old salt stockhouses and had a good evening.

Saturday 20/7: No need to get up early, we could sleep in late, wonderful! Skipper was up at 0900, but the last lazy-bones got up at 1030. We decided to have a look around Lovisa, after lunch we prepared "Freja" for the race. The start was set at 1600, and for once it was windy. We left the dock at 1530 and were ready.
The course was a triangular route which had to be sailed once. Starting almost against the wind the first leg was to be closehauled, On the 2nd leg the wind was from astern, and on the leg home, on the beam. The boat performs best with the wind on the beam and the wind was very fresh with heavy gusts. The topsail had a day off, but we decided not to reef the main sail. In the start, we were 1 meter from the starting line when the signal came, to our weather side we had a Finnish boat we nearly had trouble with because of the heavy gusts that suddenly came. After passing the starting line, we were leading for a long time on the first leg. Because of the heavy and sudden wind gusts we were less then an inch(25mm) from getting water in the boat, some of the other competitors were not so quick to react and got water in their boats. After we rounded the first mark, more boats passed us. The stormegin is not that good with the wind from astern. After rounding the second mark we sailed towards the finish with the wind abeam, the best point of sail for a stormegin. We were making about 6 knots and passed some of the competitors again, until suddenly we hit a rock with the centreboard. In a moment we were lying still, then a wave from the stern lifted us off and we slowly regained speed to the finish. Bjarne hurt his leg, and Jesper had unfortunately been sitting on top of the centerboard when we hit, so he wasn't feeling very well for awhile. We did manage to cross the finish as the 7th boat. We were happy with that because of the accident.

After start in
Lovisa Small Ships Race

Our smashed centreboard

The winners of the day - and Mike.

After we tied up we found Mike. He wasn't so satisfied because he was late across the start. Last year he won the cup and of course he was sailing for it again. On board with him was a gentleman. Mike introduced Ole to Halsey Herreshoff, grand child of Nathaniel Herreshoff, Americas most famous Boat designer of the time who also ran the Herreshoff Manufacturing Company, The Herreshoff yard had made several boats for "America's Cup". Mike's small boat is a replica of a boat, Herreshoff's grandfather built to himself in 1889, a ketch at about 17 foot. A fast boat, capable of sailing at speeds up to 8 knots.
While waiting for the final results to be calculated using their handicap ratings, we went into the sauna, Mike and Halsey joined us. Halsey's boat was in the city Kotka 50 km away at the Kotka Wooden boat show. He invited us on board his boat as crew and we discussed the possibilities. We had our ferrytickets for Sunday evening. But after the sauna "Freja" was put on her trailer and was ready for the journey home.
We were getting hungry and were thinking of getting some pizzas when Halsey invited us for dinner. After the salmon soup we decided to go to Kotka with Halsey, stay overnight onboard his boat and then leave Kotka and sail to Helsinki. We would arrive Monday at noon and anchor at Spjutsund for Sunday night. We called home to Denmark to tell we were coming home a day later then planned, The ferry tickets had to wait till the next day. Before we went to Kotka we organised to have our cars and trailer moved. In the darkness we got the impression of a well-kept ketch. Below deck there was plenty of room compared to other yachts. It was late before we got into our bunks. The date had shifted to�.

Sunday 21/7: At 8 we were already up, Tom had appointed himself as cook and entered the galley where he made a very good breakfast before going shopping with Mat, the firstmate. We spent the morning at the boat show and talked to other Raid Finland participants, who had found their way to Kotka, some as exhibitors. Halsey had to go back to Lovisa to give a speech at the keel-laying ceremony of a new traditional ship so he borrowed Brian's car. Two Finns joined us for the trip to Helsinki, Vesa and Antti.

"Rugosa" seen in different views.
At the last picture the whole crew is gathered:
Sitting: Halsey, Jesper, Mat and Bjarne. Standing: Vesa, Brian, Ole, Antti, Steffen and Tom.

The yacht "Rugosa" is 59 foot long, and ketch rigged. The main mast is 25 m high, and the draft is 3 m. Tonnage 26 GT. There is room on board for 12 persons. Built by Herreshoff yard in 1926.
At 13.00 we were ready for departure and were just waiting for the skipper who came shortly after and we left Kotka. We hoped for some wind further out in the Gulf of Finland, but because we traveled near the coast there was nothing. The wind was absent all day, so we sailed under the "iron-genny" - another word for engine. Tom made our lunch of sandwiches after departure. The helmsman was only needed on duty and a watch-out. Halsey and Mat took care of the navigation, it was obvious that Mat wasn't a novice on the subject, and later we found out that he is an officer on American trade ships, he received his education at the US Coast Guard.

Steffen and Halsey
repairing a sheet capstan.

"Out of my galley,
I don't need anybody prying!"

A sheet capstan on board needed service, Steffen and Halsey dismantled it and serviced it. Ole tried to contact the ferry companies, Stena we moved 24 h easily, SeaWind doesn't answer the telephones on Sundays.
In the middle of the afternoon Ole was phoned by Mike. There had been no wind in Lovisa too, so second day's sailings had been cancelled. Which meant that the results from Saturday were the final for "Lovisa Small Ships Race 2002". We had won the cup and it would be awarded to us in Helsinki.
Tom produced lots of coffee and at dinner time he made asparagus soup. The real dinner nearly became a midnight snack, which was served after arriving at one of Mike's and Halsey's friends, Chriss Johansson, living near Spjutsund. We arrived at 22. Some of us went to sauna, while Tom started the barbecue. The dinner was fine and Halsey asked him to be the cook on the next part of his journey to Estonia, but he coudn't. Long after midnight we went to sleep.

Monday 22/7: We talked to SeaWind Line as soon as their office opened. We could get place on a ferry for Tuesday morning. We reserved the place at once, but we still hoped for room on the ferry in the evening.
After breakfast we left for Helsinki. When Mat had stored the waypoints in the GPS, and we were in open water, we sailed the boat to Helsinki's inlet. Brian and Jesper took turns at the helm. Ole kept an eye on the sea chart and marks. A couple of times we had to ask Halsey or Mat when meeting larger ships and the waves they made. The last helmsman to Helsinki was Bjarne, in the harbour Halsey took over.

Jesper as helmsman

The crew with the cup.

When we arrived in Helsinki we went to the old market place at the harbour and found a place to eat. There Johan Fransson and Mike's father Csaba met us. We all decided to go to the Kabel Café, where the Lovisa Cup was handed to us. We get to guard it for the next year, then we have to defend or deliver!
Back on "Rugosa" we got our luggage, it was time for us to leave. We said goodbye to Halsey. Probably we get to go sailing with him again as he has plans of sailing in waters closer to Denmark, in Kattegat and Skagerrak.
Beside our cars was "Time & Tide" parked. When we were ready to leave they came back to their car and we said goodbye. They were leaving by a ferry from Helsinki. We drove to Turku hoping for room on a night ferry to Sweden but It was hopeless. SeaWind was fully booked, and everybody with tickets showed up. We tried Viking Line, but the ferry left without us. We ended up staying the overnight in the harbour outside SeaWind's check-in.

Tuesday 23/7: In the morning, we finished the check-in as soon as the office opened. Once on board the ferry we enjoyed the breakfast and the berths. A relaxing day followed by dinner on the ferry, It was time for farewell, the ferry arrived at 1900. Bjarne was going by bus to Oslo, Brian, Jesper and Steffen were going to catch their ferry from Göteborg 23.55, and Tom and Ole just had to go to Göteborg. At 23.30 Brian arrived at the check-in in Göteborg, The distance from Stockholm to Göteborg is 500 km. Tom and I were in Jönköping.

Wednesday 24/7: Brian and Co. arrived Viborg at 6 o'clock, we got tickets for the 8 o'clock ferry and had berths on board, wonderful. In the afternoon we arrived back at home in Viborg.

Links:

Raid Finland's
home site

Christer Byström's site with lots of photos.
Virtual seachart from Finnish Marine Administration, use maps 5 - 7
About "Faravid"
City of Porvoo
City of Lovisa
Herreshoff Marine Museum
Rogusa

Homepage of FDF Viborg Sailing Centre
Webmaster: Ole Nagel
nagel@fdf.dk
FDF Viborg