That was '09..

Rasmus Køstner look back on 2009 as a year of crisis and comeback in the Volvo Ocean Race In Port Races, World Match Racing Tour and distance races. Overall the season counted 22 regattas with 5 victories (Without the share of owner-driven races the numbers were 13 regattas with 4 victories). Moreover, it was a year with focus on the start-up of two new projects, Sailing Academy Aarhus and Match Racing Aarhus. (Dansk version) 

 

Volvo concerns 

The smoke from New Year's firework had barely disappeared before the season started with In Port Races in Volvo Ocean Race. Unfortunately our results were true "party killers" finishing 6th in Singapore and not attending in Quingdao due to a delaminated boat. The absolute low ebb came in Rio where we initially recovered from a bad start, but handed it away by untidy positioning at the leewardmark. From first to last place - hero to zero in 50 minutes.

After the race Thomas Johanson and myself were criticized, and faced a possible termination of our contracts. It was the first time I have been in such a situation and first time I have been criticized in the media. I believe the best man should be on the boat - also if it was not including me. I had to put up my hand for missing some of the windshifts on the racecourse. On the other hand, I was not responsible for the 4 bad starts out of 5, and the lack of success in positioning in close situations with other boats. I deeply respect Magnus Olsson for taking my comments into account. Many people were expecting a reaction from him, and it must have been difficult to stick to the team as it was. I got a second chance in Boston and proved my worth by recovering from an early start and finishing 4th overall. In Galway we kept improving and came 4th, beating our teammates on E4. Stockholm started well with a 2nd place finish in first race, but ended as it began with a bad start and a 5th position overall.

In my opinion, the unsatisfactory results was partly caused by improper preparations resulting in several crewchanges and a lack of confidence in the starts. The short courses with the middle gate and the costly maneuvers, made it hard to find any passing lanes. On top of that the two Telefonica boats were well moded for the light conditions in the in port races, and almost impossible to keep behind. My own performance was not consistent enough. Retrospectively, it was too difficult to take responsibility as a tactician, considering the limited practice time with the team. We were the only team with an external tactician, which might have been the best for our team - but not the perfect situation. It was fantastic to be part of Ericsson Racing Team, which had the best team members in all areas. I learned a lot, especially from being put under pressure and forced to change failure to success.   

The long run...

Multihull sailing is always a fantastic experience and I had no doubt doing Palby Fyn Cup again with the Seacart30 project called "Creme Fræs". With Sail Group Denmark as sponsor we had upgraded the boat with canting rig and were in the contest to win the race. Although we did not finding the perfect trim right after start with the new setup, we pushed hard resulting in a dramatic nosedive near Assens.

We kept hunting down the leading boat Orbit, but lost tract of the boat in the dark. Arriving at the finish we thought we came second overall. To our great surprice we turned out to be the winners since Orbit had to slow down because of damage on the foils. We actually ran aground at exactly the same spot as Orbit but fortunately we could race with full pace all the way to the finish. Great moments with Peter Bolsen, Martin Broesbøl and Peter Hansen.

Not quite with the same speed, but still in the front of the fleet, I did the Dun Laohaire to Dingle race with 78 foot Whisper. We won the race and cut 5 hours of the record. It was hard work at the helm and behind the navigation desk, without much sleep. Anyway, it felt good standing in the "Hardware shop" in Dingle with a Guinness in the hand. 

Back in the Match Race

Having the opportunity to get back on the World Matchracing Tour, Jes Gram-Hansen and I was not late to gather Trifork racing team with Jann Neergaard, Pierluigi de Felice and Martin Kridte. It was some time since we competed on the Tour but we wanted to give it a swing at Danish Open held in our hometown Aarhus. In the first round we quickly found the form with only small mistakes against Wibroe and Gilmour. From then on it was almost a clean sweep beating Yanmar Racing 3-1 in the semifinal and 2nd world ranked Mirsky racing team 3-0 in the final. It was a great comeback and good after being out of the game for a while. Further more we finished the season of with winning the danish nationals with a solid 2-0 in semi and final. This time together with the old crew from 2000 with Christian Kamp, Michael Arnhild and Jann Neergaard. 

The office work

Besides the racing a lot of my time has been put into the start-up of two new projects, Sailing Academy Aarhus and Match Racing Aarhus. The first is a two boat Melges24 project for talented sailors at the folk high school in Aarhus and the latter is a matchrace center with 4 J-80's. Starting up a project from scratch and trying to direct it in the right way is difficult but also very rewarding when it succeeds. It is hard times for business, but when you have some good opportunities - you have to give it a shoot.