Kudos to Isaac Fonseca of Wickham’s Cay Rigging who saved the day for the German team Haspa Hamburg racing on their JV52, replacing a broken forestay within 24 hours of the crew knocking on his door asking if he could replace it. 48 hours later they were sitting on the beach at Marina Cay after an epic race to Scrub Island Resort, Spa and Marina, with sporty conditions ruling the day.
“We broke the forestay while practicing on Monday and would have been out of the racing but we got to Isaac and his son Dean on Tuesday at 8am, and we all jumped in to help and were setting a new forestay by 3pm,” David Rowen, Haspa Hamburg crew member said: “It was fantastic to see the guys drop what they were doing to support the Regatta.”
While the new forestay is now installed, the German team however will be limited to the use of just two sails in their inventory.
“We had a Tuff-Luff system on the old forestay and most of our sails won’t fit to the new forestay; we have only two sails which are on hanks that we can hoist but that’s better than staying on shore!” Sebastian Ropohl, Haspa Hamburg boat captain and skipper noted. “It happens they are the two sails we use in big breeze so we’re lucky this week!”
Haspa Hamburg has a great back story: it’s not owned privately but by a club (Hamburgischer Verein Seefahrt – HVS) which was founded more than 100 years ago by a German shipping company to get young people off the streets and into sailing and inspiring them to take their sailing experiences onto the next generation. Senior club members like Ropohl take on the responsibility of ensuring that young sailors learn what they need, whether it be how to sail, or run a boat and maintain it. The club finances regattas attended by club members through donations, as well as a time-tested system: seniors club members who have been members since they were young, finance the younger members.
“For the BVI Spring Regatta we would normally have the boat filled with our young guns but due to the German university schedule, the dates didn’t work so we are mainly an older group from the club with one 20-year-old sailing with us,” Ropohl said. “The boat is based in Germany but we take her all over the world to race; my son sailed her from Tasmania to New Zealand and from New Zealand around Cape Horn, so she really is a proven boat.”
Haspa Hamburg has nine mostly German crew racing this week, all who are staying aboard. “It’s a pure racing yacht with just one main cabin, a galley, and we’re glad we have a toilet,” Ropohl laughed. “But that’s all we have and I love it.”
Most of the team have never sailed in the BVI but got a taste of its famed big breeze when it turned on yet again for Wednesday’s race to Scrub Island.
“Racing today was absolutely gorgeous, we had a dark squall come through with about 30 knots in it; apart from that it was really champagne sailing and to turn the corner at the top and see Marina Cay just open up before us – if you could describe paradise, this is getting pretty close!” Rowen said.
Haspa’s boat captain Ropohl concurred: “I’ve sailed all over the Caribbean but never made it to the BVI. It’s beautiful here, and now with the new forestay it will be even better. We’re looking forward to the great winds forecast for this week and it’ll be great sailing – I love the huge waves downwind, the boat surfs really nicely on those. And in Germany it’s still cold and windy!”
Editor’s note: Sailing is a sport filled with connections and while Rowen has never been to the BVI, looking over at Beef Island from Marina Cay today reminded him that his grandfather built the original bridge connecting Beef Island to Tortola through the family steel fabricating company J.N. Rowen Ltd, based in Nottingham, U.K., which is still going today. Who would have known?
