Category: Sailing Blog

Last year when we sailed Proasis back to Kiel after the proa meeting in Flensburg Lars (aka. Fjordproa) joined for a great sailing adventure. He filmed the voyage and shared the video on his youtube channel:

Winter really kicked in recently so made the decision to use a lovely Sunday breeze and sail to our spot for the winter in Surendorf. It was a pleasant 4h sail in a light but freezing wind at -2°C. We actually ran into a couple of issues with our proa design because we never planned for ice building up here and there. Aside of making the deck slippery we initially couldn’t open the sliding hatch and fit the leeboard. The sheets and other ropes were stiff like sticks too, turning sailing into a hole new adventure.

Proasis is now on the hard for the next couple of months to protect her from the winter and to work on some improvements. Slipping her over the 200 m wide beach went smoothly, thanks to an electric winch and the support of our local sailing club.

We finally managed to film and edit a video which shows how we shunt Proasis and how our rudder system works. Enjoy:

There are not many proas (boats with a long and a short hull) in Europe, let alone in Germany. It was a very pleasant surprise to see 5 of such rare craft sailing together for a meeting in Flensburg. Henrik sailed Proasis singlehanded up to Flensburg and was already greeted by smaller outrigger canoes when entering the fjord. The fleet spend a very nice weekend together, including sailing in nice warm summer weather, cold beer and camp fire. Hopefully there will be another meeting next year!

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Initially we had planned to explore the Danish archipelago for at least a week but unfavorable weather shortened our trip to just 2 days. We left Kiel on Friday with a good easterly breeze and pretty awful weather for August. Fortunately the wind got lighter, the sky clear and the second half of the 30 nm leg to the island of Aeroe was more enjoyable than its start. Right in the middle between Germany and Denmark we found a weir orange object adrift. Turned out it was a humongous damaged drift buoy. We managed to pull it on board with much difficulties to free the ocean from the plastic waste. Our anchor dropped right next to the southern tip of Aeroe, next to the lighthouse. Because of the shallow draft of our canoe we could anchor so close to the beach that we didnt even need a dinghy to get to shore.

The next day brought cold and foggy weather with a stiff breeze. The morning was spent wing foiling, riding down the swell which bent around the cape near by. Around noon, the wind went down a bit to around 20 kn, the anchor was lifted and we started sailing back to keel with great speed. Shortly after the wind increased again, probably up to 30 kn, forcing us to put in a reef. Still doing 8-9 kn we were both holding on behind, staring at the huge waves and bracing for spray which would come over us every once in a while. These were not particularly terrible conditions in general, but the heaviest we have ever sailed proasis in yet. After this wiled ride the wind out of a sudden completely died once we entered the Kiel fjord and we had to use our electric engine for the last couple of miles. Eventually we made it home just before a heavy thunderstorm. We were only gone for two days but it still feels like a week worth of adventure!

This was supposed to be a post about the Kiel Sailing Week, especially the tall ship parade, and how great it was to sail in this massive fleet of hundreds of vessels. But just as we went out of the bay to meet the fleet, together with lots of friends on board, something very special happened: Tobi, a colleague of Christian, pulled out a ring, went down on his knees and proposed to his girlfriend!

How crazy is that, has ever someone proposed on a proa before?! We feel very honored and looking forward to the marriage!

Some more impressions of that day:

The night is just a day without light- from the physical point of view this quote from Michael Ende’s “Momo” is correct, but sailing at night is still feels very different. The wind always seems to be twice as strong, the waves humongous, and every noise sounds like the imminent failure of hull, rudder or mast. We finally got our first night sailing experience with proasis past Wednesday. Coincidentally that was half time of the Kiel Sailing Week and we could enjoy the spectacular fireworks in Schilksee on our way out. Sailing went very smooth and we could test our navigation light setup under real conditions.

We got the chance to present Proasis at the Waterkant Festival of 2023. Had some very interesting conversations and met nice people! Looking forward to next year.

We took part in the festivities for the International Ocean Day by giving talks and taking out people for sailing. The interest was huge and proasis loaded to maximum with guests. We had very nice conversations and feedback!

My new job started later then expected so I (Henrik) spontaneously took Proasis out for a single-handed trip to Denmark. Some friends already anchored with their boats in the lagoon of the small island of Skaroe for wing foiling, so the first destination was set. Getting there was quick, despite the distance of 50 nm, due to lots of wind. Proasis was doing an average of 7-9 kn, sailing double digits on a regular base. At one point I had to slow her down to 7 kn because of nasty waves, and reef the sail. As reported previously, the zipper reef works, but it takes to long to reef and unreef for my taste. As soon as there is some spare time we will trial different reefing techniques. The way back home was less spectacular but more enjoyable due to light and warm weather!