Andreas Pinnow, tysk Expresseglare, intervjuas av Daniel Stenholm, www.expresseglare.nu ’s webmaster. Andreas och hans besättning skall segla alla delseglingarna i NEECC, dvs norska, svenska, danska och tyska mästerskapen. (NEECC = North European Express Championship Cup).
Andreas Pinnow, tysk Expresseglare. Båtnamn: Ticaranto
- Have you ever been in Sweden before and sailed? When and where?
I’ve sailed a lot of times to Sweden. I live in Kiel and I’ve done some sailing trips to Stockholm, Gothenburg and Oslo (via Sweden). In addition to that I’ve visited Stockholm twice and I’m thinking about going to Stockholm for my Master studies.
- Have you met any Swedish Express sailors in a regatta before?
Yes, I’ve met some Swedish Express sailors at the DEP 2013 in Flensburg, as well as in Horsens 2011 and Nyborg 2013. It’s been great to see how much faster they sailed an Albin Express and we’re working on getting as fast as they are.
- What makes you come all the way to Sweden to sail in the Swedish Nationals?
We’re a young team and this year everybody can take the time to sail a lot on our express. We’ve got amazing support from parents, friends, grandparents, our sailing club, and we’re working on a sponsor. This allows us to take part in all national championships in Express Class.
It’s simply because we’ll have a lot of fun and of course we can learn a lot by racing in big fleets together with the best Express Teams.
- Have you heard about the Northern Europe Express Championship Cup (NEECC) and have this cup affected your decision to come here to sail? Are you in that case also coming to Denmark and Norway to sail their Nationals?
We heard some rumours about the NEECC, but we initially decided to go to all Nationals, because we all want to become faster, have fun racing and we all have time to do this! When we heard, that the NEECC will really take place, we were very happy and it gives us some extra motivation and of course some extra support. We hope to see some Swedish, Danish and Norwegian crews, as well as some other german Express a lot of times this year. It’s a great way to visit some beautiful places all over northern Europe.
- How long have you been sailing Express?
I’ve started sailing Express in 2007 on a friends boat. In 2008 my parents bought our own Express and from that on I’ve always took part in the Kieler Woche, as well as in 2 danish nationals, the DEP 2013 and some club racing.
- What do you think about the Express boat? Good? Bad?
The Express is a great boat. It’s a very competitive class, but you can also go for holiday trips or relaxed after work cruising. In addition it’s still a fast, but affordable class. Compared to J80 for example it’s much cheaper and you can use it in much more ways! In some situations the ergonomic could be a bit better.
- How is the interest in Express Sailing in Germany? Is the interest rising?
The Express Class is growing constantly in Germany and I think the interest in racing is also rising. The fleets are getting bigger and we had more than 20 boats on the course at the DEP 2013 in Flensburg.
- What’s your best Express sailing moment? (for example some spectacular surfs or nice upwind when you sailed faster then bigger boats or nice cruising moment or something like that)
Best highlight was the Wednesday evening race in Horsens 2011 right before the Danish Nationals. We just arrived some hours before and we were only 2 guys on board. It’s been a strong breeze and we planed to sail defensively behind the fleet. After some spectacular downwind surfs, we ended up in the middle of the pack, having a hell to do and it’s been great fun hiking hard while steering.
In addition we had a great time doing some 12kts+ surfs on downwind legs during our last Kiel Week. The crew did a great job with gybes on waves and full control over the boat. Bearing away and instantly accelerating to 10kts+. It’s been like a roller coaster and we all felt comfortable.
