Boingo alive - Enterprise "Boingo alive" in full function

27.11.13 - 15.00 UTC / 25°29,12N 022°50,63WThe days of "first experiences" in open sea are the three behind us - but as expected, our "enterprise" is ready for everything to come and nothing can stop us now!The downwind sail got its first damages perfectly fixed by our sewing team Felice and Sandra with their circumnavigation tested, old Bernina (see picture). Great job!And there's the fishing - a story on its own! Yehuda, our skilled fisherman, caught finally "Verdia", our very first Dolphin (see picture). She was big enough for all of us and we enjoyed a very delicious fish meal prepared by Jürg. After three days on sea we know, that we'll have approx. two fish on board out of five fish on the hook. For the moment the fishing is inactive (by order), because we have already enough on. read more...

Boingo alive - Great Start ARC

UTC 13:15 / 26°25N 019`43WAfter all the intensive time of preparation we finally started. Because of a handling problem our Parasailor was not up at the perfect time we wanted, hence we have been late on the starting line but only by about 2 minutes. And then the boat was picking up speed easily even with this heavy load. Our course helped us to be and stay in front of nearly all Cruisiers (see picture - cruising fleet behind us) and only a moment later we found ourselves already in between the slower Catamarans and Racers starting before us - what a excitement to realize, that the start was better than we expected.A while later our mood changed a little because we stood in a calm and had to see all Cruisers picking us up from behind - the great start had only a short time effect and we. read more...

Boingo alive! - 06-07/07/12 - The Casting

The second step of our procedure was the most important move to get the project rolling: We wanted at least two “steady crew” for the entire project. And this for our timeline critical step developed smoother than we ever thought. In short time and without advertisement we’ve got two keen, “absolute beginners” ;-) on the hook.Shortly after we felt the wriggling of the two adventurers we checked the compatibility of the team by organising a “Casting” in Koni’s alpine shack about 1’800 meters above sea level. This “Casting” was great fun leaving only winners behind. A competition was our programme guide, in which the “beginners” did so well, that the “offspring Skippers” Koni and Dondi could not outperform them. At the end of this experience session high up there was no need for a formal,. read more...

Boingo alive! - 28/05/12 - The Commitment

After almost one year since the formal start of the project it is about the time to begin the blogging.It started all with the commitment of tree skippers from the Region of Gstaad/Switzerland. After being in charge as project leader of tree Swiss participations in circumnavigations with WCC in the 90-ies, starting with a clean win on the first ever Leg of “WARC’s” (“Europa 92” – Gibraltar to Las Palmas) with “Oingo Boingo”, I always kept in my dreams/goals to do this again but as a/the Skipper, which was the Original plan anyway and since the start of the idea in the late 80-ies. However, it needed a long time to come to the point again and, unfortunately, an entire project being the Skipper is still not possibleL. Luckily I found share Skippers just around the corner in my beloved. read more...

Boingo alive! - April 2013 - ARC 13 & World ARC 2014-15 / The Story of "Boingo alive"

The “Boingos” are back! Background:It was in the later 80-ies as a group of four sailing friends from the Bernese Oberland in Switzerland were fed up of sailing on my Moody 33 or on charter yachts not nearly fulfilling our desires and decided to purchase an own boat. A new Gib’Sea 442, “Oingo Boingo” named after a Californian Rock band, was the right boat at the time and we immediately started to sail longer distances in the Med, normally with “not sailors at all” Crews generated from our social surrounding. We quite liked these long travels and suddenly we learned that in 1991 there will be the start of a Circumnavigation Rally for Cruisers called “Europa 92”. All of us were excited about the idea to participate and after a feasibility checkup it was a quick decision that we can. read more...