Fighter of the Year: Lars Christensen

Last boat in this years Garmin Round Denmark Race have crossed the finish line at Aarhus International Sailing Center. Even though single handed sailor Lars Christensen and 'Wuchtbrumme' came in last, their was a prize waiting for him.

Lars was by the organizing committee honored as 'Fighter of the Year', and here is why.

First of all, his spinnaker broke and this it what it looked like.

"This is what my spinnaker looks like after an epic fight in complete darkness and around 8 kn."

Later he couldn’t reach Bagenkop before 2 p.m.—by then, his 36-hour window would have closed—so he decided to sail to Heiligenhafen during the night. Around 12:30 a.m., he passed under the bridge at the harbour. From previous trips, he knew the clearance was 22 meters, and with his mast and antenna at 19.5 meters, there should have been no problem.

Later, when he paid the harbour fee, he got some not so wanted information from the habour-master.

“I knew from the past the height was 22 meters. My mast with antenna is 19.5, so no problem, I thought. But the harbourmaster told me that due to construction work, the clearance had been reduced by three meters. That meant I had only a few centimeters to spare. What a stroke of luck! The spinnaker disaster would have been nothing compared to that."

Another incident took place in Heiligenhafen. While he was sailing, his navigation system suddenly stopped working. The next day, after checking and making a call, he confirmed that the Axiom unit was completely dead. The failure happened instantly, leaving him without navigation in the middle of the night.

Put in his own words:

“From one moment to the next, I had no navigation anymore. I grounded three times right next to the fairway because all the buoys weren’t lit, and I had no information about the multiple beaming lights. Believe me, I was happy to end the night with a glass of red wine.”

A man who has been so much deserves a prize, and of course, Garmin was ready with the 'Fighter of the Year' award when he moored in Aarhus. With the award a gift certificate of 5.000DKK to use on Garmin products followed.

Well done, Lars!