Niklas Lange filmar M32

Det är kul att kunna inspirera unga seglare. Att satsa hårdare, att sätta högre mål eller att prova nya saker. Att komma utanför komfortzonen.

Jag brinner också för en modernare syn på media, där man förmedlar känslan och glädjen med segling och där man verkligen engagerar fansen.

M32 Cup låter mig göra båda dessa saker.

Under senaste året har det kommit en del kul videos från unga jolleseglare i Hamburg. Först “The Revolution of Sailing”, där man lade motorljud på jollesegling, sedan den här där man lagt på AC-kommentatorerna och i våras kom den här skitsnygga e-jollefilmen. Här fanns det ju både humor och ambition!

Jag kontaktade Niklas Lange och undrade om han inte hade lust att komma till Köpenhamn och “göra sin grej” på M32 Cup. Han var inte svårövertalad, och här ser vi resultatet.

Nedan hans story.

My name is Niklas am 19 years old and studying naval architecture in Hamburg near Kiel, Ger. Well, I was asked to do some Media things in the M32 Cup but would like to define me more as an ambitious sailor than a videographer or something in that direction. I started sailing Optimist as usual then moved into the E-Jolle started with small national regattas then qualified for the first german, europeans and worlds. So I still sail Europe Class ambitious by now a bit more international. This year I was involved in the big boats as tactician so did a bit of spitting. I always am a fan of experiencing the most of what is possible to get a good allrounder and try everything to see if you like it but then again focus on what you do, learn and transfer doing it properly. So as a result of that I sailed on plenty of different boats from skiffs to normal dinghys to big boats but never something like the M32….

To come to the Video story I always wanted a GoPro when it started to boom. There were many cool videos with skiing or mountain biking or surfing but never something with sailing. Slowly Keith Brash was getting into filming the Quantum guys with his Gopro when the Hero 2 came out but there was none of the normal “I have fun in my dinghy” edits which wasn’t one of those shaky, spread with all cool colors you can imagine or those the glitch mob, sail, or other dubstep mainstream Windows Movie Maker or I-Movie edits.

And I always thought, how hard can it be? Being a addicted skier, you just have to look at a few cool free ski edits featured by 12 year old kids shredding the park always together with one dude who has a camera and sends it in the editing suite.

So I learned how all those effects and methods are named and done, how you make a timelapse and slow motion to put my GoPro on board and tried to show the viewer, what was the bit of magic that keeps me training in minus 2 degrees water in the winter together with the danish sailors in Sonderborg. And what moments we really enjoy as sailors. Watching the first clips I learned which art each water drop in the spray fulfills so I simply wanted to share that privilege to be on the water so frequently, sailing till it´s dark in the long winters.

So it was always a good way to show people sailing, nobody in shool knew what I was doing when I had to skip classes due to a championship or training somewhere else in the world, so suddenly there was a way to show my perspective and my friends could see what hiking was and that I´m not shooting other pirates boats or sing old seafarers songs.

At least they had an Idea and saw that it´s wet and sometimes spectacular. Still it was quite hard to explain all about tactics, understanding mother nature and physics, reading the waves and the wind or even what a starting line was. But at least they had a picture and I could share my passion. So it´s nice when you train very hard for the worlds or something, just to take your time, go out one day, ignore all the wind shifts just blast around empty your head, its worth it! Sometimes leads to a way more effectice training the next day. Just leave everything that annoys you on shore, be where you belong, put the camera up in the mast and send it, bang in the waves, stand up, hike upside down, just have fun, get creative and make some films. I collect them over the year so I just edit when I´m creative or feel like I have time to sit 60 hours in the editing suite and can do it properly with attention to detail. So that´s maybe twice to four times in a year since you are really annoyed after spending that much time in front of your computer make the program do what you want :p It´s a good feeling to be finished and see it in one piece but then also you are very pleased to not do it again for some time (that´s a sign you did it properly).

So I think it´s fun -sometimes- and I always try to make the most out of the things you have without complicated and expensive stuff like drones and so on. Be thankful for what you´ve got.

But then there is sailing again, it´s my life. I said it five years ago and I think I know it right now that there won´t be a thing that could change that. A Job is only good for doing more sailing and travelling or allows you doing that. At least that would be the goal to archieve and I hope no future Boss reads this by now and if he did, he´s lucky to be a owner of a boat or campaign or I didn’t wrote that a sentence ago- I am just there to be part of your company, of course :p

I think media coverage is fun but nevertheless I´m a sailor. I can still hold or mount a camera when I´m 75, but now it´s sailing. I never edit or film in competition when I´m Part of it. It is all about focus then. And when I used every bit of brain and body heading back to shore I wanna spend some time with all the sailing friends and not sit in front of the computer. Well, I could mount cameras and press play but I simply always forget it when I wanted to or had not the time to do it. Eventually I left the camera at home at some point.

So that´s a bit of my philosophy, I hope I could make it a bit interesting and as a result of that you didn´t fall asleep.

So back to the Cup in Copenhagen.

The whole story began in winter when I edited a E-Jolle Gopro movie with shots from last autumn where I decided to do something diffrent after the worlds just blasting around Kiel Lighthouse, just having fun without pressure in my head but in the air ;)

I shared it with Peter on Blur so he had the idea that we could do something similar with the M32 and asked me to come to one event. So we arranged to do all this in the Malmö/Copenhagen stopover.

Having finished all important races in the year in the big boats and E-jolle and some engineering exams, I packed my bags threw the boat on the trailer to set off to Malmö on tuesday. The day after arrival there was the offshore race scheduled from Malmö to a 25nm windward laying destination near Landskrona. After lunch all the way back downwind to Copenhagen. Eventually I got the opportunity to race among Lööf racing. We left the harbor and did some training due to a sneak AP delay of the new danish Trifork team facing some issues I didn´t was interested in actually because I was amazed by the speed on a M32. So we did a couple of upwind runs and some time and distance trials, looking forward to a port start. The speed was just another dimension for me, being used to big boat and lot of dinghys. Never was on a boat where someone took a pee between the races in chillmode at just 15 kts BS. That might be quite suitable, describing the potential of these boats. To pick up the story again, we then started.

I was quite interested how the starts would be in this kind of boat. Of course saw it in Ac and ESS but yeah… Going for a Port start we set up early at the very pin end waited to push the throttle. With lots of boats facing the pin end on starboard we went behind the fleet crossing the last ones stern and headed all the way parallel the shore line on the very right side where we found some nice pressure. Coming from the big boats Worlds in a rather small 32ft boat I was quite unused doing 13-14 kts upwind. I thought our bigboat was light but eventually it must have weighted more than the whole M32 fleet :D

And I wasn´t quite used to do that much for aerodynamics. “keep your fuckin head down” had become a running gag everytime I met Freddy. But after some hours in the boat I really understood why. The boat is just amazing, it gives you just so much response in trimming and dynamics. So you figure out quite fast what it likes and don´t likes looking on the speedo. It´s different in big boat, sometimes it feels slow though it´s faster and the other way around. At least that was my expierience on the M32. Really an incredible machiiiine as Freddy pointed it out quite suitable.

What was interesting too- they had a swedish board language- but that nearly doesn’t matter, you understand everything as a sailor. Especially it was really fun to be there on board on the long upwind race as tactician because you have quite the same view on things as the onboard tactician and see what calls he makes, if you would have made the same, which clouds lands and shifts he´s looking for, how he manages the currents, how you would have done that and so on. I first was like- How nice to be just guest and relax- be free about tactics first time for a long time ago, do some floating or weight trimming, enjoy the speed and keep my fuckin head down of course :P

But that lasted only half an hour until I got used to the boat. Then it was all about – I wanna do something now!! I feel bad being only a guest, I wanna do this all year long :p
But I was there for media stuff so I turned on the camera, then I could at least show people what it is like. Fair enough that I could be on board and not on a rib. Motorboats are no good for sailors, really.

Especially when you go faster than them twice as fast as the wind- so stoked *-*.

So in Borstahusen there was a whole café rented for all the sailors and organisers who make this stunning event happen- great job by the way… so I could get to know some of the sailors. Really was used to danish the past months (so quite unused to the swedish) but I was getting better and better understanding it :) God morgon. Jag är Niklas, vad heter du?

Had a great time there, it´s just such such such such a big difference to Germany in a good way.

Then there was the race back to Copenhagen where I had to go on the rib. But also nice to see them blasting around that fast. Then in the evening I tried to find the station where I went to Malmö by train to get in my car again and visited a danish friend from E-jolle to have some drinks. I showed him some videos so he directly wanted to see it live. So the next day we drove to the harbor.

I got him on a rib while I sailed onboard Lööf again for the first race. We really were getting used to the weight trim together, trim tactics were just fine so we went for victory with quite a distance. Back in the editing suite I realized that I wanted to film close inshore action, but suddenly we went too fast so there weren´t many boats around to which we could get close. Mhhhh that was quite interesting to see a “bad” thing in a victory despite the little mistakes you always complain about.

The other races I tried to get the most out of the dying gradient breeze due to a building sea breeze, trying to capture the best of what was possible.

In the evening just another nice dinner with all the sailors, then I tried to do some time-lapse videos as you may have realized in the movie.
Finally next day it was time to go, so I headed to Aarhus to do the Aarhus sailing week in my own boat again. To be honest it felt quite… slow…

After two amazing days with four (long) races each day in quite a breeze I felt good having my lovely sheet especially the first part of it in my hands again, pumping down the waves till you look forward to the beat to “just” full hike.

Sunday the scandinavian roadtrip came to an end and I headed in the wrong direction, south towards a small stupid country called Germany.

The M32 really impressed me as I may have pointed out already but it´s worth a repetition.

If money does’t matter, it must be a good cruising boat in the Caribbean – “well I want to go to that Island for swimming over there right behind the horizon, than in the afternoon maybe this one 30 nm in that direction, some say that they have nice cocktails and cookies, and then upwind again lets just go round this island I´d like to see it from the other side.”

But racing is even more fun as I experienced, so I am just so stoked that I could be there and would really like to se(a) all of you guys again next year!!!

And sorry for my bad english I´ll work on it ;)

///Niklas