(thanks to BeSe for the pictures!)

Background: on a unfortunate training before christmas 2000, we crashed our old eight...
We then decided to buy a new boat from Stämpfli Racing boats.
Melchior Bürgin promised to deliver the new boat in time for the Head of the River Race 17.3.2001 in London...
The pictures below are all taken 16.3.2001 in London - so as you can understand - the just-in-time-delivery worked perfect...!
 

One half of the boat ready for transportation from the Stämpfli International yard to the River Thames in London for the Head of the River Race 2001.

Second half being loaded...

...and secured by Melchior Bürgin.

Ready for transportation with Melchiors "monster" car...

The boat arrived safely at the boating place, and is ready for us to arrive...

The guys from Stämpfli had already cared about the necessary supplies...

Here the boat is ready rigged and adjusted the way we wanted, and the last preparations for the christening are done.

A short speech by Martin (to the left).
The other crew members (from left to right):
Sebastian, Anna (cox), Jon, Bjørn, Henrik S., Henrik P., Stephan and Fredrik.
The crew is cheerful - because they know they will soon have some Champagne (and they will soon have the possibility to test the new boat...).

Our cox Anna got the honour to christen the boat.
Sebastian to the left, and Jon to the right.

The boat got the name "Sleipner" after Odins horse which had eight legs, and was the fastest in Asgaard.
The rest of the Champagne is shared equally amongst the crew.

Martin passing on the Champagne...

Melchior must have something very important to tell the crew...

Ready to put the boat in the water.
Due to the big differences in tides on the Thames, they don't have proper landing stages over there.

That means...

...walking into the Thames bare footed...
After the race we had three (known) cases of foot-and-mouth-disease in the crew...

Also the pushing-away-bit is a little bit complicated...
The current is strong, and you have to watch out so that you will not dragged towards the banks again...

But finally we made it to get away from the banks...

...and we could do our first cautiously strokes with the new boat!

But before we could really test the new boat - we had to do the final adjustments.

Here you see us rowing behind another swiss crew, who just came back from their training session.
Our crew was quite nervous - several of them were the first time on the Thames.

As you can see, the timing is not jet adjusted, and also the balance needed some improvement...

The conditions were quite rough, which also made it quite difficult.

But the boat felt nice, and the boat really got a good start in the race the day after.
We hope it will stay fast and give us a lot of nice outings in the next couple of years...!

The crew that participated (from bow to stroke):
Henrik Persson
Henrik Sivling
Bjørn Thorud
Jon Løkke
Fredrik Nilsson
Sebastian Sedvallson
Stephan Haferl
Martin Skrikerud
Anna Limburn

are all thankful for the great experience it was to have that excellent boat to row on the Thames in the Head of the River Race!

Last modified 2.4.01.