Hey there, I’m Jens (49), and I’ve been sailing since I was 10. It all began on the Hennesee in Sauerland, where my family of four sailed a 470 – my dad snagged it for a cool 1,000 marks just to give it a whirl. On weekends, we’d haul the boat out of a barn and lug it over to the lake. Setting up the mast was always a bit of a hassle, but after about 30 minutes we were finally off. Besides the cooler, the little head (yeah, our boat leaked everywhere) was the MVP onboard.
I took my first sailing course at 13 on Plöner See. After my dad passed away in 1990, I took over our then pretty new boat—a Dehlya 22—and even got my inland sport boat license (including the engine part, even though motorboats aren’t allowed on the Hennesee—you never know).
During my computer science studies, sailing took a backseat, and even in my early career there wasn’t much time for it. Plus, work kept us moving further away from good sailing spots—Baden-Baden, after all, is as far as you can get from any real water.
Then in 2016 we finally got our act together and moved right to the water by emigrating to the Netherlands—the water was the main draw. Besides sailing, I’m into kitesurfing, too. In the Netherlands, we started out with a classic, rented Polyvalk to see how my wife Daniela and the kids would handle a sailboat. Apparently, they did great, because we soon decided to buy a very old Friendship 33. It was small, but it was ours, and it came with a ton of work. Almost everything had to be redone—DIY projects galore: reworking the mahogany deck, new cushions, modernizing the electronics, installing a water heater, building drawers, renewing the sprayhood, applying antifouling, and the usual winter prep. You learn a lot doing all that!
As the kids grew, we needed more space, and the idea of a bigger boat quickly came up. But thanks to Corona, used boats were nearly as pricey as new ones. So, we decided to go for it and ordered our first C38 in the Netherlands. Our boat even got a thorough test in the magazine “Zeilen” (issue 11/2021) and, luckily, passed with flying colors!
Since then, we’ve been out on the water a lot. In 2024, we sailed a really long way for the first time—640 nautical miles all the way to France. Of course, we’ve already tweaked quite a few things that a standard model still lacks. Check out the “Tech” section where I document all the modifications as best as I can.
Feel free to drop me a line at jens@sailingstingray.com or leave a comment here.