Preparing this race was technically no longer a big problem, as SNIFIX had just completed the entire program for offshore regattas in category 2, and the crew still had fresh certificates. ISAF offshore training and medical had already been prepared.

The additional requirements for the boat for Category 1 offshore regattas were no longer a big hurdle, because there are a whole series of additional requirements for Category 1 regattas only for multihull boats, not for classic monohulls. For SNIFIX DRY we only had to upgrade our life raft with more provisions and water as well as a few other things for a possible longer stay, and we needed an additional bright orange deck marker so that the boat would be easier to find from the air if the mast was lost.

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The capital navigational preparation was of course special for this. Willie put together another fine ROADBOOK, we collected material, and at the beginning of July we met halfway between Bremen and Frankfurt in a hotel in Münster for an intensive navigation workshop with a mountain of maps and all the relevant manuals, in particular to identify various possible loopholes on the Atlantic side of the course where we could retreat if the weather conditions or other incidents suggested or even forced a safety stop. And of course the actual Ragattakrus i.S. Currents and area conditions checked.  And on Saturday evening, after probably a good 10 hours of concentrated map work, we had a happy evening at PINKUS MÜLLER with fine beer specialties and rustic Westphalian cuisine.

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There was still one special SNIFIX problem: We had an engine cooling problem since the beginning of the 2022 season. After about 30 minutes of driving the machine, the cooling water temperature went down even at low load. into the red area. All advice (thermostat problem) from real and apparent experts and repair attempts (thermostat manipulation, thermostat replacement, internal cleaning of the heat exchanger tubes) had proven to be erroneous or fruitless. As a "last ace up our sleeve" we traveled on July 31st with a completely new heat exchanger in the trunk to St. Cast le Guildo (Brittany, approx. 10 nm west of St. Malos), where SNIFIX DRY awaited us for their next big adventure was waiting.

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When we got there, Willie and I first had a nice dinner and drank a good bottle. At around 10 p.m. we put on our headlamps, grabbed our tools and tackled SNIFIX's heat exchanger. The operation was surprisingly easy, and by 1:00 a.m. the replacement unit was installed and all the hoses were reconnected. Of course, a practical test at night in the harbor was out of the question, and so we climbed into our bunk excitedly and in the hope that a test run the following morning would bring the reassuring confirmation of a successful repair, because this much was also clear: a start was necessary for safety reasons to the RBIR would not be considered if we could not rely on the engine.