Sometimes it's the little things that have a decisive influence on a person's biography. In Hagen Jerzynski's case, it was the desire to catch bigger fish when he was still a teenager standing on the riverbank in Berlin with his fishing rod. He thought he would have a better chance with a boat. He bought his first boat at the age of 16 with the pocket money he had saved up by mowing the lawn.
It was like love at first sight. Hagen had found the hobby of a lifetime. Since then, the engines have grown year on year and his boats have become faster and faster. "I've always been known as an absolute maniac when it comes to boating. It could never be fast and crazy enough," says Hagen Jerzynski, now 36 years old, about himself.
The fishing rod soon went into the corner - it had obviously fulfilled its "destiny" as a switch. Incidentally, not only in terms of his passion for boats, but also professionally: Hagen became a landscape gardener and has been running his own gardening company for ten years.
When it comes to boating, Hagen is always looking for new challenges. Last year, he set himself the goal of "boating until I don't feel like it anymore". Although - to put it bluntly - he did not achieve the latter "goal", of course. Together with his friend Jan Gerstenberg (31), he rode 1015 kilometres on the Rhine in a 19-foot Marshall with a 175 hp Yamaha - 17 hours including breaks. It was the predecessor to the 2012 "charity marathon" on the Elbe.
The idea of topping the high-speed long-distance trip with social commitment came from Carsten Czech from the boat forum, where Hagen had revealed his plans. He offered to create the website for the campaign and take on the organisational part. No sooner said than done! The money donated per kilometre went to the "KinderLeben" children's hospice in Hamburg.
Hagen Jerzynski is so moved by the work of the children's hospice that he decides to run another "donation marathon" for such an organisation. This time for the Berlin children's hospice "Sonnenhof", which he learnt about from Karat singer Claudius Dreilich. And the sporting bar is set even higher. Not 1000 kilometres, but 1000 miles in one day, i.e. 1609 kilometres!
This time on the Elbe: from the Wallwitz harbour in Dessau upstream to the Czech border, from there back to Dessau, then further downstream via Hamburg to the mouth of the river in the North Sea, around Helgoland and back to Dessau. A daring endeavour. Hagen knows that there are plenty of critics and sceptics. That's why he wants to avoid negative headlines - if only for the good cause - and make no compromises when it comes to safety.
This requires perfect planning, and that starts with the right boat: he gets a Ring 21 from England, which was used in what used to be the largest offshore racing series in the world, Honda Formula 4-Stroke. The hull looks suitably battered when it arrives at Hagen Jerzynski's in New Venice. The boat-mad Berliner quickly converted his party tent in the garden into a heated refit hall for the winter. The result is impressive.
However, the success of such a long-distance cruise stands and falls with a powerful engine. When racing, the Ring had a 150 hp Honda at the transom, but Hagen is determined to have the new flagship of the Honda outboard range for his "benefit concert": Honda BF 250 LU (the long shaft version). In fact, this ultra-modern Honda seems to have been made for the 1000 miles on the Elbe, as it features BLAST (Boosted Low Speed Torque), an exclusive control system that enables optimum acceleration values and economy in equal measure.
The fact that Hagen actually gets his dream engine is primarily thanks to the Berlin boat and engine dealer Jürgen Dross, who lobbies the marine sales manager of Honda Motor Europe (North), Andreas Hausmann, in favour of Hagen Jerzynski. Hausmann openly admits his initial reluctance. But the social component ("as a compassionate person, you don't have to think about it for long") and Dross's guarantee of technical support for the campaign convinced him. He should not regret it ...
To be able to calculate the thirst of the 250 hp Honda at mostly full speed and organise the fuel supply on the route, Hagen Jerzynski, Jan Gerstenberg and Jochen Diestler - the third Berliner in the 1000-mile team, who was to be Hagen's co-pilot on the first stage - put it to the test two weeks before the "donation marathon". They set off on the approximately 550 kilometres from Dessau's Wallwitzhafen (start, finish and base camp of the company "1000in1day" ) to the Czech border and back again - and had one canister too few.
Shortly before the "home port", the 120-litre tank of the Ring 21 was at low tide, but the crew knew how to help themselves. Using a toothbrush cup, they collected the leftovers from all the canisters from which the boat's fuel tank was repeatedly topped up by pump during the journey. It was just enough to reach the jetty in Dessau under her own steam with the last drop. Something like this was not allowed to happen on 16 June...
You can read the entire report on the record-breaking trip in the current August issue of BOOTE which is now available!
