L’événement international F16 de l’année est passé. Et c’était un événement exceptionnel !
Pas par le temps (on a eu 3 jours avec trop de vent) mais certainement par les participants extraordinaires pour ce premier événement international. Les participants étaient :
Gregg Goodall - Viper – AUS101 (n’a pas participé parce que son bateau est arrivé trop tard)
Marcus Towell - Blade – AUS401
Gill De Bruyne/Kathleen Vandenbulcke – Blade – BEL666
John Alani/Paul Alani - Stealth – GBR527
Paul Warren/Ann Powter - Blade – GBR801
Marc Presdee - Stealth – GBR516
Jaap Haasnoot/Tijs Haasnoot - Blade – NED006
Hans Klok - Blade – NED111
Frank Boom/Hester Deutekom - Blade - NED013
Geert Ruesink/Karin Weeda - Blade - NED014
Martien Kooyman/Frans Van Marle – Blade – NED015
Wouter Hijink - Taipan – NED243
Matt McDonald/Bart Hoek – Blade – USA10
Les résultats peuvent être trouvés ici. Les photos de l’événement peuvent être trouvées dans la galerie photo.
12/8 - Invitation race
It started in a light breeze of around 6 knots from the south with an incoming tide.
The incoming tide creates a current of around 2 knots going south to north, parallel to the beach. With the first leg working into the current many of the fleet choose to work up the beach in shallower water. This in itself was still a bit of a lottery as the
breeze was patchy with some stronger corridors further away from the beach. The first rounding of the windward mark had Hans in the lead with Marc in 2nd followed by Martien/Frans, Wouter, Matt and Marcus. By the time the boats converged on the gate Matt had moved up into 3rd followed by Martien/Frans and Marcus. By the second windward mark rounding Hans had established a huge lead. He was over a 100 metres past the clearance mark before the next boat even got to the windward mark. So Hans was being followed some way back by Martien/Frans and then Matt. Matt pulled his spinnaker early and carried it for the reach across to the clearance mark and while Martien/Frans pulled their kite Matt pulling his kite first paid with him squeezing past Martien/Frans and then opening a lead of around 30 or 40 meters. So Matt had managed to climb into 2nd place for the spinnaker run to the bottom mark but Hans had a very handy lead. Matt had a blinder of a downwind rounding the bottom mark ahead of Hans. The breeze was building and the 3rd rounding of the windward mark had Matt then Hans then Martien. As the breeze built it got up to 13 knots. By the end of the 4th work we had Hans back in the lead followed by Martien/Frans then Marcus. For the final downwind run for the finish Martien/Frans were pulling out all stops and buried the bows up to the front beam several times under spinnaker and still recovering. With the breeze having shifted towards the east it was becoming increasingly difficult to carry the kite and while everyone tried, sooner or later it had to be put away with some very quick reaches to the line. The finish order was Hans, Martien/Frans and then Marcus.
Conclusion of this first day racing: every one seems to be happy, friendly and having a really fun time.
13/8 - Race 12 pm start
The forecast for the 1st day of official racing was a breeze of 14 knots out of the south.
The conditions looked promising as the crews arrived to prepare their boats. The forecasted 14 knots arrived early and continued to build slowly. By the time the first race got underway we had a good 17 to 18 knots with an element of west in the southerly breeze, causing the sea to rise with waves of around 1 meter with quite short distance between the peaks. As racing got underway the sea conditions became increasingly rough. At the first start Frank and Paul broke early and had to go back and restart. The first to the windward mark was Hans followed by Matt/Bart, Marcus and Geert/Karin, Gill/Kathleen, Marc and John/Paul. The sea condition was continuing to deteriorate and on the downwind Matt/Bart flipped as did Wouter and Martien/Frank. In Matt's case the crew (Bart) must have gone into the main as the bolt rope had pulled out of the mast and Matt had to retire going back to the beach to ready the boat for the next race. Following his false start Frank/Hester were having a blinder moving up into 3rd place before the end on the 1st downwind. By the time they converged on the top mark for a second time Frank/Hester had worked past Marcus and were now in 2nd place behind Hans. As they passed the clearance mark Marcus pulls his kite first but the teamwork of Frank/Hester showed as they had the kite set and drawing first. Frank/Hester's hard work of climbing through the fleet (following their false start) was dashed when they flipped and had to retire. By the bottom mark Marcus had worked his way past Hans and moved into the lead. Going up the second work Marcus managed to get his mainsheet under his rudder so at the top mark for the 2nd time Hans had regained the lead from Marcus with Geert/Karin followed by Gill/Kathleen. Positions were held on the downwind with Hans, Marcus, Geert/Karin, Gill/Kathleen and John/Paul. At the top end of the course Hans rounded followed by Marcus who capsized on the reach out to the clearance mark. The finishing order was Hans, John/Paul, Geert/Karin, Marcus, Gill/Kathleen, Paul/Ann.
13/8 - Race 23.15 pm start
By the start of the second race the sea had 1,5 to 2 meter waves quite close together and looking like mighty hard work. Even so only one boat elected not to start the second race. Once again it was Hans first to the top mark followed by Geert/Karin and Marcus. Matt's capsizing practice paying with him, since he managed to get another one in (on the work) and still being 4th at the top mark followed by Gill/Kathleen and then John/Paul. Going up the 2nd work Hans is still in the lead with Geert/Karin and Matt/Bart engaged in a battle so close that you could just about step from one boat to the other all the way up the work with Marcus 3 or 4 boat lengths behind. By this stage of the racing every now and then we were getting really large waves of 2 to 2,5 metres going through the fleet. On the next downwind Geert is washed off his boat probably by one of the monster waves and picked up by Marc. The rubber ducky boat I was in had to help out to get Geert back to his boat because you couldn't bring two cats close enough together in those seas. In the mean time Gill/Kathleen capsized too while going downwind and retired from the race. The positions were changing on the course and by the rounding of the top mark for the last time John/Paul had moved into 2nd ahead of Marcus, then Paul/Ann and Matt/Bart and that is how they finished.
Conclusion of this 2nd day racing: the winds recorded by the local coast guard (located next to the Zandvoort sailing club) was force 5 with gusts to force 7 (20 knots gusting to 35 knots). All competitors were urged to tie their boats down before they left as the sea state was quite large for the wind strength and direction indicating much stronger wind was pushing up the seas on its approach.
14/8 - Race 3 11.15 start
Race 3 started without John and Paul Alani (they had decided to tighten up the
platform following the rough conditions of the previous days and stripped one of the beam bolts. Piet Saarberg had run off to get a hellicoil to get the boat back on the water. As soon as he arrived back John, Paul, Greg and Piet worked together to try and make the first start. But it was not to be, in their haste to get through the surf they
flipped and just couldn't get there in time). There was a southly breeze of around 12 knots. Unlike yesterday this breeze lacked the westerly component that really picks up the seas. Wouter port started and crossed the whole fleet. Matt/Bart were smoking upwind and made it to the top mark in time to do a 360 and still stay in the lead. Approaching the top mark while in second Paul/Ann went for a big nose dive over the bows. Their acrobatics handed 2nd place to Gill/Kathleen followed by Martien/Frank and then Hans, Marcus and Wouter. Wouter was taken out of the picture flipping on the downwind while Geert/Karin made it past Martien/Frank. On the 3rd loop Hans got caught on the anchor line of the clearance mark and almost capsized. It took quite some time to get free, allowing Marcus, Paul/Ann and Martien/Frank past. The finishing order was Matt/Bart, Gill/Kathleen, Marcus, Paul/Ann, Martien/Frank and then Hans.
14/8 - Race 4 12.00 start
The boats got away to a clean start over the line and worked their way towards the shore. Straight away Hans established a lead followed by Matt/Bart then Marcus and the rest of the fleet is grouped close behind. Marcus failed to finish the race after tearing his spinnaker (the spinnaker sheet got caught under the boat). He retired to the beach with his racing finished for the day. During the course of the race Martien/Frank dropped their mast when the shackle holding the side stay came undone. By now the off shore breeze very rapidly turned them into a dot on the horizon. The coast guard took off after them and I went with Frank to the Coast Guard headquarters to find out if both crew and skipper were onboard and OK. So all I can give is the top few boats at the finish which were Matt/Bart, Hans, Gill/Kathleen, John/Paul and then Paul/Ann.
14/8 - Race 513.00 start
By now the breeze had risen a knot or two and the seas were beginning to rise a little. Still the race got underway. At the first rounding of the windward we had Hans, Gill/Kathleen, Matt/Bart and Paul/Ann all converging on the mark. Hans was the 1st one around, followed by Matt/Bart, Gill/Kathleen and then Paul/Ann. Things seemed a little hectic on the boat of Paul/Ann. First with one of them being taken off the boat but still attached via the trap. And then trying to make up for lost time, they stick it in big time flipping over the bows so hard they stuck their mast into the sand. This made righting rather difficult. Just after the clearance mark was rounded Matt/Bart flipped but they still managed to finish 3rd. The finishing order of the 5th race was Gill/Kathleen, Hans, Matt/Bart, John/Paul and then Mark.
The barbeque that followed later that evening was great. You were given 8 plastic chips and a wrist band. The wrist band was for the food and the chips for drinks. The food was great and as people left they would give their unused chips away. Towards the end of the night we had a table with Phill, Geert, Marcus, Paul, Ann, Gill, Kathleen, Matt, Bart, John, Paul and Marc and all the remaining chips from everyone else. We were doing our utmost to work our way through all this chips. Several of us jumped up to drinking spirits like Rum and JD. Alas around midnight, still with a pile of chips in front of us, they threw us out. It was great to sit around and talk and drink and talk and drink...
15/8
The forecast for the day: force 5 to force 7 from the west. This meant strong wind, big seas, and no sailing. The wind has blown the dog off the chain and is now trying to blow the chain away and the seas are huge. Some people used the time to tinker a little more with their boats. Some went into Amsterdam and others, thanks to Wouter, had a go at land sailing.
ATM meeting at 19h (minutes of this meeting to be followed).
16/8No sailing.
Whiskey tasting at 18h30.
17/8No sailing. Group pictures were made.
Night out in town, drinking games and pool were played.
18/8 – Extra event – the NAM/REM RaceFollowing the disappointment of the last few days, Saturday was a bright sunny day with a pleasant, if unexciting, 10 knots from the South. Today is the NAM-REM distance race with 60+ cats of all types. Most of the F16 entries from the last week took part, including the debut of Greg on the Viper. Phill is finally going to get on the water too, as crew on a local Blade. This long distance races covers 55 km when measured in a straight line. A total of 67 boat entered this distance race and the F16's finished on handicap as follows (note: this is TEXEL handicap numbers, were the F16's are rated FAST):
4th - Marcus Towell (Aussie Blade F16 solo)
6th - Hans Klok (VWM blade F16 solo)
9th - Greg Goodall/Frank Van Marle (Viper F16)
10th - Gill De Bruyne/Kathleen Vandenbulcke (VWM Blade F16)
13th - Frank Boom/Phil Brander (VWM Blade F16)
15th - Paul Warren/Ann Powter (VWM Blade F16)
20th - Wouter Hijink (Taipan F16 solo)
27th - John Alani/Paul Alani (Stealth F16)
28th - Matt McDonald/Bart Hoek (VWM Blade F16) (broke spi pole)
The F16 fleet has placed herself on the map with these results. Too bad about Matt/Bart. They were fighting the lead of the fleet, together with Marcus and the top 3 finishers, when their pole snapped. A spi pole tip support line broke loose of the hull and broke their spi pole at the beginning of a 25 km spinnaker leg. They still finished very well considering they could not pull their kite for this last kms. Marcus did an excellent job on his Aussie Blade and got respect of the other line honours crews for being so fast on a 16 foot boat. The other line honours boats were the Volvo Extreme 20, a White F20 and a Hobie Tiger F18.
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