Dutch nationals 2007 :Tight racing in nine races

Great sailing venue and great sailing conditions during the Dutch nationals , 26-28 august ,Hellevoetsluis, Haringvliet , Holland

                                    

 Guido Schulte (2nd), Sjoerd Hoekstra (1st) and Nils Bunkenburg (3rd)      

on the podium

Good fleet of 33 boats included  2 GER and 1 IRL, 1 UK  and 1 ESP entry.

The series started Friday afternoon with two rather light  & shifty  races . Erik Van Empel showed great consistency scoring 2,2   Piet Saarberg scoring 1,7  was 2nd after the day. The shifty circumstances provided exciting position changes up to the last metres , resulting 6 ( !!!)  boats finishing literary within 4 seconds at the 2nd race ….

Many beers and famous Hellecat `chinese meal' making it a perfect start for the regatta .

Saturday 4 races were sailed in more or less in the same very fluky light wind with some occasional puffs. The staring was tight, resulting in black flags for several boats .  Erik van Empel  still showed good consistency, with Sjoerd Hoekstra , Guido Schulte (GER), Chris Field ( UK) and Nils Bunkenburg (GER) following closely in the ranking. Still everything possible  after 6 races ….

The three races on Sunday with the last two in about 10- 15 knts  were exiting . lots of position changes, difficult downwinds with shifting from `flat 'to `wild `and back several times, many occasions to make the right or wrong decisions.

Sjoerd Hoekstra clearly  showed he  is the strongest Dutch A class sailor for some time now , combining good, although not exceptional, allround boats speed with really top class tactics .

Sjoerd is sailing the Tool this year with an Ashby bighead 2006 on the medium Saarberg mast .

Guido Schulte just managed to stay in front of Nils bunkenburg  (3rd ) and Chris Field (UK)

Guido sailed the  MK2 geltek Flyer with Fiberfoam medium mast and Ashby Bighead 2006 and is really becoming better very year ….

Chris is sailing the  Tool/ Saarberg mast / Brewin sail combination , which appears to be FAST for sure ….

Nils off course on the very stylish, without any doubt nicest a class around, his own designed and built Nikita . The Nikita  features gorgeous 1.2 meter radius  banana boards  with honeycomb hulls and beams which are faired into the hulls .  Very trimaran style… Nils using a 2007 Ashby sail , 2006 Cut and a Saarberg mast . Nils is on the way back to his famous top speed  he showed in 1999-2000 when he won two worlds ….

Erik van Empel sailed a great series , but collected an OCS in race 8 , sadly dropping him overall to 9th …..   

Overall Results