The opening day of the 4+ Nations Championships, at the Dutch cat playground of the Hellecat club, had been cancelled due to 35kt and more gusts, and the race committee sensibly cancelling the racing in good time rather than keep sailors at the club just waiting for the go home call. Therefore, Saturday was the first time competitors had a chance to race. However, many decided to sit today out too, as the 25-27 kt gusts forecast, particularly for the first two race’s time period, made the more cautious and risk averse sailors choose discretion over valour.
The start was postponed an hour or so to let the peak winds pass and get the racing onto the declining phase of the forecast which was sensible. So, those sailors who were comfortable with frequent near-death experiences set off for the race start area a mile or so downwind from the launch beach, positioned there in order to get a good 1NM beat without the top marks being in the big wind shadow cast by the surrounding dyke keeping out the waters of the North Sea. 9 Classics from 23 entered and 14 from their 26 Open boats arrived at the start.
Race one was go and it was immediately obvious that this was going to be a race in brutal, very top end conditions, 20-21kts with bigger gusts, combined with a short and vicious 0.75m chop. This made for enervating conditions, the Open fleet dialled their boards in to allow then to remain in contact with the planet surface, but the Classics just got going and bounced along at maybe 17-19 kts upwind. Downhill, for the Classics it seemed to be up one, through one as their bows found the backs of waves they were overtaking. The foilers seemed to remain broadly in control but incapable of steering a straight line, an alarming this to witness from a Classic as they were being overtaken. Many boats pitched in, but few were damaged fortunately.
Race two was in similar conditions. But the wind started to abate by race 3 and several more sailors decided to try their luck and joined in the later races.
Moritz Weis GER 121 was unbeatable in the Classic fleet with bullets in all 5, (THAT’S 5!) races, despite claiming he’d hardly sailed, what with his final year studies and all. Chasing was Sjoerd Hoeskra NED3, with four 2nds and a DNF, and Mark Van Cutsem BEL 331. Chris Stock GER 100 was a solid 4th, then the GBR trio of Owen Cox GBR 72, Mark Rushton GBR 101 and Ben Daigeneault GBR 70 who was ahead of the top woman, Astrid Janssens BEL 17 on count-back.
On the Open fleet, Robin Maeder SUI7 was blistering in the race, then going well in Race two with a second, but race three he struck an underwater wall by venturing inshore too much, splitting his port rudder casing. He had been battling with Michal Korneszczuck POL 111 and Thomas Paasch DEN 1 until then and retirement. Leaving the remaining races to be shared between them, and Michal leads by one point. Roeland Wentholt GER 95 and Vladi Ptasnik CZH 1 follow in 4th and 5th.
Once ashore, they were all handsomely fed and watered by the Hellecat club.
Sunday promises lighter, more benign conditions, so we hope to get full fleets afloat in this good tempered multinational event.
