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Day 1 of Dutch Open Championships
Race 1 of the Dutch Open Championships gets underway in Muiden with 37 boats…
“It is the largest and strongest fleet for 15 years” was the call from Dutch Secretary Philip de Koning yesterday as the 37 international teams had 2 very close races yesterday organised by the Royal Netherlands Yacht Club (RNLYC) in cooperation with the Dutch Dragon Association.
Race 1 started first time around 12.00 under a “P” flag with a clear start, NED 412 started centre line and continued waiting for the first real header… I spoke to Lars Hendriksen “We were out early to give us a clear idea of the high’s and low’s on each tack. With the wind mainly at 260 degrees it was all a matter of local shifts coming in.. We knew the wind from the North Sea would be disturbed as it came over Amsterdam and as there was no prediction of a left or right turning wind, our game plan was to trust the compass. Also when the wind was neutral we kept to the middle of the course to take advantage of the next shift”…
Great words of advice from Lars the winning tactician of race 1 and 2 which helped guide Pieter Heerema to his two victories. In 2nd place overall is NED 345 Reinier Wissenraet, sailing with Pim Harmsen Beek & Marc Reijnhout. This top Dutch Team finished with a 3rd and 2nd place to keep the pressure on the leaders… Also having a great first day was the 2015 & 2016 Dutch Champions GBR 803 helmed by Quentin Strauss, crewed by Nigel Young and the current European Champion Pedro Catalao Rebelo de Andrade ! 🙂
Pedro told me “After a good first race (2nd) we pushed the line a bit hard in race 2 and had to re-start. However, we found a lucky clear lane on Port heading towards the right where we found a 25 degree right hand shift which got us back in the game. We would have finished even better than 4th if it not for the close covering by NED 247 towards the finish :-).
Start of Race 2 of the Open Dutch Nationals, sees GBR 803 popped & having to re-start.
Today we wait for the wind to ease as the rain squalls are showing gusts in excess of 30 kts… Also its raining like cats & dogs, so the clubhouse is full..
Higher, Faster, Longer…….. Stavros. (NED 247).