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J/22, J/24, J/109s Enjoy Close
Racing
(The Hague, Netherlands)- The major summer regatta in the Netherlands, Delta
Lloyd North Sea Week, saw some great competition, nice weather and one of their
best turn-outs for participation in recent years. Teams from all over
Europe migrated down to the beautiful seashore off the Hague, including the
J/22, J/24 and J/109 one-design classes.
The J/22s saw some new faces at the top of the podium
this past week, a refreshing change in this ever evolving fun class in the
Netherlands, Germany and France. Sailing an amazing series and counting
only top three finishes after ten races was the FRAPORITA team led by
Jean-Michel Lautier, Giuseppe D'Aquino and Denis Neve-- 13 pts net for 10
races! Showing flashes of brilliance with three bullets in their
shoreline was the all-women XJE team led by Misja Adamczyk, Lilith Michaelis
and Marion de Ha. Starting out in the lead after four races, the girls
faded in their last four, never finishing higher than fourth.
Nevertheless, they maintained their composure and with 22 net pts secured
second overall. Third overall on the podium was JABBADABBADOO sailed by
Stan Heltzel, Nadine Fritz and Audrey Paterson with 23 net pts. The
balance of the top five was Sander Brinkhuis's DJINN in fourth and fifth was
Ivo Jeaukens's DE KANTOORBUTLER.
The half-dozen J/24s sailing saw NED 49 take the silverware by a significant
point margin. The team of Erik Jeuring, Calijn Muller, Jeroen Horts and Merk
Meester ran away with the regatta counting straight firsts in eight
races! Second was NED 51- DE JANS sailed by Nils Jannichsen, Nina Hagoort
and Peter Jannichsen followed by BED 68- AS IS helmed by Dirk de Brouwere.
With nine boats sailing, the J/109s had some awesome one-design racing.
Like some of his fellow J sailing colleagues in other fleets, Tom van der Vecht's
EXPECTO nearly swept the class counting eight 1sts in ten races to be crowned
North Sea Week J/109 Champion. Second was A van Leeuwen's JOULE finishing
second overall with 16 pts. Third was Niels Groothuizen's TAXATION with
19 pts. Fourth was BIG TIME (Rein Bakker) and fifth was the offshore
veteran sailing team on YETI (Paul van der Pol).
In IRC Class, an initial contender was the J/111 XCENTRIC RIPPER sailed by John
van de Starre and Robin Verhoef. After flirting with the lead sailing a
2-2 on the first day, their hopes vanished for a podium finish after struggling
to regain their "mojo" and momentum, ending up an uncharacteristic
5th in their class. For more Delta Lloyd North Sea week sailing information
J/111 2nd IRC, BIG LIFT Takes J/22s
(Stellendam, Netherlands)- With more than 120 boats on the start line, the Van
Uden Reco Stellendam Regatta promised to have lots of action and fun for the
offshore sailing season opener in the Netherlands. Traditionally, the
event is marked by an enormous fish fry and beer party where the local
fisherman host the event, cooking up all kinds of local delicacies, including
even lobster! Plus, the sponsor Pantaenius ensure there's plenty of beer
on hand for the sailors to wash down all the yummy seafood!
The predictions regarding the weather promised a weekend full of sun and plenty
of breeze. Whether there would still be enough wind Sunday was the real
question on everyone's minds as the weekend unfolded.
On Friday afternoon the Stellendam Marina slowly filled with all kinds of
one-design class boats ready for a race weekend at the Haringvliet. For most
sailors the regatta was a short drive, but the Van Uden Reco is worth it! For
the J/22 fleet, two German teams looked forward to joining the party on and off
the water and traveled to Stellendam. On Friday, it was cold and windy, so many
teams launched, went for a quick practice sail then came back in to refuel,
stay warm and prepare for up to eight races on the schedule.
Despite the crazy weather this year Saturday dawned quite warm, so
woolly hats were substituted with long shirts and caps to shield everyone from
the warm sun. It soon became apparent that the wind forecasts were wrong. The
prediction was a Force 5 11-15 kts wind. There was enough wind to get off four
races and the sun made it a perfect sailing day! After a long, exhausting, but
fun day on the water, the sailors all looked forward to the massive outdoor
cookout on shore with ham, hamburgers, fish fry and plenty of beer. A good time
was had by all as the sun sank further behind the shed and the temperature
dropped (it was freezing at night!).
Unfortunately, predictions regards wind on Sunday came truer than anyone
hoped. With plenty of sun in the sky, the wind was hard to find!
However, it began to blow a little more in the course of the morning and the
sailing teams were sent onto the water. It was a good decision, because not
much later there was a breeze at Force 3-4! At noon was the first start for
most classes and courses. For the J/22s, the fleet managed to get in
three short races. However, the offshore boats had less luck, barely
getting in two to three good races (depending on the course), leading to many
boats simply dropping out due to lack of wind.
In the IRC Class, the three J/111s made the best of the conditions,
particularly on Saturday's windier day. As a result, finishing 2nd in IRC
was XCENTRIC RIPPER- John van der Starre- sailing to a 2-1-1-2-5-5 record for
11 net pts. Also sailing but having a hard time on the super-light Sunday
were SWEENY (Hans Zwinjnenburg) and LALLEKONING (M Sigg).
In the ORC classes, the J/105 JIPPA was sailed by Andre Zijderveld in
ORC2. And in ORC3, the J/80s were having fun with a "sub-fleet"
one-design competition amongst each other. Leading the J/80s in 4th was
JOT (M Menck), second J/80 lying 6th in fleet was nJOY (Coen van Even) and
third J/80 was DJ (OJ Golverdingen).
The J/22s had some spirited racing, especially on the windier
Saturday. The nearly windless Sunday jumbled the standings as different
teams excelled in one condition versus the other. Taking the top spot
after finishing Saturday in third overall was BIG LIFT/ Happy Future (Nico van
der Kolk), sailing to a 3-6-4-4-1-2-2 for 22 net pts. Just two points
back after a slow start on Sunday was BIG LIFT/ Happy Star (Jeremy Moens),
recording a scoreline of 5-4-5-1-5-3-1 for 24 pts. Third was BATAVAIA
STAD (Christian Rieckborn) with a 2-1-6-7-7-5-4 record for 32 pts.
Rounding out the top five were JOLLY JUMPER (Ivo Jeukens) in 4th with 34 pts
and in 5th was DE KANTOORBUTLER (Stan Heltzel) with 37 pts. Note, after
the first day, Heltzel was the regatta leader with a 1-5-1-5 but got DSQ'd in
race 5 on Sunday to hurt their chances at a podium finish. For more Van Uden Reco Stellendam Regatta sailing information
