(Scheveningen, Netherlands)- The Delta Lloyd North Sea Regatta in
Scheveningen had a brilliant start on Friday, May 25 under a clear blue
sky with more than 250 yachts ready to go racing. The sailing conditions
were perfect, although the strong, gusty northeasterly played many
tricks on the sailors. With gusts up to 27 knots, there was a lot of
damage to several boats-- sails torn, genakers and spinnakers blown out,
big shots broke booms and blocks ripped off decks! Yes, a lot of
carnage on day one, but a lot of fun sailing for those who could handle
the spectacular, sunny conditions. However, the perfect conditions
persisted for just one more day, with the last day being "fogged out"
with little wind for any of the fleets. In the end, John Van der
Starre's J/111 XCENTRIC RIPPER dominated IRC 2/3 Class. In the J/22s,
it was Kolleman Wouter's team that ran away with top honors. And, in
the J/24 class it was Erik Jeuring's team that also ran away with the
gold.
For
the first day on the IRC 2/3 course, the gang on the J/111 XCENTRIC
RIPPER made it known they were going to be a factor in their twenty-one
boat class, by far the largest and most competitive offshore class at
the North Sea Regatta. XCENTRIC's skipper John Van der Starre
immediately led the team to two bullets today. Co-captain Robin Verhoef
said, "We had some dangerous situations at times. We hit 13-15 kts at
times as we simply flew away from the rest of our fleet. We practiced a
lot in April at the SPI Ouest Regatta in La Trinite-sur-Mer and learned
a lot. There we sailed one-design class and we learned how to be more
competitive and much faster sailing against other J/111s. We discovered
the very subtle differences, e.g. in the settings of the mast and the
boat and sails to extract maximum performance. It helped us a lot!"
For
the J/22 class, it was a day with more and less wind pressure across
the course. In a field of eleven J/22's, Kolleman Wouter's team ran the
table, getting two first places. It was difficult sailing, especially
because sometimes the waves came from all sides. "It was a sloshing
wave," says Kolleman. "This increased the difficulty. We do like a lot
of wind, so we had no problems. But because he always had massive
changes in wind strength, you had a lot of pressure and then suddenly no
pressure. Usually we sail on inland lakes, but we are quite used to
power sailing."After the first day of sailing, it was quite the festive closing. Entertaining musical performances by the bands "Kissing the Girl" and the "Crazy Pianos" with great spinning of disks by "DJ Ruben" later in the evening. The sailors played late into the night enjoying the beautiful weather and a festive atmosphere.
The
second day of inshore races were characterized by nearly perfect
sailing conditions. There was less wind than the day before, so there
was less damages too! During the day the wind averaged 5-15 kts and was
very shifty. For the offshore classes, the second day was traditionally
an offshore course around the buoys. But, with lighter wind conditions
that could die-off, the RC decided to hold only inshore races around
the buoys. For IRC 2/3, the J/111 XCENTRIC RIPPER continued to dominate their class. And in the one-designs, the J/22s saw Wouter's J/22 team rattle off a few more firsts to also consolidate their lead. And, in the J/24 class, Erik Jeuring also posted some more firsts to extend their lead in their fleet.
One of the highlights of the second day was the J-Class RAINBOW visiting Delta Lloyd North Sea Regatta. This forty-meter classic sloop went sailing Sunday, May 27th with guests from the Delta Lloyd North Sea Regatta.
On
the final day of sailing, the shores were dense with fog hanging over
the Hague without a breath of wind, forcing the RC to cancel sailing for
the day. As a result, the regata results for the first two days that
included seven races counted for the final results. Congratulations go
out to the J/22 team of Wouter and the J/24 team of Jeuring for near
perfect scores, winning their classes by significant margins.
Congratulations also go out to a phenomenal performance by the J/111
XCENTRIC RIPPER team led by John Van de Starre and Robin Verhoef,
winning the most competitive IRC division by a whopping 10.5 points,
counting five 1sts in their scoreline. Kudos also to the J/109 CAPTAIN
JACK sailed by Bert Visser. For more North Sea Regatta sailing information
