Wednesday, September 11, 2013

J/111 XCENTRIC RIPPER Rips Breskens Weekend

J/111 Xcentric Ripper- winning team at Breskens Sailing weekendJ/33 TRIPLE J Dominates IRC 3 Class
(Breskens, Netherlands)- The tenth edition of the Gaastra Breskens Sailing Weekend was blessed with great weather and, especially, big breeze and big seas almost all weekend long.  With gorgeous sunny days on Friday and the finale Sunday punctuated by a rainy, cold front early on Saturday morning meant the sailors could go home happy after sailing hard in seven races over three days!  In fact, the Chairman of the Gaastra Breskens Sailing Weekend, Roy Aller, said "unlike the past few years, we were blessed this year with great weather!"

J/111 Xcentric Ripper sailing Breskens sailing weekendA number of J/Teams sailed in the J/111 One-Design class as well as IRC handicap divisions.  The five-star performance of the weekend goes to John van der Starre's famous J/111 XCENTRIC RIPPER, simply dominating their class with straight firsts.  Sailing fast up the learning curve was K. van Vliet's SWEENY, taking mostly 2nds in the four boat fleet.  Third overall was K. Cleeren's J-BIE just 1.5 pts back.

J/111 Xcentric Ripper- rounding markThe IRC 2 Division was treated to the presence of one of the classic, beautifully refinished J/35s, RAGAZZA skippered by J Gabriel.  She sailed well to grab 5th in class, improving nearly every race to take a 3rd in class in the seventh race!

In the IRC 3 Division, the J/33 TRIPLE-J sailed by J. van der Velden also did a horizon job on their fleet, collecting six 1sts and one 2nd (which they dropped) to win their class by a country mile.  Sailing well and taking sixth in class was the J/97 JAI-HO sailed by R. van Quekelberghe.   Sailing photo credits- Anusjka Martens   For more Breskens Race Week sailing information