Thereafter, those offshore yachts join thousands of other sailors sailing dozens of one-design classes in one of the largest regattas in Europe. It is truly a sailing festival as the entire town is taken over by sailors. Several disciplines participate in the event, big yachts, Olympic classes, catamarans, open boats, and kite boarders. Next week, the J/22s and J/80s will join the fun.
The Vuurschepenrace Race to Harwich started on Tuesday afternoon. After the start off Scheveningen, the fleet had a reach north along the coast to the first mark (NAM 22), just offshore of the seaside village of Katwijk. After turning left, the fleet was facing westerlies in the 10-15 kts range overnight going to the mid-channel mark in a WNW direction. In short, the entire fleet was hard on the nose, very tightly packed together, hoping to make headway in the choppy channel that is loaded with ships everywhere (here’s the AIS map- vesselfinder.com- of the channel as 0200 hours on Wednesday!).
The “fetch” to Harwich on starboard may or may not be easy depending on how the winds hold up, plus there’s lots of current to take into consideration crossing the channel. You can watch the live/ recorded tracking of the fleet on Yellow Brick’s website- http://yb.tl/vuurschepen2015.
Sailing in the IRC 2 Class is the J/105 HARPOEN skippered by Harry Rek. In ORC 2 division, a duo of J/109s are racing, MAJIC (Arnout Joorritsma) and JAI LAI (JC Bornet).
The big “news” is the new Dutch Double-handed Nationals series that starts with the Vuurschepen Race. In ORC 2H are seven very well-sailed and prepared J/Teams, many of whom have won previous RORC offshore races and the Delta Lloyd Regatta. Those teams include the J/133 BATFISH (Bart Desaunois/ Gerard de Boer), the J/111 XCENTRIC RIPPER (John van der Starre/ Robin Verhoef), the J/122 JUNIQUE RAYMARINE SAILING TEAM (Chris Revelman/ Pascal Bakker), the J/120 MAVERICK (Chris Schram), the J/109s FIRESTORM (Wim van Slooten/ Jochem Hamstra) & ARETHUSA (Kees Mijs) and the J/105 PANTHER sailed by the women’s team of Yvonne Beusker/ Edith Voskamp.
The North Sea Regatta this year has a special edition for the two-person sailing teams. For the first time in Dutch history, but also internationally, there is a national championship for Two-Handed sailors. The organizers are the Shorthanded Dutch class organization, the North Sea Club and the Royal Yachting Association. The Vuurschepenrace, the North Sea Race and the North Sea Regatta 2015 are designated as the first official Dutch Championship for duets! The explosive growth of Two-Handed teams in the North Sea Regatta shows that one-third of the fleet is now manned by pairs!
“The class organization for Two-Handed sailors is ready”, says a proud Yvonne Beusker. Yvonne’s responsible for the new competition format and is a proud J/105 owner/ skipper. She adds, "The first event is anything but simple, with two long range offshore races and four days of inshore racing off the coast Scheveningen. We already have 22 die-hard sailors! Quite a few duos, including Junique, Maverick, Panther and Xcentric Ripper (all JBoats teams) will continue the fight after the North Sea Regatta, with everyone preparing for the Rolex Fastnet Race in August!” The photo here is of Yvonne and co-skipper Edith Voskamp on their J/105 PANTHER. Follow their activities on social media Facebook sailing page.
For more North Sea Regatta sailing information.