(The Hague, The Netherlands)- The Dutch J/70 National Sailing League- “Eredivisie Zeilen”- had yet another successful year with record participation and an amazing increase in the level of competition.
The leaders of the “EZ” league, Alex Hoeve and Marco de Klerk, had this to say at the finale in Monnickendam;
"Throughout
the season, we have been able to get high quality sailing amongst our
sailing club teams. We have seen the level of competition increase
dramatically this year. This is a good development, as we can now sail
in heavier wind conditions at any event, thanks to the much-improved
sailing experience of the sailors. Most importantly, we see more and
more youthful participants joining the “old guard”; this trend is
important and fits into the philosophy of the Eredivisie Zeilen!”In the end, it was the WSV Almere Centraal team that took 4th in the finale to “seal the deal” and clinch the overall title after sailing the five events (Almere, Aalsmeer, Scheveningen, Veere, Monnickendam) with a low point total of 108 pts. Ironically, there’s was not an easy win since only 11 pts separated them from the 2nd place finishers in the end- Jachtclub Scheveningen.
For
the first day of sailing on the Gouwzee, the fleet was greeted by a
tough breeze blowing an average of 24 kts. Spice it up with lulls and
torrential downpours on occasion and you get the picture. It was very
challenging for both the sailors as well as the race committee. Three
complete flights were run. With such a strong breeze, the big issue was
(ironically) the teams maintaining (and anticipating) big puffs with
tactical situations. For example, VWDTP had a collision with the
SheSails Ladies from Amsterdam. Artur Knuppel said, “it was an
unfortunate collision. We tried to dive below SheSails, but a big puff
hit us as we bore off. So, we hit them amidships, making considerable
damage, we feel so badly for this incident."The WV Almere Centraal skipper said, “the team is able to make the difference mainly on 'boat handling' and experience. They have been sailing in this event for three years now, and they benefit from it. The plan is to further build the lead, but we can not make mistakes!"
Sitting
in second after the first day, Jachtclub Scheveningen’s Tom Kerkhof
commented, “it's a lot of fun sailing! We have a 1st place in the first
race and a third place in the second race. In our first race today we
could benefit from a mistake by WV Almere Centraal, which we caught in
the last leg. We kept the boat going hard and played the wind shifts as
best we could."The second day of sailing on Saturday was completely blown out, with winds hitting Force 6 & 7- 40+ knots! So, the race committee wisely canceled races for the day after an initial postponement to 1400 hours.
For the Sunday finale, only nine points separated WSV Almere Centraal and Jachtclub Scheveningen after 147 races in the course of the 2017 season! Everyone’s patience was being tested all weekend-long on the Gouwzee- with puffs hitting 32 kts on Friday, 28 kts on Saturday, everyone was hoping Sunday would provide a fair test of the teams. As it turns out, the conditions on Sunday were considerably quieter than the previous days, making it a tactical game in 5-7 knots of wind. Eventually, 24 races were sailed for the weekend.
WSV
Almere Centraal was hoping to win another title. Team captain John
Engelsman said, "Our ambition was to win another title. We also wanted
to get the final stage in Monnickendam, but unfortunately, it just did
not work. At the beginning of this season, we added four new members to
our team. All experienced racing sailors, but every round was another
challenge to set up the right team. Until this weekend, we managed to
win three rounds, although the margins of winning are significantly
smaller compared to 2016. Even for the Sailing Champions League that we
sailed, the margins were quite small between the 36 best clubs in
Europe; we finished 9th overall and the podium had a four point spread
from 1st to 3rd- amazing!”Rounding out the top three in the Dutch J/70 National Sailing League was Jachtclub Scheveningen in second place with 119 pts and WSV Giesbeek in third place with 128 pts. Follow the Dutch J/70 National Sailing League Facebook page For more Dutch J/70 National Sailing League information Add to Flipboard Magazine.
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