RBSC Extreme 2010 - the longest ever

As the last 2 years also this year I sailed the 3 days long distance race RBSC Extreme with my sailing partner Manu on his Nacra Infusion F18.



The last 2 years were really fun and the weather forecast (3 days of 15 to 20 knots) promised for some great North Sea sailing.

At 10 am 12 cats started of towards the first gps waypoint, first of the many to come.
This year the organisation prepared no less then 220 waypoints to guide us along the Belgian and Dutch North Sea coast and Ducth inland waters.

Keywords of the first day: 15 to 20 knots, spinnaker sailing, speed.
In less then 6 hours we covered 70 miles or 130 km! Meaning we ended at the end of the first day just below Rotterdam in Hellevoetsluis.
We had a day of ups and downs with a 1rst and a 3rd, but also with a couple of 7ns...

The warm up of the second day was Rondje Tiengemeten, a yearly long distance race held by the sailing club Hellecat. By 12 we finished the round and were ready to go through the lock out to the sea again. 5 hours of upwind sailing were waiting. Luckily the wind went down to a nice 15 knots after the first hour, so we returned from survival mode to racing mode :-).
We steadily finished around 5th position, but felt we improved during the day as we got more used to sailing with each other.
Finally we ended up at the Roompot in Holland, 110 km from where we started this morning.



On the last day we had no idea what the organisation had still up for us. We were just 2 hours from your club, but imagined they wouldn't just let us sail in like that.
What a great last day we had. After a couple of normal legs, we started of for a 10 mile upwind leg. The whole fleet was very close to each other then entire time. Every 15 minutes the fleet crossed each other, everytime anxious to see if positions had changed. Finally we were able to finish 2nd in this leg, with a finish at the Thorton bank, where they are installing an offshore windfarm at the moment.



Once there we headed back to shore a 17 mile leg! What a great spinnaker run!



I'll still upload the original gps track we sailing if I'm able to download it.

This was the longest extreme we had sailed up to know. The organisation each time knows to surprise us and we'll be competing again next year to defend of final 5th position!

Club Championship @ VVW Heist

Stress!! Being the title defender sure brings the nerves into the game. This game should have been played last week but since we were faced with Force 7 winds on that Sunday the Championship was postponed to this Sunday.

After getting back from a great Raf Verhaeghe Challenge at Oostduinkerke on Saturday night we decided to rig the Falcon on Sunday morning. Start of the race was scheduled at 1PM so with our newly mastered fast rigging techniques we could put the mast up on Sunday and still be ready in time to start the race.

Predictions were Force 3-4, South Westerly and rain. Wind speed and direction perfect (flat seas!), rain not so much. But still after lap 1 of race 1 we were happy it started to rain. The first lap started in very low winds, very stressful, so we were happy a rain cloud passed over so the wind could pick up again. It is so much more fun to be able to trap out with 2 than to just sit in on the hull. We got first at the upwind mark and could immediately hoist the spinnaker. Gill was so focused on doing it right tough that he immediately decided to gybe of to the sea where the bigger winds were. But hey wait not so fast, you forgot to take the spreader mark. Ouch. I didn't notice it, and neither did Gill. It was only at the second lap when we did take the spreader mark, Gill noticed we didn't take it the first time. Oh no, no way back now, not taking this mark meant that we got a DSQ for this first race, altough we finished first. Sh*t! :-)

Even more stress from then on, since we really needed 3 more races so we could get one reduction. Thanks to the racing committee (they were really fast!) we did manage to pull of 4 races that day. And all 3 next races we scored a bullet. Fffew. We were very happy to take the title after all that stress!

We were again very thrilled with our boat speed and power. We found the right settings! Everything went very smoothly. Altough we have found some more points to focus on. We noticed that we loose speed during a gybe, so we'll have to practice to maintain boat speed after gybing.

The day ended with us receiving the very nice trophy for the second time in a row and a nice Fajitas dinner at the club.

Right now we are taking a holiday from sailing. We are going to explore the beauty of nature in Sweden and after that Gill will be ready to sail the RBSC Extreme again, with Manu Proot (who came in 3rd at the RBSC Diamond Cup, congratulations!). After that our next big race will be the Club Championship at RBSC Duinbergen. We are very much looking forward to that since we want to compare our new found skills and speed to the very good sailors Patrick Demesmaeker, Vincent Thierry, Jan Verlinden and Wim Deca. Exciting!

Raf Verhaeghe Challenge 2010 @ SYCOD Oostduinkerke

The Raf Verhaeghe Challenge is a 2 day race in Oostduinkerke that has been on our "want to do" list for ages. Finally this year we could schedule it and we were really looking forward to it. Unfortunately the weekend before the weather gods didn't cooperate so our Club Championship @ VVW Heist was postponed to the Sunday of the Raf Verhaeghe Challenge! Dilemma...

We couldn't keep away from our Club Championship, moreover since we were the title defenders. But we also didn't want to stay away from the Raf Verhaeghe. So we decided to take it all and sail the Raf Verhaeghe on Saturday and the Club Championship on Sunday. This meant of course that we would need to trailer the boat to Oostduinkerke on Friday, set up, sail and then on Saturday evening break everything of again and trailer back to Heist. Let's say we now know how to rig and de-rig our Falcon very quickly :-)

We are very happy we chose this option, because we had a great weekend. We really feel we stepped up our level again. On Saturday we scored a 3, a 3, a 5 and a 4 and ended 4th overall after day 1. Our boat speed was amazing. Boat handling is also getting better and since we bought a TacTic compass we now also start to play the wind shifts more. So overall we are still improving :-)

We had 4 races in different conditions. The first 2 races we had high winds (force 4-5) and going upwind we faced long waves. Race 1 started with a pin end favored start line so we started on starboard and we managed to cross the fleet! Great feeling. We would have been 1st at the upwind mark if we got the mark right, but we had to make 1 extra tack. This put us in second position at the upwind mark. A short spreader and a quick spin hoist and than off to the gate. We had to do 3 laps each race and since there was a lot of wind we really were totally beat after race 1. But we were also very happy since we finished 3rd! The French Black Moon sailors, Joel Lefèvre & Erwan Griziaux, called our Falcon "la bombe", how cool is that!

After the races Gill took interested sailor Bert Desmet along for a test sail on the Falcon. Bert was really impressed with the boat and back on shore we also had some more interested people checking out the Falcon and asking questions. Very nice!

The day ended with a tasty paella served at the club and a good night of socializing with the SYCOD sailors. Great bunch of people!

The final results of the 2 day event are not yet available. As soon as we receive them I'll update this post. We also have some nice pictures shot on Saturday, so I hope we'll get them too.

F16 Europeans - Day 5

Day 5, last day, and a very important day for us. With our performance yesterday we managed to loose our 7th place, and were now in a draw with Chris Sproat. He was 8th, we were 9th and place 7 got taken by Paul & Ann on their Falcon. So Chris was nicely sitting in between 2 Falcons :-)

It was the decision day for us. We were only separated with 1 point from Paul and on a draw with Chris, how cool a racing day this would be!

But the weather gods decided the decision was made and it rained and t-stormed all day. So at 15h the decision was made: no more racing. So there it was, the F16 Europeans ended with a non sailing day. But we do not complain, we had a fantastic week, with really the best sailing we ever had. Such a great scenery, nice weather, 12 races, sun, great people to hang out with. It was all marvelous!

The club organised a perfect regatta and it ended with a perfect price giving with prizes and food and drinks, offered by their sponsor, Ferrari. The winners of this event are the very young Australian "kids": Jason Waterhouse & his crew Lisa. Congratulations!

Full results on the F16 website.

Stay tuned for a picture and video blog, following soon!

F16 Europeans - Day 4

Day 4 started of with no wind, a very quiet sunny day. The locals didn't really know what to expect. Would the wind kick in at 13h? Or would it be a no wind day? If the locals don't have a clue, it is really hard to decide what to do! So we set the boat up for a very light day, mast and jib were all rigged for little wind. At 12h everyone started to drift away to the course side, daring to hope for some more wind to race.

At 13h we crossed the start line and so did the wind! There she was, blowing in all force, probably 20 knots. Haha that wind can fool you. So there we were, all rigged up for light wind and it was blowing. We were heavily overpowered. Gill had to put in all his effort just to steer (we had a very heavy helm due to the wrong mast setting) and he was beat just after race 1. We finished 10th, and were not happy about that.

In between race 1 and 2 we adjusted the settings for the heavier wind (jib and mast settings). We hit the starting line for the 2nd time that day and where was the wind??? Hmmm okay so now the wind was gone, well not gone, but still a fair bit lesser than race 1. Cracks you up heh? So we were not overpowered, and luckily we managed to sail well and we ended up 6th, before Paul & Ann but behind Cris Sproat.

Our goal of today was to stay before Paul and Chris, so we could keep our place 7. In race 1 we didn't manage to defend our place, and in race 2 we could keep Paul behind us, but not Chris. Ooooh how exciting, very very bad for the nerves...

Race 3 had almost the same wind as race 2, but a bit more shifty. We played it well and managed to get an 8th for the last race, in a tight duel at the gate with the Viper Dutch Boys Thijs Visser. We finished just before Paul did, but after Chris again (he really found his groove on day 4!).

Back to shore in a nice one on one race with Paul and Ann. For the fun of it we even double trapped with the kite up and Gill's dad filmed this. So stay tuned for some cool footage later on :-)

This day ended perfectly with a barbeque with some of the sailors at their appartment. To make it perfect we even had a T-Storm and some rain, but luckily their terrace had a covered top so we could stay outside to enjoy the lightning over the mountains.

F16 Europeans - day 3

Day 3 is over and we made it again :-) It was a lighter day today but very exciting. We did very very bad in race 2, finishing 11th. Boehoe. We had a bad start in that race, due to this bad start we didn't have clean air on the left side of the course, so we decided to tack and found ourselves without pressure in the middle of the course. To top it all of we managed to over sail the gate in the last lap and then there was a kite surfer in the way so we had to douse the kite before the gate, so yeah, not a good race at all. So that will be one of our throw outs.

We are currently in a draw for 7th place with Paul and Anne, who are also sailing a Falcon, so that is really great and also very exciting for the next races.

Race 1 was our best race today, were we scored a 6. We had a clean high start and we were able to tack away quick to the right side of the course and that did pay off. We were 3rd at the upwind mark, but then we lost 1 place in the downwind run and than another 2 in the upwind mark (we over sailed the upwind mark a bit).

Race 3 we scored a 7, so also very happy about that. We had great pressure going downwind with the kite (Kathleen had to sit in, because there was not enough wind to trap out) and we had alot of speed and depth.

Overall we are very happy with our results, and we find ourselves as one of the 1st amateur sailors. The top 6 is not possible anymore due to the difference in points but we will do our utmost to keep our 7th place. And I am sure Paul will do the same :-)

Tonight we have a dinner and party offered by the club, looking forward to that. Gill's dad also got out for a little ride on the Falcon today after we came back from the races. He just took the jib of, and of he went. He had a great ride and he enjoyed the beautiful lake Como scenery :-)

F16 Europeans - day 2

Day 2 is over and it was perfect. A bit more wind than yesterday for all 3 races. Very close rasing, closer than yesterday. It was very exciting. And the downwind races were so fast, whow! We loved it. But now I (Kathleen) am totally knackered. I feel my arms!

We managed to get in the top 5 today with our last race, a 4!! Paul and Ann were flying on their Falcon, they scored an 8, a 3 and another 3, great!

Our final scores for today: 10, 7 and 4, getting better yet again :-)

There were some protests and some OCS, so could be the scoring changes a bit.
We had again 3 races, but the course was a bit smaller, so it all went a bit faster. Our downwind speed was great and we were overtaking boats, sailing deeper and faster.
Upwind was another story, we had great laps, but also not so great laps. Paul and Ann were able to point higher and they were faster. So we will have a talk to them I guess :-)

Now off to eat something, bon appetito!

F16 Europeans - day 1

Day 1 of the Europeans

Day 1. Skippers meeting at 11 and the race course gets announced: 3 laps, upwind mark - spreader mark - gate. Three races are scheduled for today and for all the 5 days of the week.
Still no wind, but weather prediction is that winds of 15 knots will kick in.

12h30 all 17 boats get on the water. By the time we got to the racing area the course is set. Great organisation and we start on time, 13h.
The starts are tight but fair, no recalls, no Black Flags.
We manage to get off the starting line very good each time. About 4rth to the committee boat and always with clean air.
Shortly after the start everyone tacks to shore where the wind and the shifts are. Up to the shore it's a drag race.
Because of our clean starts we manage to be in top 5 almost each time we round the upwind mark for the first time. With the spinnaker up we learned to leave the boards down even in 15 knots as the lake is sooo flat :-)
Once we did this we could keep up and even gain some boat lengths on the pro teams.
On the upwind beat we tend to loose a place each time. After three laps we are about in 8th position to finish everytime.

We'll change our mast settings just a bit to have a better upwind performance and to go for that top 5 today! Well we'll see how that turns out today!

First days at Como and the practice race

Sun, water, wind, nice sceneries. That is Como, Italy in a nutshell. A great place for the first F16 Europeans.

We arrived on Thursday, a few days before the actual regatta that starts on Monday.
We had the boat measured on Friday morning. After that we set it up, adjusted some things we already wanted to do long time, but hadn't have the time for, and then set off for the first short sail.
Damn, what a great lake! From 1 pm onwards the wind starts to blow Southernly (Nothernly in the morning) untill about 6 pm. When we went on the water it was about 15 knots and a great ride with the spinnaker.
Also the wind and water is so hot you only need a shorty and that is still too warm at some times! :-)

Same thing on Saturday! That looked promising for the rest of the week and the championship!

Saturday most of the teams arrived and we could meet up with some familiar faces we hadn't seen for a long time.

Today we did our first race, the practice race. In fact it was held together with a local regatta.
2 small races were done today, with only 5 boats on the starting line the first race. Us and 4 Viper teams.
The wind was blowing Northernly the whole day because a storm hit us last night and this caused very shifty wind and a lot of dead spots during the race.
This race we finished 4rth, with Darren Bundock and Carolijn Brouwer having a huge lead of the rest of us.

The second race of the day most of the F16's were out on the water. (I think we are about 17 in total).
We positioned quite late for the start, but found a hole 4 boats from the committee boat. We had a great start and got clean air immediately.
We tacked quite early and got a great shift on that tack. The whole fleet turned to early to the upwind mark and had to do 2 more tacks, while we sailed into more wind by going further.
This got us first to the upwind mark.
We could keep our position up to the downwind mark as we did a great thing looking for pressure again.



We continued to keep our lead second time at the upwind mark, but a group of 5 boats had gained a bit on us.
On the second downwind we made the mistake on to gybe immediately into the pressure and got caught in a deadspot 50 meters below the upwind buoy!
We saw the group of 5 gybed immediately and sailing 50 meters higher with the hull out of the water.... (Cursing on the boat :-) )
By the time we got to the finish line they had overtaken us moving us to 7th.... Well at least we know we got our boatspeed right :-)

We didn't manage to do another race as the wind totally died and everyone headed back to the club.

Well great first day for us, but I'm sure we'll have to be at our very best from start to finish if we want to be at the top of the fleet.

Check our our website for more pictures the coming days.

Gamblers long distance

This race is always a fun race.
If you are looking for a fun race during the season take this format.
In short: you are given a course at the time of briefing. You have 10 minutes to guess how long it will take you to do the course. Finishing time is 4pm, starting time depends on how long you think you will be sailing. (more here)

The course this year was 21 NM. Wind force 5. Waves height 1,5 meters. Wind direction 5°.
(the white line is approx. 6.8 NM. The black arrow is the wind direction).


We started at 2.20 pm (last boat). Our initial guess was 2.10, but I got persuaded by another team to go for 2.20. :-)

After 5 minutes on the beat we (me and my dad) saw that getting to the first mark in 30 minutes was impossible... Or we would have to sail fast on the half wind legs or someone had to do something wrong if we still wanted to win.

45 minutes of heavy seas later we got to the 1st mark. To our surprise we saw the 2 F18's - that had started 10 and 20 minutes before us - sailing just in front of us. (all the others left even earlier and even with the penalty we could get for finishing late we would still be in front of them. The 2 teams just in front were the ones to get!)

The line from mark 1 to mark 2 was a terrible one. The line we had to sail was about 15 to 20 degrees off from a spinnaker leg. This got everyone stuck in a no spinnaker, heavy wind, high waves 20 minutes of sailing. The F18 slighty gained on us as we were slowed down because the bow digged into the waves at times. We tried to speed up as much as possible as the boat didn't pitchpole at all. If the nose went in, it nicely came up again, but at a loss of speed ofcourse.
To make it worse an ocean container cargo passed us at 500 meters giving us even bigger waves right from the side.

The leg from mark 2 to 3 was more our cup of tea. First we surfed down the big waves to "calmer" waters. Once there we could sail almost half wind, bearing away and making lots of speed in the gusts. By the time we got to the 3rd mark we passed an F18 and were right behind the other.

Now we were very close to shore and the waves were a lot shorter at the same height there. The first half we played it safe and didn't trap out. We could keep up with the boat in front but didn't come any closer neither.
The second half I decided to trap out in an all or nothing attempt to catch the leaders. Slowly we gained some ground, but way to little to catch them before the finish line.

The time we finished behind them was going to be multiplied by 3 as a penalty. We started 20 minutes after this team, so if we were 6 minutes or earlier behind them we would win, otherwise they would....

And we were just 5 minutes behind! Yes!