Finally the prizes were given and they ended 1st and 3rd in the C1! Winning against some of the best Belgian teams. They were super proud! (and so were weI!).
RBSC Club Championship, September 24, 2011
Yesterday was the RBSC clubchampionship and this is one of the last races sailed in Belgium. We decided to lend our boats to 2 youth teams: Arnout & Klaas Viktor sailed Falcon BEL666 and Philippe Hendrickx and Gaeton Bols sailed Falcon USA208.
The day started early, 9 AM at the beach to rig the boats and to coach the youth with some light wind tips before they were of to the starting area.
Emile De Moor sailed his Blade F16 together with Louis Verstraete, so 3 F16's getting ready in the morning, a very nice view!
Wind was very light and start was postponed. Luckily a little sea breeze settled in so racing could go on! Gill went out on the water on a rib with RBSC Youth trainer Laurent to watch the teams and to take pictures. I stayed on shore, as a true trolley dolly :-)
Sun was out and so were alot of boats! No less than 80 boats made the start. This included 60 cats (the other 20 were all yachts from RBSC Zeebrugge). Of the 60 catamarans there were 4 Dragoons battling it out in the youngest class. With the low winds (5 knots) and the heavy current they had the hardest time on the water.
There were about 25 boats in both the C3 and C1 class. The C3 was crowded with youth teams. One of the teams was a youth team from our club, VVW Heist: Gilles Hendrickx and Filip Olyslager. They finished first youth on a third place in the C3!
In the C1 the there was 1 youth team on an F18 and 3 youth teams on F16's!
"Our youth" had been training the whole week in medium to heavy wind but they weren't too confident to sail light winds. Weighing 138 kgs Anout&Klaas were the heaviest of the three. In total 3 races were sailed in dying winds and increasing current. Clean air and not overstanding the layline was key but very difficult in these conditions. Because of all the training they did, the Falcon teams were off the line very well each time. It was great to see them battling it out in the front!
With steady top 3 finishes it was clear that they had done great! They even came across the line first one time!
Finally the prizes were given and they ended 1st and 3rd in the C1! Winning against some of the best Belgian teams. They were super proud! (and so were weI!).
Great to see so much youth in the top 3, certainly in the 'dad' dominated C1 class!
Full results and all pictures.
Finally the prizes were given and they ended 1st and 3rd in the C1! Winning against some of the best Belgian teams. They were super proud! (and so were weI!).
Raid des Corsaires 2011, France, September 3-4
Although we didn’t race this one ourselves, we think this is a great race, put it on your list! The organization is wonderful and the scenery magnificent. It was a tough job with the wind changing direction all the time and a heavy current, but I think everybody looks back at a great event.
We let a French team sail our Falcon: Thierry Wibaux with his wife Christine. We arrived on Friday with beautiful weather (finally some sun in Europe!) and great ambiance.
On Saturday the start wasn’t until 2 PM because of the high tide (no beach to launch from, until 1PM!). Thierry sailed very well, finishing after Gildas Griziaux on a Viper and behind the 2 F20's and 2 Tornados. For a long time he kept pace with the Tornados making him finish in front on rating I guess. It was a very light wind day and they had to shorten the course. The latest participants arrived after 9 PM! The 2 F20's had a huge lead on all the other boats in these light winds, it was amazing. We followed the race and this was a race in itself :-)
We took the car and drove from waypoint to waypoint checking the race from on top of the rocks or on the beach, a great day for us with great views of this big catamaran race. Lots of spectators followed this race too, it's truly a legend in the St Malo area.
We ended the day with a great Paella diner and some fun lottery with very cool prizes. They do a great job with many voluntary staff. The diner (with nice free red and rosé wine :-)) was held in a large venue. To clean up the tables and chairs after diner they found a great incentive. They first showed a 7 minutes movie about day 1 at Raid des Corsaires and then after this movie they told all the participants they wanted the venue emptied in less then 7 minutes so everybody had to help. They showed the movie again and indeed once the movie was over the venue was all cleaned up thanks to the effort of all 130 teams! Nice work and they create a very friendly atmosphere like this.
On Sunday it was blowing in the morning so racing was postponed. Thierry didn't start the first race as it was only the 5th hour on the boat and it was very windy just before the start. The second race of that day and the last one of the weekend we watched him from ashore and he had a great start, but then suddenly we saw him coming to a stop?! Some bad luck because his adjustable trapeze came loose, ouch :-).
Eventually he was well in front of all the 16's, gaining a lot on the downwind run he said. Before the finish the wind dropped (and changed directions too, a very tough day of sailing wind wise again) and everyone came together again, so I'm not sure what the final results are (no official results yet). The F18's started 5 minutes after the C1 start and Misha Heemskerk took a huge lead on the downwind, even finishing in front of the F20! Everybody came back around 5 PM and an hour later we watched the price giving.
The best 3 teams of each class (C1, F18 and C3) got a nice Sword as a price, very cool! Micha Heemskerk won the F18 and the F20 (Francis Ferrari) won the C1.
At 7PM we drove back home, tired but very happy after a great weekend at St-Malo!
We let a French team sail our Falcon: Thierry Wibaux with his wife Christine. We arrived on Friday with beautiful weather (finally some sun in Europe!) and great ambiance.
On Saturday the start wasn’t until 2 PM because of the high tide (no beach to launch from, until 1PM!). Thierry sailed very well, finishing after Gildas Griziaux on a Viper and behind the 2 F20's and 2 Tornados. For a long time he kept pace with the Tornados making him finish in front on rating I guess. It was a very light wind day and they had to shorten the course. The latest participants arrived after 9 PM! The 2 F20's had a huge lead on all the other boats in these light winds, it was amazing. We followed the race and this was a race in itself :-)
We took the car and drove from waypoint to waypoint checking the race from on top of the rocks or on the beach, a great day for us with great views of this big catamaran race. Lots of spectators followed this race too, it's truly a legend in the St Malo area.
We ended the day with a great Paella diner and some fun lottery with very cool prizes. They do a great job with many voluntary staff. The diner (with nice free red and rosé wine :-)) was held in a large venue. To clean up the tables and chairs after diner they found a great incentive. They first showed a 7 minutes movie about day 1 at Raid des Corsaires and then after this movie they told all the participants they wanted the venue emptied in less then 7 minutes so everybody had to help. They showed the movie again and indeed once the movie was over the venue was all cleaned up thanks to the effort of all 130 teams! Nice work and they create a very friendly atmosphere like this.
On Sunday it was blowing in the morning so racing was postponed. Thierry didn't start the first race as it was only the 5th hour on the boat and it was very windy just before the start. The second race of that day and the last one of the weekend we watched him from ashore and he had a great start, but then suddenly we saw him coming to a stop?! Some bad luck because his adjustable trapeze came loose, ouch :-).
Eventually he was well in front of all the 16's, gaining a lot on the downwind run he said. Before the finish the wind dropped (and changed directions too, a very tough day of sailing wind wise again) and everyone came together again, so I'm not sure what the final results are (no official results yet). The F18's started 5 minutes after the C1 start and Misha Heemskerk took a huge lead on the downwind, even finishing in front of the F20! Everybody came back around 5 PM and an hour later we watched the price giving.
The best 3 teams of each class (C1, F18 and C3) got a nice Sword as a price, very cool! Micha Heemskerk won the F18 and the F20 (Francis Ferrari) won the C1.
At 7PM we drove back home, tired but very happy after a great weekend at St-Malo!
Diamond Sailing Cup 2011, August 20
This is one of our favorite events. For Kathleen because she can win a little diamond (very little but she is saving them all to have – one day – a ring made of it) and in general because this is a compulsory mixed event. Since we are always sailing mixed we like this format a lot.
With a total of 71 boats registered this was again a very successful race, organized by RBSC Zoute. Saturday announced to be a very light wind day, with predictions of force 2 to 3 with maybe a sea breeze coming in and making it a force 4 in the afternoon. Gill had hurt his back while biking (in fact he was texting and biking and he ran into a parked car, not so smart!) and up until Saturday morning we were not sure he would be able to participate. On Saturday morning he felt ok and since the prediction was for light winds we decided to go out.
Start was at 12, we were out on the water at 11 to make it in time (we had to sail for about half an hour to the starting area, because of the light wind). The racing committee did a great job and managed to get 3 races in, but it wasn’t an easy job. They had to change course after each race. The wind turned but no real sea breeze settled. We had a lot of shifts and holes of no wind in the racing area. Tactical sailing!
In the second race we were in 7th place when suddenly the wind turned and instead of sailing downwind we were faced to drop the kite and sail upwind. Unfortunately 3 other boats who were sailing a bit higher than us could keep their kite up and these 3 boats passed us right in front of the finish. Damn! We finished 7th, 11th and 13th, leaving us on a 10th place overall. We were happy with this result, with these light winds and tactical course we still struggle but we had good boat speed and we didn’t really screw up.
Youth team Klaas & Valerie sailed for the first time together (Klaas is normally crew for his brother Arnout Viktor) and they needed some time to get into the groove, but when they did, they rocked. They were very happy to finish race 3 in front of Olympic Sailor Carolijn Brouwer on a Viper, even on corrected time! Great sailing guys! They finished overall on place 9, their last race they were place 4, just behind Wouter Samama, Wim Deca and Patrick Demesmaeker, very happy faces after this great result!
We beached at RBSC Zoute to derig the boats and to put them on the trailer. After the price giving (yes we got another little diamond!) we left for our next race in Oostduinkerke, the Raf Verhaeghe Challenge at Sycod Oostduinkerke.
With a total of 71 boats registered this was again a very successful race, organized by RBSC Zoute. Saturday announced to be a very light wind day, with predictions of force 2 to 3 with maybe a sea breeze coming in and making it a force 4 in the afternoon. Gill had hurt his back while biking (in fact he was texting and biking and he ran into a parked car, not so smart!) and up until Saturday morning we were not sure he would be able to participate. On Saturday morning he felt ok and since the prediction was for light winds we decided to go out.
Start was at 12, we were out on the water at 11 to make it in time (we had to sail for about half an hour to the starting area, because of the light wind). The racing committee did a great job and managed to get 3 races in, but it wasn’t an easy job. They had to change course after each race. The wind turned but no real sea breeze settled. We had a lot of shifts and holes of no wind in the racing area. Tactical sailing!
In the second race we were in 7th place when suddenly the wind turned and instead of sailing downwind we were faced to drop the kite and sail upwind. Unfortunately 3 other boats who were sailing a bit higher than us could keep their kite up and these 3 boats passed us right in front of the finish. Damn! We finished 7th, 11th and 13th, leaving us on a 10th place overall. We were happy with this result, with these light winds and tactical course we still struggle but we had good boat speed and we didn’t really screw up.
Youth team Klaas & Valerie sailed for the first time together (Klaas is normally crew for his brother Arnout Viktor) and they needed some time to get into the groove, but when they did, they rocked. They were very happy to finish race 3 in front of Olympic Sailor Carolijn Brouwer on a Viper, even on corrected time! Great sailing guys! They finished overall on place 9, their last race they were place 4, just behind Wouter Samama, Wim Deca and Patrick Demesmaeker, very happy faces after this great result!
We beached at RBSC Zoute to derig the boats and to put them on the trailer. After the price giving (yes we got another little diamond!) we left for our next race in Oostduinkerke, the Raf Verhaeghe Challenge at Sycod Oostduinkerke.
Club Championship 2011, August 14
Exciting times: would we be able to obtain this title for the 3rd consecutive time or would we have to pass the honor to the upcoming talented youth team Anton Coppens Anton en Louis Verstraete on their Nacra 500?
I don’t know how long I am already talking about driving a race but anyway in the week before the race we decided I was going to drive 1 race to see how this would go. After this decision I had 3 more days to prepare mentally (in other words to get nervous). Sunday came and the sun was out, the water was flat and the wind was a nice force 3-4. We went out a bit before the start so I could drive the course once before I had to drive the race.
We went over to the starting line and this was something I was a bit afraid of, but nothing to worry, Gill knows what he has to do and he just told me to bear off, go up again, stay, go,… we didn’t start on the second, but pretty close so this felt rather ok. The first upwind mark along the coast we could both trap and Gill kept telling me “watch the jib, watch the jib, watch the jib…”. The second upwind tack we noticed that the Nacra Infusion (not from our club and with a good sailor on it) was in front. Again I heard a lot of “watch your jib” but I found it very hard. If my tell tales in the bottom were ok the top ones weren’t, and each time I was about to correct my steering Gill was already seeing it just a second faster so he had to say it again “watch your jib”. Difficult! So we were second at the upwind mark, dog leg went ok, bearing of to pull the kite also. The downwind leg went fine, short courses, so a quick run to the gate.
Now I know what Riley meant when she told us in her interview that she likes the downwind best because she feels in control. I didn’t understand this when she told this because as a crew I like the upwind better than the downwind (although this is changing too). But as a skipper the downwind feels indeed so much more under control, you get the speed, you feel the boat, you go up and you feel the speed increasing, you bear off if it is too high and you can feel that the crew can control this too. The only thing here is learn not to bear off to quickly, but this is just getting used to. It was nice to have a silent crew for a bit too, haha.
The thing I liked the most about my first drive was the feeling you get when you get out on the wire with the stick in your hand, it feels so powerful!
On the last downwind run to the gate, Gill was on the wire and he fell forward, I did a bear off, but… too much and we gybed! Ah shit! Since we were both still on the same side, Gill on the trapeze, gybing was NOT a good idea, so we went over (well over is not really the word when the boat just falls onto you). I thought this was really funny, my first race and I capsized! Especially since when I am the crew I always tell Gill to be careful and not to capsize. Haha. But my crew was pissed off. “Why did you do that?!.
After righting the boat Gill stated “I’ll drive the 3 other races!”, owkay message understood! The 2nd race wasn’t all that good either, we weren’t focused and since I prepared myself so much for driving I forgot to do my crew job, so not a happy boat! The last 2 races we were back in the groove and we managed to stay in front of the Infusion right up until the gate. Due to some tactical errors (we’ll have to get into match racing a bit more!) we let the Infusion creep in front of us just before the finish. Damn!
We were very curious to know if we would still be Club Champions, the boys on their Nacra 500 sailed very good and with their rating it is hard to tell if they sneak in front of you or not. Luckily the price giving started with on place 3 the boys, on place 2 us and on place 1 the Infusion.
Since the Infusion wasn’t a club member, we were crowned Club Champions 2011, yiha! We got 2 nice big bottles of Duvel beer again (who wants to share?) and the trophy is ours!
After the racing a nice evening bbq with all the participants (16 boats!).
Our next races are the Diamond Cup (compulsory mixed event at RBSC Zoute) on Saturday August 20 and we’ll also participate in the 2nd day of the Raf Verhaeghe Challenge on Sunday August 21 at Sycod Oostduinkerke. Stay tuned for more reports!
I don’t know how long I am already talking about driving a race but anyway in the week before the race we decided I was going to drive 1 race to see how this would go. After this decision I had 3 more days to prepare mentally (in other words to get nervous). Sunday came and the sun was out, the water was flat and the wind was a nice force 3-4. We went out a bit before the start so I could drive the course once before I had to drive the race.
We went over to the starting line and this was something I was a bit afraid of, but nothing to worry, Gill knows what he has to do and he just told me to bear off, go up again, stay, go,… we didn’t start on the second, but pretty close so this felt rather ok. The first upwind mark along the coast we could both trap and Gill kept telling me “watch the jib, watch the jib, watch the jib…”. The second upwind tack we noticed that the Nacra Infusion (not from our club and with a good sailor on it) was in front. Again I heard a lot of “watch your jib” but I found it very hard. If my tell tales in the bottom were ok the top ones weren’t, and each time I was about to correct my steering Gill was already seeing it just a second faster so he had to say it again “watch your jib”. Difficult! So we were second at the upwind mark, dog leg went ok, bearing of to pull the kite also. The downwind leg went fine, short courses, so a quick run to the gate.
Now I know what Riley meant when she told us in her interview that she likes the downwind best because she feels in control. I didn’t understand this when she told this because as a crew I like the upwind better than the downwind (although this is changing too). But as a skipper the downwind feels indeed so much more under control, you get the speed, you feel the boat, you go up and you feel the speed increasing, you bear off if it is too high and you can feel that the crew can control this too. The only thing here is learn not to bear off to quickly, but this is just getting used to. It was nice to have a silent crew for a bit too, haha.
The thing I liked the most about my first drive was the feeling you get when you get out on the wire with the stick in your hand, it feels so powerful!
On the last downwind run to the gate, Gill was on the wire and he fell forward, I did a bear off, but… too much and we gybed! Ah shit! Since we were both still on the same side, Gill on the trapeze, gybing was NOT a good idea, so we went over (well over is not really the word when the boat just falls onto you). I thought this was really funny, my first race and I capsized! Especially since when I am the crew I always tell Gill to be careful and not to capsize. Haha. But my crew was pissed off. “Why did you do that?!.
After righting the boat Gill stated “I’ll drive the 3 other races!”, owkay message understood! The 2nd race wasn’t all that good either, we weren’t focused and since I prepared myself so much for driving I forgot to do my crew job, so not a happy boat! The last 2 races we were back in the groove and we managed to stay in front of the Infusion right up until the gate. Due to some tactical errors (we’ll have to get into match racing a bit more!) we let the Infusion creep in front of us just before the finish. Damn!
We were very curious to know if we would still be Club Champions, the boys on their Nacra 500 sailed very good and with their rating it is hard to tell if they sneak in front of you or not. Luckily the price giving started with on place 3 the boys, on place 2 us and on place 1 the Infusion.
Since the Infusion wasn’t a club member, we were crowned Club Champions 2011, yiha! We got 2 nice big bottles of Duvel beer again (who wants to share?) and the trophy is ours!
After the racing a nice evening bbq with all the participants (16 boats!).
Our next races are the Diamond Cup (compulsory mixed event at RBSC Zoute) on Saturday August 20 and we’ll also participate in the 2nd day of the Raf Verhaeghe Challenge on Sunday August 21 at Sycod Oostduinkerke. Stay tuned for more reports!
F16 Worlds France 2011
This was a great event and we are sad it is already over. We had a very good time, a lot of fun, met very cool people, had nice drinks and dinners and above all we had some great sailing. Not always great results, but most of the time we enjoyed ourselves on the water.
There were alot of nations present at this first F16 World Championship: Australia, Belgium, Brazil, France, Italy, The Netherlands, Switzerland, United Kingdom and United States!
We had several boat types all trying as hard to win this event: AquaRaptor, Blade, Bimare, Falcon and Viper. There were a few one-up sailors too, fantastic job done by them, I couldn’t do it, I need the extra pair of hands on board!
Gill and I and Matt & Gina travelled to France on our National Holiday, July 21, we arrived late at the Falcon House and we needed some coffee to wake up the next day. Luckily it was a sunny day and we enjoyed rigging the boats up on the beach of the lake and we even went out in the late afternoon for a sail. We immediately found out that the yellow buoys mean that there is a shallow. Unfortunately we found out too late, so rudders clicked out and the spi had to be doused immediately, quick quick! Luckily we didn’t touch the daggerboards and we made it out of the shallow quick and without damage. Back to sailing the lake! Matt & Gina were fast with the kite up. Gill and I felt immediately that this would be a tough battle, they sailed away from us, unbelievable. We decided that beating them once during the entire race would be a cool goal for us.
On Saturday we had our boats measured, this took a while and in the mean time we just hung out at the beach. Weather was not really fine, some rain, not much sun, but other sailors were arriving and we had fun seeing familiar faces back and meeting new faces.
That evening we took everyone to the house and Paul & Ann and Geert & Joanna installed themselves in the other bedrooms. In the mean time we had new visitors: from lush Switzerland: Andi & Martin and Sandro & Philip. We invited them to camp their tent in our backyard together with Marc, Mandy & Johannes from Germany. Camp Falcon was born! For the whole week we stayed with 14 sailors in one house, crowed but very cool! We had breakfast together (Andi was our breakfast delivery guy, he apparently liked the French bakery a lot?!) and in the evenings after diner we could unwind a bit in the house, talking about sailing, sailing and sailing and our stories of that day.
Sunday morning we had a very interesting clinic, given by Matt McDonald. He talked about general upwind – downwind settings and trim. And then he added some very useful information about sailing on this particular lake of Maubuison, looking out for the wind, seeing the gusts, taking benefit from the wind changes. Everybody was listening intently and we all made mental notes of things not to forget while sailing. In the afternoon we could already test our new learnt capacities by sailing the Practice Race. Started at 3 PM, 1 race of 2 laps. We didn’t do well. Matt & Gina did but decided not to finish since finishing a practice race could mean bad luck later on…
Monday morning was the first day of the real F16 Worlds, start at 1 PM, bad weather, no sun, a lot of gusty wind, a difficult day to sail. But we managed ok. We sailed a 12 and a 15, very happy with that.
Unfortunately we had to retire from race 2 since something broke on our spin halyard. We raced back to shore (a long way), repaired the halyard and raced back. Ouf just in time for the start of the 3rd race. In the mean time we found out that Matt & Gina retired from racing. While back on the beach we saw Matt but no Gina? They were racing to the finish line of race 1 and they had a gust hit them, they pitched, and then it felt like they hit something and they went over. Gina fell into the daggerboard (we all know those hurt!) and Matt fell on top of her. Gina was in a lot of pain and couldn't stand on her leg. Luckily the club had a doctor present and they immediately took care of Gina, put ice on her big bruise and told her she tore a muscle so she had to rest for the rest of the day. So no more racing for Matt & Gina. They were really sad, coming over from Florida to sail and already been stopped after not finishing 1 race, there are better stories. So much for not finishing a practice race for good luck… We hoped Gina would rest well and be ok for the next days of sailing!
The other Falcon teams were happier with their first day of sailing. Paul & Ann scored a 16, 15 and 12. Andi & Martin a 9, 10 and 9. Marc & Johannes a 26, 22 and 20 and Geert & Joanna a 19, 16 and 17.
On Monday evening we had the country diner with some specialties of the participating countries. The drink Chris Sproat & Georgina Burk brought had a lot of success: the James Bond cocktail: Vodka-Martine with an olive, great! Hans Klok from Holland brought some candy, with anise in it, but well this wasn’t loved by everybody (remember the taste!?).
The social program of this event was well worked out. We had the country diner, an official dinner (with yummy duck), a pasta party and some cake with the price giving. We enjoyed hanging out at the club a lot although next time a bit less program could work ok also, so we could go out more and see the surroundings of the club. We only ate in 2 restaurants and we didn’t get to taste the lovely looking paella the Maubuison market proposed!
Day 2 of the Worlds and good news: Matt & Gina are back, yiha! Gina still feels a bit sore and her bruise is turning all kind of lovely colors, but she is able to sail. Instead of Go Pete, Go Gina! They score an 8 in the last race of that day, fighting their way back to the top. Geert and Joana also scored an 8 that day, in the first race. Andi and Martin are the more consistent good sailors right now, they scored a 11, 7 and a 15 today! It is difficult sailing on this lake, very shifty and gusty, you have to look out for the wind and tack and gybe a lot. Don’t just sail to the mark in 2 or 3 tacks like we are used to on the North Sea races!
Wednesday, day 3, the sun is out! Finally nice weather to sail. But the wind is so tough to read well. While Matt was struggling reading the shifts Gina told him that this is normal. You know the shifts are in French, so we don’t understand them! Hahaha! I don’t remember if this was our bad day or not, probably not but anyway on Tuesday or Wednesday we had a very bad day, not a happy boat, not a happy crew, not a happy skipper, a day not to remember. So we are moving on. Best results on this Wednesday were a 5 and 6 for Andi & Martin! An 11 for us and a 4, 8 and a 12 for Matt & Gina.
The 4th day of racing on Thursday was again a very lovely day to sail, it is so much nicer to sail with the sun out. We scored a 7 in the first race, adrenaline rush! This was a great day, we felt so good about this. Everything was right, we took the right shifts, boat speed was brilliant and we rocked :-) Matt & Gina did very well today, they scored a 6, a 5 and a 13 and were already ahead of us in the general ranking without having sailed the first 3 races! While the sun was out we decided to gather all the Falcons after the racing and shoot a cool movie while sailing with the kites up. We are still working on making the final cut, so stay tuned for a cool movie with 5 Falcons (we were the film crew while sailing our Falcon). The different spin colors make it a really nice colorful movie!
And then it was already Friday, the last day of the F16 Worlds. We had to get up at 7, ouch, racing started at 11 that day. But damn we should have slept a bit longer because there was no wind at all. It was a very warm sunny day tough, so relaxing and waiting on the beach was the back-up plan. Just when Ann and I had decided to go swimming in the lake the signals were made: racing is on, leave the beach. Hurry hurry to put the wetsuits on and of we go. Only 1 race of 3 laps was sailed this last day. We scored a 15, right behind Andi and Matt who scored a 12 and an 11.
Final results can be found here: Results F16 Worlds 2011 France
Falcon results:
9 – Andi&Martin – SUI1
14 – Matt&Gina – USA208
15 – Gill&Kathleen – BEL666
17 – Geert&Joanna – NED237
21 – Paul&Ann – GBR207
29 – Marc&Johannes – GER002
After the price giving we went out to eat at a nice ocean view restaurant. We had a big menu with great food and nice Rosé wine. The racing was over, but the holiday still had one great evening left before we had to drive home. Thanks to everybody for making this a great event, we enjoyed it very much and we hope to see everybody again at a next Worlds or other event!
There were alot of nations present at this first F16 World Championship: Australia, Belgium, Brazil, France, Italy, The Netherlands, Switzerland, United Kingdom and United States!
We had several boat types all trying as hard to win this event: AquaRaptor, Blade, Bimare, Falcon and Viper. There were a few one-up sailors too, fantastic job done by them, I couldn’t do it, I need the extra pair of hands on board!
Gill and I and Matt & Gina travelled to France on our National Holiday, July 21, we arrived late at the Falcon House and we needed some coffee to wake up the next day. Luckily it was a sunny day and we enjoyed rigging the boats up on the beach of the lake and we even went out in the late afternoon for a sail. We immediately found out that the yellow buoys mean that there is a shallow. Unfortunately we found out too late, so rudders clicked out and the spi had to be doused immediately, quick quick! Luckily we didn’t touch the daggerboards and we made it out of the shallow quick and without damage. Back to sailing the lake! Matt & Gina were fast with the kite up. Gill and I felt immediately that this would be a tough battle, they sailed away from us, unbelievable. We decided that beating them once during the entire race would be a cool goal for us.
On Saturday we had our boats measured, this took a while and in the mean time we just hung out at the beach. Weather was not really fine, some rain, not much sun, but other sailors were arriving and we had fun seeing familiar faces back and meeting new faces.
That evening we took everyone to the house and Paul & Ann and Geert & Joanna installed themselves in the other bedrooms. In the mean time we had new visitors: from lush Switzerland: Andi & Martin and Sandro & Philip. We invited them to camp their tent in our backyard together with Marc, Mandy & Johannes from Germany. Camp Falcon was born! For the whole week we stayed with 14 sailors in one house, crowed but very cool! We had breakfast together (Andi was our breakfast delivery guy, he apparently liked the French bakery a lot?!) and in the evenings after diner we could unwind a bit in the house, talking about sailing, sailing and sailing and our stories of that day.
Sunday morning we had a very interesting clinic, given by Matt McDonald. He talked about general upwind – downwind settings and trim. And then he added some very useful information about sailing on this particular lake of Maubuison, looking out for the wind, seeing the gusts, taking benefit from the wind changes. Everybody was listening intently and we all made mental notes of things not to forget while sailing. In the afternoon we could already test our new learnt capacities by sailing the Practice Race. Started at 3 PM, 1 race of 2 laps. We didn’t do well. Matt & Gina did but decided not to finish since finishing a practice race could mean bad luck later on…
Monday morning was the first day of the real F16 Worlds, start at 1 PM, bad weather, no sun, a lot of gusty wind, a difficult day to sail. But we managed ok. We sailed a 12 and a 15, very happy with that.
Unfortunately we had to retire from race 2 since something broke on our spin halyard. We raced back to shore (a long way), repaired the halyard and raced back. Ouf just in time for the start of the 3rd race. In the mean time we found out that Matt & Gina retired from racing. While back on the beach we saw Matt but no Gina? They were racing to the finish line of race 1 and they had a gust hit them, they pitched, and then it felt like they hit something and they went over. Gina fell into the daggerboard (we all know those hurt!) and Matt fell on top of her. Gina was in a lot of pain and couldn't stand on her leg. Luckily the club had a doctor present and they immediately took care of Gina, put ice on her big bruise and told her she tore a muscle so she had to rest for the rest of the day. So no more racing for Matt & Gina. They were really sad, coming over from Florida to sail and already been stopped after not finishing 1 race, there are better stories. So much for not finishing a practice race for good luck… We hoped Gina would rest well and be ok for the next days of sailing!
The other Falcon teams were happier with their first day of sailing. Paul & Ann scored a 16, 15 and 12. Andi & Martin a 9, 10 and 9. Marc & Johannes a 26, 22 and 20 and Geert & Joanna a 19, 16 and 17.
On Monday evening we had the country diner with some specialties of the participating countries. The drink Chris Sproat & Georgina Burk brought had a lot of success: the James Bond cocktail: Vodka-Martine with an olive, great! Hans Klok from Holland brought some candy, with anise in it, but well this wasn’t loved by everybody (remember the taste!?).
The social program of this event was well worked out. We had the country diner, an official dinner (with yummy duck), a pasta party and some cake with the price giving. We enjoyed hanging out at the club a lot although next time a bit less program could work ok also, so we could go out more and see the surroundings of the club. We only ate in 2 restaurants and we didn’t get to taste the lovely looking paella the Maubuison market proposed!
Day 2 of the Worlds and good news: Matt & Gina are back, yiha! Gina still feels a bit sore and her bruise is turning all kind of lovely colors, but she is able to sail. Instead of Go Pete, Go Gina! They score an 8 in the last race of that day, fighting their way back to the top. Geert and Joana also scored an 8 that day, in the first race. Andi and Martin are the more consistent good sailors right now, they scored a 11, 7 and a 15 today! It is difficult sailing on this lake, very shifty and gusty, you have to look out for the wind and tack and gybe a lot. Don’t just sail to the mark in 2 or 3 tacks like we are used to on the North Sea races!
Wednesday, day 3, the sun is out! Finally nice weather to sail. But the wind is so tough to read well. While Matt was struggling reading the shifts Gina told him that this is normal. You know the shifts are in French, so we don’t understand them! Hahaha! I don’t remember if this was our bad day or not, probably not but anyway on Tuesday or Wednesday we had a very bad day, not a happy boat, not a happy crew, not a happy skipper, a day not to remember. So we are moving on. Best results on this Wednesday were a 5 and 6 for Andi & Martin! An 11 for us and a 4, 8 and a 12 for Matt & Gina.
The 4th day of racing on Thursday was again a very lovely day to sail, it is so much nicer to sail with the sun out. We scored a 7 in the first race, adrenaline rush! This was a great day, we felt so good about this. Everything was right, we took the right shifts, boat speed was brilliant and we rocked :-) Matt & Gina did very well today, they scored a 6, a 5 and a 13 and were already ahead of us in the general ranking without having sailed the first 3 races! While the sun was out we decided to gather all the Falcons after the racing and shoot a cool movie while sailing with the kites up. We are still working on making the final cut, so stay tuned for a cool movie with 5 Falcons (we were the film crew while sailing our Falcon). The different spin colors make it a really nice colorful movie!
And then it was already Friday, the last day of the F16 Worlds. We had to get up at 7, ouch, racing started at 11 that day. But damn we should have slept a bit longer because there was no wind at all. It was a very warm sunny day tough, so relaxing and waiting on the beach was the back-up plan. Just when Ann and I had decided to go swimming in the lake the signals were made: racing is on, leave the beach. Hurry hurry to put the wetsuits on and of we go. Only 1 race of 3 laps was sailed this last day. We scored a 15, right behind Andi and Matt who scored a 12 and an 11.
Final results can be found here: Results F16 Worlds 2011 France
Falcon results:
9 – Andi&Martin – SUI1
14 – Matt&Gina – USA208
15 – Gill&Kathleen – BEL666
17 – Geert&Joanna – NED237
21 – Paul&Ann – GBR207
29 – Marc&Johannes – GER002
After the price giving we went out to eat at a nice ocean view restaurant. We had a big menu with great food and nice Rosé wine. The racing was over, but the holiday still had one great evening left before we had to drive home. Thanks to everybody for making this a great event, we enjoyed it very much and we hope to see everybody again at a next Worlds or other event!
F16 worlds day 4
Conditions were super today for sailing! Pretty steady breeze, nice double trap conditions for the second and third race and a nice sunshine and warm weather.
Water on the lake was super flat and allowed everyone to power up their boats to the maximum.
Top 4 boats having a heavy battle today. Bundock secured his win already today with again 2,1,2.
The one up boats were not in advantage this day with the heavier wind. Hans Klok is securing his first place among the one ups.
After day 3 with 2 teams finishing top 10 everytime (including a 4 and 5) also day 4 was a good one for the Falcon teams. Again 2 to 3 boats finishing top 10 every race.
Everybody is having great sailing and party at the club. Wonderfull times!
Water on the lake was super flat and allowed everyone to power up their boats to the maximum.
Top 4 boats having a heavy battle today. Bundock secured his win already today with again 2,1,2.
The one up boats were not in advantage this day with the heavier wind. Hans Klok is securing his first place among the one ups.
After day 3 with 2 teams finishing top 10 everytime (including a 4 and 5) also day 4 was a good one for the Falcon teams. Again 2 to 3 boats finishing top 10 every race.
Everybody is having great sailing and party at the club. Wonderfull times!
F16 worlds day 3: Falcons are on fire
Great sailing conditions today. Moderate winds, a bit higher as yesterday, and finally the sun is out. Everyone is enjoying la jolie France.
The racing is getting a lot more mixed today as all the teams are getting used to the shifty conditions. Falcons are moving up in the ranking and everyone is doing good.
Andi Lutz keeps improving his results and is making the pro guys having a real run for their money. With a 9,6,5 he is moving up to 8 place with a tie for 7.
Also Matt is back in the game (12,8,4), really matching the pro teams.
Andi chasing olympic sailor Carolijn Brouwer
Ourselves and Geert are battling to get closer to the top 10 again, and keep up with the Van Helden sisters.
The one-up teams have their own race, with Hans Klok clearly leading that fleet, with a 10th finish as best result, even Greg couldn't match his speed the day he sailed one up.
Tomorrow will be another interesting day on the water for sure!
The racing is getting a lot more mixed today as all the teams are getting used to the shifty conditions. Falcons are moving up in the ranking and everyone is doing good.
Andi Lutz keeps improving his results and is making the pro guys having a real run for their money. With a 9,6,5 he is moving up to 8 place with a tie for 7.
Also Matt is back in the game (12,8,4), really matching the pro teams.
Andi chasing olympic sailor Carolijn Brouwer
Ourselves and Geert are battling to get closer to the top 10 again, and keep up with the Van Helden sisters.
The one-up teams have their own race, with Hans Klok clearly leading that fleet, with a 10th finish as best result, even Greg couldn't match his speed the day he sailed one up.
Tomorrow will be another interesting day on the water for sure!
Texel racing > Texel Dutch Open and Round Texel
We finished first MIXED multihull and first Belgian team in the Texel Dutch Open on our Falcon F16! We are very pleased with our 19th place out of 68 top competitors. This was a very high level racing field, with again strong winds, crowded starts and huge waves. A more detailed report of our week in Texel will follow this week.
In the mean time have a look at the results of the Texel Dutch Open and enjoy all the action pictures taken by Thom Touw and Boot in Beeld.
This is our favorite image of the week, thanks to and copyright of Thom Touw! This is a picture we will buy and print for our living room :-)
In the mean time have a look at the results of the Texel Dutch Open and enjoy all the action pictures taken by Thom Touw and Boot in Beeld.
This is our favorite image of the week, thanks to and copyright of Thom Touw! This is a picture we will buy and print for our living room :-)
Belgian Championship Multihull 2011
First weekend of June we had our 3rd race in a row: the Belgian Multihull Championship, 2 days of racing and 1 day a complimentary raid for those who wanted, with a seperate ranking.
After a heavy weekend at the Gaastra Cup we were looking forward to another race but we were crossing our fingers for more regular winds :-)
Thursday promised to be a good day with 5 BFT, Friday was going to blow again and on Saturday they were expecting 5 to 6 BFT. No light wind settings...
Start on Thursday at 1 PM, 4 races, we managed to sail consistently and scored a 10, 9, 10, 11. We were not really happy with the first 2 races. No boat speed, bad communication on board and some tactic errors. The last 2 races we decided to talk again :-) and we managed to get our head out of the boat. On the last race we saw a lot of capsizes, key here was to sail safe and finish! Unfortunately on the last downwind race when going out to trap my adjustable trapeze unleashed and I was waterskiing behind the boat on the lowest position of the trap. We were going fast, there were lots of waves and I didn't have the strenght to pull myself up again. Not a good situation! Gill took over the kite, tried to steer dead downwind and pull me up all at the same time. I tasted a lot of salty sea water! For what felt like minutes I was hanging there, trying to get back on, trying not to panick (not one of my strong points hehe). I asked Gill to hand me my adjustable trap so I could pull myself up higher, he did and finally we managed to get me back on board. Owkay, I was beat, totally done, but we still had to finish. We did and we managed to come in 11th that race, so I guess alot of other crews retired or capsized.
With the weather predictions like they were we decided not to sail the raid on Friday and to just relax and focus our attention on the racing on Saturday. Good decision. Only 9 teams finished the raid, in heavy conditions, alot of wind and huge waves.
On Saturday the day started with such light wind! It was very serene drifting to the racing area. It felt so surreal, hardly 2 BFT while the predictions were for again 5 to 6 BFT. But we didn't have to worry, right after we got to the starting area, the wind flew in, BAM, right away 4 BFT, rising steadily again to almost 6 BFT after the last race (we did 2 that day). We scored a 9 and a 9, how consistent :-) that day, putting us on a final 8th place for the Open Belgian Multihull Championship!
Verry happy with this result altough we now we still can improve a lot, heavy winds are not our cup of tea yet, but with all this practising lately we sure have learnt alot!
Verry happy to finish first MIXED team in this Belgiam Championship on our Falcon F16. This is why I love sailing with Gill, these results make us feel very good about our skills and our boat. Now up to Texel for the Texel Dutch Open and Round Texel. We will keep you posted!
After a heavy weekend at the Gaastra Cup we were looking forward to another race but we were crossing our fingers for more regular winds :-)
Thursday promised to be a good day with 5 BFT, Friday was going to blow again and on Saturday they were expecting 5 to 6 BFT. No light wind settings...
Start on Thursday at 1 PM, 4 races, we managed to sail consistently and scored a 10, 9, 10, 11. We were not really happy with the first 2 races. No boat speed, bad communication on board and some tactic errors. The last 2 races we decided to talk again :-) and we managed to get our head out of the boat. On the last race we saw a lot of capsizes, key here was to sail safe and finish! Unfortunately on the last downwind race when going out to trap my adjustable trapeze unleashed and I was waterskiing behind the boat on the lowest position of the trap. We were going fast, there were lots of waves and I didn't have the strenght to pull myself up again. Not a good situation! Gill took over the kite, tried to steer dead downwind and pull me up all at the same time. I tasted a lot of salty sea water! For what felt like minutes I was hanging there, trying to get back on, trying not to panick (not one of my strong points hehe). I asked Gill to hand me my adjustable trap so I could pull myself up higher, he did and finally we managed to get me back on board. Owkay, I was beat, totally done, but we still had to finish. We did and we managed to come in 11th that race, so I guess alot of other crews retired or capsized.
With the weather predictions like they were we decided not to sail the raid on Friday and to just relax and focus our attention on the racing on Saturday. Good decision. Only 9 teams finished the raid, in heavy conditions, alot of wind and huge waves.
On Saturday the day started with such light wind! It was very serene drifting to the racing area. It felt so surreal, hardly 2 BFT while the predictions were for again 5 to 6 BFT. But we didn't have to worry, right after we got to the starting area, the wind flew in, BAM, right away 4 BFT, rising steadily again to almost 6 BFT after the last race (we did 2 that day). We scored a 9 and a 9, how consistent :-) that day, putting us on a final 8th place for the Open Belgian Multihull Championship!
Verry happy with this result altough we now we still can improve a lot, heavy winds are not our cup of tea yet, but with all this practising lately we sure have learnt alot!
Verry happy to finish first MIXED team in this Belgiam Championship on our Falcon F16. This is why I love sailing with Gill, these results make us feel very good about our skills and our boat. Now up to Texel for the Texel Dutch Open and Round Texel. We will keep you posted!
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