Europeans, happy with a podium place, 3rd overall

Just came home after a drive from Denmark. Whereby a few times the highway seemed more a giant parking spot as we encountered a few lengthy traffic jams. Happy to be home after enjoying a great week in Horsens as the weather was very good. Sunny and during the races enough wind! After the last race also the wind was directly gone, which must have been a sore sight for the more light wind oriented sailors.

I'm happy with my overall 3rd place, which I could manage thanks to the breeze and the help of a number of other sailors. As the swiss team helped me out with some necessary spare parts and the fellow members of the dutch-belgium team helped with technical expertise on preparing my boat. Respect and congratulations to Arnaud and Simon. They performed a perfect show of how close you can battle in a moth while doing speeds in excess of 24 knots. I was lucky enough to see their battle up close and some moments being in it. Compared with them my upwind speed was good, but I have lot to improve in boathandling and downwind speed. So enough todo when I have time to sail again.

The last day I had some great battles with Jean-pierre of Switserland, whereby in one race it was very close upto the finishing line. Racing in such a way, while literally flying over the water, is everything what i hoped for moth sailing could be.

Overall my standard bladerider VRX performed very well. Some people asked me what the difference between the VRX and my former X8 is. My experience is that the bigest difference I notice is that my standard VRX feels more solid and controllable in the windy conditions we had.

After the races there was a nice party, whereby the inevitable "tiller of death" beer drinking competition started. In Weymouth i managed as anonymous new comer to the class to avoid this "tiller". However this time I could not. My performance in the field of beer drinking contest was lousy, of which also my now beer stained last clean shirt is a silent testament.....

Day 2 Europeans, One windy race...

This morning when we came out of our cabin on the beautiful family camping site of the Husodde Strand camping we already noticed it was a bit more windy then the previous day. Arriving at the yacht club we could see already the white on top of the waves.

The forecast was that the wind would drop in the afternoon. So scheduled start of 10 in the morning was postponed. So we had to wait. For me it is still interesting to see how people can get in to intense debate regarding the technicalities of wand, mast and other systems. As I have a big passion for the thrill of foiling but I lack a bit of the deep engineering interest. Although it is nice to listen to all the ideas and think about it.

At 13:00 the committee decided that discussing and thinking time is over and that the race was going to start at 14:00. It was still very windy, however doable for people with experience with sailing a moth in wind.

Finally appr. 30 boats arrived at the start and appr. 14:30 the gun went off for the start.

After the first mark it was Arnaud, leading, then Simon, then myself closely followed by Jean-pierre and Mike Lennon.

Second upwind mark the order was the same, although I managed to gain a bit upwind. Second downwind Simon capsized and we rounded the bottom mark together. Which was interesting as we where close and doing appr. 24 knots (thanks to my velocitek). Last upwind went not so well and I rounded in 3rd, Arnaud still leading Simon. Towards the finish I overstood the downwind mark and while a reached towards the finish the boat abruptly stopped and I was flying. First I thought i must have broken something on the boat. The boat was OK when I reached it. So probably i hit a lump of seaweed. The capsize cost me one place and I finished 4th. All other races where postponed as the breeze was measured to be in the mid twenties and some time above. Tomorrow the last day and it is possible that 4 races will be sailed. So still anything is possible for everyone. Although Simon looks solid with 1,1,2,2 and Arnaud is matching him if counting a discard DNC, 2,1,1. Looking forward to great day, forecast is a little bit less wind. Hopefully for myself not too much less.....

Day 1 Europeans, Mixed emotions

Today was the first day of the Moth Europeans. it was nice and windy today in denmark. So perfect sailing weather, especially for one who likes to sail in the breeze. It was an early day as the scheduled start was at 10 O'clock. Although the harbour with a small canal and almost non existent slipway is not the perfect place to launch appr 40 moths in onshore breeze of 20 knots. It took some time before we were all on the water. And after some delay the first was started. I was pleased with my upwind speed. Downwind I lost a bit and boathandling can still be better. But the result was a 2nd place and that made feel good and ready for the next race. The 2nd race same story and I was trailing Arnaud and Simon when half way I heard some crack. Firstly I couldn't see that there was something wrong and continued sailing. later I saw that my mast stump cracked and my mast was few centimeters down. I could continue sailing and my goal was to finish the race in one piece. So trying to do everything gently.... on the last run the mast sinked 5-10 cm further in the mast stump, luckily it stayed upright although all the tension on the rig was gone. I finished 3rd and went straight in to avoid any further damage. So the day started with an up and finished with a down... almost literally. Now we just finished all repairs. Lets see what kind of surprises the next days of the Europeans will bring.

Galway wrap-up, Rotterdam

Unfortunately the trip to Galway has come to an end. It was a great experience to be part of the Volvo festival. We had a great week practice sailing, while being able to enjoy the view of the volvo boats. Most of the week there where light winds. Last friday was a great sailing day. Saturday there was plenty of wind sometimes too much with guts well over 25 knots. This was great wind for the start of the volvo leg to marsstrand. However thanks to the waves of the huge spector fleet and the gusts It wasn't easy for a moth. We could give a show to the spectators of how fast a moth can be. My topspeed clocked during this day was 26 knots. We also showed how you can make spectacular crashes. One time I hit the water with such a speed that I bounced two times on the water before sinking in it. A spectator boat nearby was applauding and yelling "we want more...". Great people the irish :-)

Hereby also a picture of the start day whereby I was sailing close to the beach, lined with hundreds

of spectators. The water was pretty cold and it was sometimes very difficult to shake of the ventilation of the rudder. (as can be seen of the spray from the back).

Today it is up to Rotterdam to sail the same course the Volvo boats are going to do for the coast of Rotterdam. This time with my own boat and Puma sail. This is a race to see which boat can beat the time of the Volvo 70's. It will be for the first time to sail a moth on the open water of the North Sea, for sure it will be a new experience!

Galway stopover, puma sailing

It is already some days that we (Constantijn) and myself are in Galway. We are sailing the Puma Bladeriders here till the start of leg 8 Galway to Marstrand.

We drove down to Galway from the Netherlands. On the ferry from holyhead (UK) to Dublin we got a comedy of errors show from the captain and his crew. We first got the message that we could not leave on time as the engine needed some maintenance. After appr 45 minutes we got the message that the engine was ready however we could not leave as there was something with a winch and that they couldn't untie the mooring rope. After again appr 45 minutes came the message that they managed to untie the aft mooring rope, however the rope was now caught-up in of the ship screws. So we had to wait till divers could get this sorted out......... It took another appr 45 minutes before we left...

We managed to get in Galway although a few hours later than planned on thursday late afternoon. Galway really embraced the Volvo completely very impressive to see people so proud about their Green Dragon.

When we arrived by the boats we met Michael from Bladerider UK. He was over for the weekend and already started with assembling the boats. However the boats needed also some maintenance as they were used for sailing with school kids in Boston. The kids apparently liked it very much, the boats a little bit less... Luckily almost all the necessary parts where available for the repairs and the Puma shore crew helped us out perfectly with tools and repairs.

On friday afternoon after we could get sailing with a good breeze. We sailed around the starting area of the practice race. It is impressive to seen how the Volvo guys manoeuvre their boats like dinghies on the startline. On saturday during the in-port race there was far less wind. And only occasionally we could get foiling. When we were foiling we got cheers and applaus from the spectator 'Armada'. Never experienced anything like that....

After Saturday the wind became lighter and lighter and the temperature higher and higher. It is here more like cote d' azur. Something extraordinary as normal irish weather would be rain and 12-15 degrees. Apparently the Irish are not used to this heat as I never have seen so many people with sun burns.

Today the wind was almost non-existent. Hopefully we get some more wind in the rest of the week and get some foiling in....