Well, both Bard/Lonneke and Geert/Raymond have chosen to save their boats for the upcoming round tomorrow and leave the racing today for what it is. No wonder as both of them got T-boned during the Dutch open regatta. Geert was blessed by seeing a M20 up close and personal. The M20 crew made a rookie mistake. They tried to force their way in near the upwind mark while sailing on a port tack (their boom was hanging over starboard side of boat). Bloody idiots, what were they thinking, in a 40 + boat fleet that is just asking for trouble. There is some hull damage on Geerts Taipan 4.9 but not too much and he can still do the round itself tomorrow. Bard had somewhat less luck and Geert mentioned that he has a little more damage. Once again a crew on a Marstrom product, this time a Tornado, made the same mistake of thinking that powering up to the A-mark while on a port tack is a good idea. (another bloody idiot) Luckily Bart and Geert feel that it can be patched up enough to let Bard and Lonneke do the Round itself.
There was quite some wind and especially then a crew must REALLY know what they are doing when trying to sqeeze in a starboard tack approach to the A-mark.
Pete and Dee McDowell seem to have been able to avoid the onslaughts and still raced. They will be there doing the Round on their Stealth F16 tomorrow as well. Without a Marstrom footprint on their new hulls.
Several spitfires are doing very well indeed. Several of these Spitfire crews know what they are doing. They are good crews.
The final results for the Texel Ducth open can be found here :
http://rotdominoserver.ti.mon3aan.nl/IIS/finishlists/tdo2005/Final_results.htmIn summary :
67 boats entered, 59 boats scored 2 results of more (were active) :
Placings of the 16 footers (on handicap)
13th spitfire Sproat, Chris Burke, Georgina
14th spitfire Scantlebury, Michael Mr Farr, Alex Mr
39th stealth F16 Mcdowell, Pete Mcdowell, Dee
41st spitfire Beech, John Burke, Hannah 105
46th taipan 4.9 (F16) Ruesink, Geert Haas, Raymond V.D.
Bard Louis / Lonneke Stark scored one race before a collision took them out and they were given the wrong rating and were placed in the wrong start fleet. So their result is pretty meaningless.
Conditions for tomorrow look to be 14 knots of wind (force 4) from the north west. With considerable cloud cover with intermittend sun.
Looks like the round is going to be a reaching drag race for the biggest part. Should favour the sloop boats and H16's. only a small amount of upwind work so the Uni-rigs will be disadvantaged.
Wouter
