Wouter - this flag was flying outside our neighbor's cottage while on vacation/holiday last week. Look familiar?

It looked to be a good crowd at Texel.

Strange.

Dutch people are not at all inclined to fly the national try colour. Hell there are only 3 days a year when you can see them on private residences. Queens day, which is a national holliday with all kinds of activities, and national rememberence day for the fallen of the second world war followed by liberty day (next day).

For the rest of the year it is just a peice of cloth to most of the dutch people unless there is a world championship footbal and our team is doing well. Hell, I've seen people wipe a blackboard with the flag because no other piece of cloth was nearby. "We'll wash it later and it's be okay" was the comments that went with it.

It also looks like the upper bar is more lightist red then deep red and therefor it could also be the flag of Luxenbourg. They have a very similar flag where the colours are only slightly lighter. These two territories used to be one nation in the past, but some political issue (having a women as head of state = queen) caused a split.


Attendence at Texel was seriously down. I think less then 400 boats. But that is still a good crowd

Wouter

Flags scare me, especially here. While in the miliary, I had to salute the flag. I'm okay with that, but I had to swear to defend the Constitution, "against all enemies, foreign and domestic." Here especially, people forgot the substance of patriotism is in the law, not a symbol.

Scarey stuff.

The start video on the website showed a Yamaha sponsored boat sailing away from the fleet in clear air while other boats were getting covered 20 deep at the start. The starting boat was seriously intimidating....

Prindle 15 corrected 2nd. F18s all over the scoreboard.

Well they can take tem down now <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Funny thing is, the guy on the Prindle 15 (Hans Primowees) said to me before the start how this would be a good day for me (ideal FX-One conditions), and that he would like 10kts more. I was quite pleased after 1/3 of the race knowing I was well ahead of the "small" singlehanded cats (+/-20 min) and ahead of at least one a-cat. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />
But...then the wind died completely for half an hour and everyone caught up. I did go over the line before Hans but he beat me (and 400 others!) on rating (rating of 127 vs 105).

From what I heard the Yamaha boat sailed away from the rest because the starting helicopter flew over really low. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

I think the turnout was relatively low because of last year's carnage, and maybe because of the added bureaucracy/costs (starting permit, etc). The event is also becoming more and more commercial with performances of famous bands, sailing is almost becoming a side act.

About the startship, for some reason people always try to get as close as they can (even though this year it was not the favoured side):
pic1
pic2

More pictures here:
http://www.bootinbeeld.nl/
http://www.photoos.net/
http://www.worldonphoto.com/roundtexel2006/index.htm

At least our players keep fighting till the end and dont puke all over the field because they are so out of shape! <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Mary, I can't respond to you PM, it says you've exceeded your quota. Try me here.

ppollard@swfla.rr.com

"Fighting" is the right word <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Paul

Mary, what's up? Here you are barely on the forum and you already exceeded your inbox quota. Good going!

I noticed you defended yourself from being called a pimp. Thankfully, you are not accepting/demanding money from all the skippers that want you as crew. Otherwise, from the dictionary, the word prostitute may be more appropriate.

Anyway, it's fun to see you have entered into the male dominated world of sailing, where we all wish there were more girls. I hope you are enjoying it! Sailing is half the fun, the people are the rest.

Jamie

Hey ! Currently we have alot of women on F16's

Mavis Harnden
Kelly Gray
Inge Hamstra
Hester Deutekom
Gina McDonald
Sue Davis
Alice Lim
Jennifer Lindsay (although now much less so then in the past)

and now Mary Gilbertson

And these are just from the top of my head because there are more in Singapore and such.


Pretty much all double handed crews are mixed on F16's. If they are not then the boat is being singlehanded by a guy.


Personally I really appreciate this development and I'm not just saying that as a guy. From early on we stated that out F16 target group was light to medium crews with additional attention to MIXED crews. It seems that we are pretty succesful at our latter goal and that I value alot.

Wouter

Pete was talking to me; not to Mary Gilbertson.

Oops, my mistake.

Pete,

That would be because Robi is stuffing her mailbox with *spam* so as to INTENTIONALLY fill it. This prevents other F16 skippers from asking Mary to crew for them <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" />

You guys have your Marys all mixed up.

Mary = FORUM MARY, Rick Whites WIFE
Maryg = F16 wannabee sailor - Robi crew, although only crewed ONCE.

You guys kill me! hahahahha

Hey Robi, we gotta talk, Im gonna be in FL in a couple of weeks, think I could drive by and check out the boat?

sure thing