Round Texel 2016

http://roundtexel.com/uitslagen-round-texel-2016/

Well that was a very different running of the great race! only 10 boats managed to finish the race, Nacra Infusion F18 takes out the line honours and the foilers are out the back door!

Apparently the race was run in 5 knots or less and took near on 7 hours to complete.

It was toe-curling to watch.

Nevertheless my respect for the effort of the few teams (10?) who fullended this torture. But for the other three hunderd boats it was disappointing to float back to the beach. A little disaster.

IMHO the organization should have postponded the race one day till today! (since a few years thats possible).

But such a decision is always hard to take. In my experience it is the best if there's only one man who decides that and takes the full resposibility.

Don't want to rub salt in open wounds, but today was a perfect sailing day. (As forcasted the whole week).

A lot of Round-Texel sailors chose to sail home via the Northsea. I think today around 60-70 cats passed me today on the water. Saw some old friends and we shared some waving.

High profile sailing events should look at the World Surf League ... Surf contests for the tour are based on swell windows. The contest may be scheduled for a two week window, and they are guaranteed a better chance of fairness to all the competitors, as well as showing respect for nature.

You are absolutely right, but because of the average age of the sailors (working, studying) it has to be in the weekends.
So the wind has always been a gamble in the 40 year of the Round existence.

Plus there are the tide times on the racing day, which are necessary to help you around the Island.
If you have to sail a piece of the course against the tidal current, you will never make it. (Or it takes at least + 6 hours until the tide-stream is reversed again).
The date of the Round is therefore carefully appointed on the ongoing tidal current.


This whole tide issue makes the Round of Texel so special. But that's also my main point of criticisme for this year.
Because of the tidal current you have to round the Northern point of the isle within about 2 hours after the start.
Normal practice is and has always been, to stop the race for everybody who didn't managed that, for what ever reason.
So these sailors have to return or search for a beachlanding.

The organization knew this year (with no wind on the racing day) on forehand that only a few lucky and/or skilled ones would manage to round that northern point within time.

They say afterwards it was a hard decision, but that's a gotspe!

It was already dead certain that at least three hundred sailors would have to quit the race.

An event with that many participants should never end up with 300+ dnfs ... compare the costs of adding a day to the overall cost of attending to the owners ... Put the event on for three days and run it on the most promising day for conditions.

On our Gulf Coast we have accused yacht clubs of shortchanging competitors on the water and overcharging at the bar for food and beverages.

Yeah, but it's kinda hard to tell an event that has the attendance of 300+ competitors that they're doing it wrong, though!

I think Ding and a few others raced the Mug one year where almost zero made the bridge by cutoff time...