Confusion reigns

There were some diffculties with the courses on the second day of the Aruba Heineken Catamaran Regatta

On Monday 13 November 2006, Stuart Gummer and Hannah Burke (UK, F18 Capricorn) took over the lead in the 16th Aruba Heineken Catamaran Regatta. They played the morning wind shifts well and won the Yamaha Race.

The triangle courses in the afternoon caused difficulties for some of the leading boats in both fleets, as they did an extra sausage. Yesterday's leaders James and Gillian Power had a disappointing day with a black flag and one wrong course. They dropped to the eighth position. Mitch Booth and Pim Nieuwenhuis (NED, F18 Hobie Tiger) climbed to second place overall, followed by Wouter Samama and Paul Buyse (NED, F18 Nacra Infusion). Mark Rijks and Brenda Liefhebber (NED) scored three bullets again and left their fellow Dart 18 competitors far behind. Today's conditions were very unstable with lots of shifts and gusts.

It was a bullet for Booth and Nieuwenhuis in the Aruba AloEB Race: The organisation put in a triangle course in for the two afternoon races. Some participants wrote the order of the marks on their boom, others tried to remember it. The wind dropped, but heavy clouds came closer rapidly. This tropical shower brought not only rain, but also a new breeze of about 12 knots.

The big catamarans commenced with a general recall where, after the race committee hoisted the black flag, three teams were early over the line again. Among these teams was James and Gillian Power. They kept going though and lead the pack. Richard Allen and Simon Farren chased them, followed by Booth and Nieuwenhuis. Power and Power continued for an extra sausage, but luckily Allen and Farren did not follow and steered their Tornado through the finish. Booth and Nieuwenhuis were second over the line and first on handicap. Stuart Gummer and Hannah Burke finished second after calculation. The Frenchmen, Hemery and Usandizaga, were third with their Hobie Tiger.

Rijks and Liefhebber did not really experience the competition of the other small catamarans. The distance to the next finishers was six minutes. Jan Post and Tsjitske Stoel (NED) took advantage of the mistakes made by others and grabbed the second position. Manfred Thomasch and Henk Hankart (AUT) and Nicolette van Gorp and Ruud van Gisbergen (NED) both sailed an extra sausage and lost their podium places. "I was so convinced about doing the right thing, but we were wrong. At least we know we can do it, because we were second at that moment," explained Van Gorp

Just before the start of the last race, the wind picked up to 15 knots. It was a pin end favoured start. Booth and Nieuwenhuis were the furthest boat on that side and were first at the top mark. Richard Allen and Simon Farren used the speed of their Tornado and overtook the Dutchmen, sailing an F18, at the second bottom mark. While chasing each other, the leading four teams Allen and Farren, Booth and Nieuwenhuis, Zaanen and Houwing and Power and Power passed the finish line for another sausage. That did not confuse Leo Ambtman and Maarten Koorn (NED, Tornado). They took the line honours, followed by Peter Vink and Mark Pols who won on handicap. It was not until happy hour that Ambtman realized he had crossed the line first. "It does not happen often that others are wrong and I am not. Everything went well today. Finally, the boat speed was great, he explained. Chris Sproat and Georgina Burke, sailing a Spitfire, scored two fourth places in the afternoon. "The F18s got so much quicker than our one design class catamarans, so we can no longer compete with them," said Sproat. According to his wife, Burke, today's shifty weather was a help "These conditions are better for us, because everybody was tacking and we got more clean air," she concluded.

Simon Farren could laugh about his mistake of sailing extra miles: "We got one right out of two. In the first race I was pretty sure about the course, but we started to doubt it after James and Gillian continued. In the second race, we decided to do the extra sausage and that was wrong," he explained. According to Mitch Booth it was confusing because you normally start reaching at the top mark of a triangle: "Now it started from the bottom mark. But this result doesn't destroy our regatta. The rest of the top teams have a discard as well," said Booth.

The Dutch Dart 18 sailors Rijks and Liefhebber were again unbeatable. "We sail well, but I cannot explain the big difference with the other competitors," said Rijks.

Results:

Pos	Helm	Crew	Nat	SCHRS	Tot	Nett
1	Gummer, Stuart	Burke, Hannah	GBR	1.01	13	9
2	Booth, Mitch	Nieuwenhuis, Pim	NED	1.01	28	9
3	Samana, Wouter	Buyse, Paul	NED	1.01	41	17
4	Moret, John	Smissaert, Paul	NED	1.01	26	19
5	Breur, Hans	Leeuwen, Jeroen van	NED	1.01	30	21
6	Sproat, Christopher	Burke, Geogina	GBR	1.04	34.5	23.5
7	Pols, Xander	Veenstra, Tjiddo	NED	1.01	38	26
8	Power, James	Power, Gillian	GBR	1.01	65	28
9	Vink, Peter	Pols, Mark	NED	1.01	68	31
10	Hemery, Quillaume	Usandizaga, Nicolas	FRA	1.01	46	31
11	Beech, John	Farr, Alex	GBR	1.01	73.5	36.5
12	Allen, Richard	Farren, Simon	GBR	0.94	62	38
13	Smith, Gary	Tomlin/Whitmore	GBR	1.04	59	39
14	Diks, Marcel	Diks, Daniel	NED	0.94	69	52
15	Vercouteren, Menno	Staakenbroek, Jaap	NED	1.01	80	58
16	Zaanen, Eduard	Houwing, Willem	NED	0.94	86	59
17	Ambtman, Leo	Koorn, Maarten	NED	0.94	81	60
18	Richardson, Peter	Millar, Jenny	GBR	1.04	105	68
19	Noordzij, Ad	Alards, Marion	NED	1.01	94	69
20	Manser, Alan	Clark, Alfie	GBR	1.04	92	69
21	Plokker, Wim	Voogt, Jantina	NED	1.01	101	76
22	Devanneux, Charles	Daniel, Jacques	FRA	1.01	114	77
23	Hall, David	Stephens, Martin	GBR	0.94	107	81
24	Galen, Paul van	Meer, Lex van der	NED	0.94	110	82
25	Cock, Axel de	Geirnaert, Luc	BEL	1.01	110	83
26	Wiersema, Kees	Krijnen, Esther	NED	1.01	115	88
27	Dalmeijer, Rob	Hoog, Jacco de	NED/AUA	0.94	127	99
28	Hoefnagels, Bart	Otto, Bart	NED	1.01	139	102
29	Heijden, Willie v..d.	Antheunisse, Michiel	NED	0.95	158	121
30	Zwamborn, Jan	Zwamborn, Lia	NED	0.94	158	121
31	Kok, Willem	Carlen, Jan	NED	0.95	167	130
32	Bakker, Friso	Kranenbroek, Marco	NED	0.95	167	130
33	Evers, Marc	Kooiker, Henk	NED	1.04	173	136
34	French, Susannah	Rowe, Shane	GBR	1.01	175	138
35	Coriat, Robert	Chanteret, Bertraud	FRA	1.01	185	148
35	Jenlis, Christopher de	Zeven, Harmen	FRA	0.95	185	148