Storm brewing

Competitors awoke to some very dark skies on the fifth day of the Aruba Cat Regatta

On Thursday 16 November 2006, Mitch Booth and Pim Nieuwenhuis (NED, F18 Hobie Tiger) extended their overall lead in the 16th Aruba Heineken Catamaran Regatta. They won both races and are now seven points ahead of Stuart Gummer and Hannah Burke (GBR, F18 Capricorn). The Dutch Dart 18 team Mark Rijks and Brenda Liefhebber are a class apart in this year's small boat competition. They have only scored bullets so far. As a heavy thunderstorm hit Aruba during the night, the conditions were still unstable in the morning. The wind dropped from 12 to 4 knots, but picked up in the afternoon to 15 knots.

After a one hour delay, the starting gun was fired with a pitch black sky above the other side of Aruba. It brought a few drops of rain, but no lightning. Richard Allen and Simon Farren were flying in their Tornado and came to the top mark with an extensive lead. Wouter Samama and Paul Buyse hoisted the spinnaker of their F18 Nacra Infusion in second position, but gave up ground every lap and finished sixth overall. "Mitch passed us in the second downwind and in the third beat we were in between two paths of wind. That is where Peter Vink and the Frenchmen Quillaume Hemery and Nicolas Usandizaga overtook us," explained Samama.

Allen and Farren also gave up their first position on the third upwind leg. The Dutch Tornado team Eduard Zanen and Willem Houwing took over. "Richard Allen went to the extreme left side and we tacked a couple of times through the middle and closed the gap. We steered deeper under spinnaker and rounded the bottom mark first. It was very exciting," commented Zanen. The Dutchmen took line honours.

Due to the unstable conditions in the morning, the race committee decided to shorten the long distance course of the afternoon. Wouter Samama and Paul Buyse took revenge and were smoking to the buoy around the southern corner of the island. Their lead was enormous. Booth and Nieuwenhuis thought they were early over the line, returned and started again. They overtook three cats and haunted for Samama and Buyse. The two of them had their private battle, as the rest were far behind. Booth and Nieuwenhuis took over the lead in the last spinnaker lap and won. "We went straight after the top mark and continued to the right. Mitch gybed to the left. We needed a second to pull the cunningham line out of the spinnaker block. Mitch gibed again and he got us," said Buyse. James and Gillian Power are getting closer to the podium. They climbed to a fourth place overall, only one point behind the Dutchmen Samama and Buyse.

Mark Rijks and Brenda Liefhebber finally found some competition, as they were competing against the leading F18's while reaching. The small cats started ten minutes earlier, but the Darts are quick on a reaching lap. "That was great. We could keep up with them for a long time. At the end, they just got us," recounted Liefhebber. Nicolette van Gorp and Ruud van Gisbergen climbed to the second position overall, followed by Thomasch and Hankart.

Tomorrow morning, the competitors will sail the final race of the 16th Aruba Heineken Catamaran Race.

Results:

Pos	Helm	Crew	Class	Nat	SCHRS	Total	Nett
1	Booth, Mitch	Nieuwenhuis, Pim	Hobie Tiger	NED	1.01	33	10
2	Gummer, Stuart	Burke, Hannah	Capricorn	GBR	1.01	32	17
3	Samama, Wouter	Buyse, Paul	Nacra infusion	NED	1.01	57	27
4	Power, James	Power, Gillian	Capricorn	GBR	1.01	87	28
5	Moret, John	Smissaert, Paul	Capricorn	NED	1.01	61	38
6	Sproat, Christopher	Burke, Georgina	Spitfire	GBR	1.04	58.5	39.5
7	Vink, Peter	Pols, Mark	Nacra infusion	NED	1.01	88	40
8	Pols, Xander	Veenstra, Tjiddo	Nacra infusion	NED	1.01	66	44
9	Breur, Hans	Leeuwen, Jeroen van	Capricorn	NED	1.01	66	45
10	Hemery, Quillaume	Usandizaga, Nicolas	Hobie Tiger	FRA	1.01	78	50
11	Allen, Richard	Farren, Simon	Tornado 2001	GBR	0.94	102	66
12	Beech, John	Farr, Alex	Capricorn	GBR	1.01	129.5	72.5
13	Smith, Gary	Tomlin/Whitmore	Spitfire	GBR	1.04	144	85
14	Zaanen, Eduard	Houwing, Willem	Tornado 2001	NED	0.94	134	88
15	Diks, Marcel	Diks, Daniel	Tornado 2001	NED	0.94	122	90
16	Vercouteren, Menno	Straakenbroek, Jaap	Capricorn	NED	1.01	139	97
17	Ambtman, Leo	Kroon, Maarten	Tornado 2001	NED	0.94	165	108
18	Devanneux, Charles	Daniel, Jacques	Nacra infusion	FRA	1.01	184	112
19	Manser, Alan	Clark, Alfie	Spitfire	GBR	1.04	182	129
20	Hall, David	Stephens, Martin	Tornado 2001	GBR	0.94	196	134