Tough opener

The Texel Dutch Open kicked off in light winds

After the first day of the Texel Dutch Open 2008, the official Dutch Championship Cat Sailing, the Dutchmen Mischa Heemskerk and Bastiaan Tentij have a close lead. They are tied on points with Coen de Koning and Jeroen van Leeuwen.

On Wednesday June 4, Heemskerk and Tentij took the first bullet with their black F18 Hobie Tiger, followed by a third. De Koning and Van Leeuwen, sailing a F18 Nacra Infusion, scored two seconds. Herbert Dercksen (NED) and Mark Bulkely (GBR) are third overall with their Extreme 20. Tody’s wind conditions were very light with a flat North Sea. A total of 79 beach catamarans lined up for this ‘warming-up event’ for the spectacular Zwitserleven Round Texel Race on Saturday. The Open Class I (faster cats) includes 74 multihulls and the Open Class II five, leaded by local Dirk Pool.

This afternoon, the Open Class I fleet was eager to start, which resulted into nine black flags. The Hobie Tiger team of Kathelijn de Bruijne and Bart van Rijs (NED) was among the unfortunate competitors. They were about to win the race on handicap, but got disqualified for being early over the line. That is how Heemskerk and Tentij, who finished as second F18, ended up on top of the leader board. “The breeze was light, so it was hard to keep the boat going.” Both sailors thought the pin end would be the best position to start: “But when we looked back, it turned out to be the wrong spot. We had no choice, so we carried on to the left and found luckily some extra pressure. That saved our race, because we were third to round the top mark,” commented Heemskerk . They managed to overtake one more competitor.

A different battle took place at the front of the fleet, the one between 20-foot carbon cats. Dercksen and Bulkeley were leading with their red coloured Extreme 20, as the tack line of their spinnaker halyard came undone in the last downwind. They slowed down, which enabled Xander Pols and Tjiddo Veenstra (NED) on their M20 to catch up with them. Dercksen and Bulkeley won the photo finish and finished fourth on handicap.

After being warmed up in the first heat, Dercksen and Bulkely were flying in the second race. “We had a good start and went to the right, where we found a bit more wind. Xander stayed at the left side, so we crossed in front of him,” explained Dercksen. Today, Bulkeley made his début on the Extreme 20: “That is quite different. The hulls have a lot more volume in front of the front beam and the jib is smaller," he said. "That makes a difference in balancing the boat. We were fast upwind and improved on the downwind. We had good starts, sailed clear lines and stayed in the wind. We kept it simple.” According to Dercksen, a few changes have been made to the current Extreme 20 since last year: “The mast is longer and the mainsail two square meters bigger. Our jib is a bit smaller than the one Xander is using, so we have a slightly different rating.” Dercksen and Bulkely had a big enough lead on the first F18, sailed by Coen de Koning and Jeroen van Leeuwen, to beat them all on handicap.

There was still some excitement among the first F18 teams at the last top mark. Heemskerk and Tentij were second to round the buoy. “We had to choose between covering James Power at the right side of the course or Mourniac at the left side," Heemskerk explained. "We decided to go for Mourniac, but unfortunately Coen could pass us.” De Koning and Van Leeuwen had a strong day with two seconds. De Koning said about their last race: “We had a bad start, so we worked hard and sailed the shifts well. We were third at the top mark and finally finished second. We are absolutely happy with these results so far, because we haven’t sailed for a while.”

The pit lane on the Texel beach was full of activity with teams, sponsors and companies representing themselves in 34 booths. Many different decorations and tools are used, such as service cars and lots of banners and flags. Sit sacks seem to be most popular for lounging. The visitors also enjoyed the warm weather and sun.

Results:

Open Class I:

1-NED Heemskerk and Tentij – F18 Hobie Tiger, 4pts
2-NED De Koning and Van Leeuwen – F18 Nacra Infusion, 4pts
3-NED Dercksen and Bulkey – Extreme 20, 5pts
4-FRA Bontemps and Marfaing – F18, 8pts
5-NED Bouscholte and Van Wieren – Eagle 20, 15pts

Open Class II:

1-NED Dirk Pool – Prindle 15, 2pts
2-NED Hans Primowees, Prindle 15, 5pts
3-NED David van Aard, Hobie FxOne spi, 7pts