KZ & RV Hollandia, Medemblik, 27.4.-29.4.

Report by Peter Scheuerl

40 OK-Dinghies from seven countries competed in the fifth Spring Cup in Medemblik. The wind was mainly light, gusty and shifty, with a breeze in only one of the six races. The course was a Triangle-Run with finish downwind. Many competitors would have liked to have more than two beats, especially in this light wind.

Saturday 27.4

Race 1

Light south-easterly winds.

The only way to be in front was in the corners of the beat with most boats on the left side. There was some trouble in the fleet because the windward mark of the second beat wasn’t the same as on the first beat in this course format but some hundred metres to the left, which wasn’t recognised by all competitors.

Antoni Pawlowski (POL 31) won from Rüdiger Prinz (GER 634) and Karsten Hitz (GER 672). Three-time winner (’92, ’94 and ’95) Hedley Fletcher (GBR 2073) was fifth.

Race 2

Light south-easterly winds, shifting to north-east.

Jörn Richter (GER 666), in Germany well known as a light wind winner, was well in front at the first mark after sailing in the left corner. On the second reach the wind dropped totally. After a few minutes it came back from 100 degrees more to the left (north), while most of the fleet tried to sail a higher, more westerly course to the leeward mark. The places changed a lot on this reach and many sailors wanted the race to be abandoned, but the race comittee laid a new windward mark. Joern Richter reached the leeward mark first and found some wind to sail half way to the windward mark as the
rest of the fleet stayed at, or around, the leeward mark. On this last beat again some boats won or lost a lot of places as they got private breezes or wind holes.

Jörn won, with Hedley Fletcher second, David Carroll third and Antoni Pawlowski fourth.

The race committee postponed the third scheduled race until the next day.

Sunday 28.4

The wind was a little more steady, coming from the north and increased during the day.

Race 3

Again the left side of the beat was favoured.

In still light winds Antoni Pawlowski won from Karsen Hitz and Rüdiger Prinz. Jan Dissel (GER) was fourth and Hedley Fletcher finished 6th.

Race 4

The wind started to increase to 3-4 Beaufort during this race.

Jörn Richter, coming from the left corner again, was first at the windward mark, with Karsten Hitz, Hinnerk Ries (GER), Antoni Pawlowski and Ingo Ballerstein following closely.

Karsten took the lead in the buiding breeze and didn’t give it up on the run to the finish. Joern defended his second and Hinnerk his third position. Antoni was fourth with Giles Hudson just behind. Ingo, Hedley and Martin von Zimmermann fought hard for the places 6 to 8 surfing down the increasing waves with Peter Scheuerl (GER 618) closing the gap from behind.

Race 5

The wind was now blowing 4 Beaufort and still increasing, coming
from about 0 degrees.

Karsten showed his upwind speed to the rest of the fleet with Hedley
Fletcher second and Ken Carrol (GBR 2054) third at the first mark. Antoni was just behind, followed by Thorsten Schmidt (GER 707), Peter Scheuerl and Martin von Zimmermann at some distance. On the reach Martin and Peter overtook Thorsten (“I’m playing cork on the reaches”) and closed the gap with Ken and Antoni.

On the next beat Karsten widened his lead on Hedley so that even
his problems finding the finish, sailing about 30 degrees in the wrong
direction, didn’t affect his place. Peter managed to overtake Martin on the beat again and rounded the windward mark as fifth just behind Ken with Hedley and Antoni well in front.

On the last run the first places didn’t change except Peter catching Ken, finishing 4th and 5th with Martin 6th and Thorsten, who
showed very good upwind speed, 7th.

Unfortunately, the race committee considered it too cold to let the OKs sail another race and postponed again. The racing conditions started to be perfect with up to 5 Beaufort, waves and sun. As far as the water temperature is concerned, you’ll have to ask David Carroll.

Monday 29.4

The breeze had died during the night and didn’t come back in the morning.

The race committee started the J24s for a race but postponed for the J22s and OKs because of windshifts of about 60 degrees and big differences in wind speed over the course. After 2:30 hours of postponement Race 6 was started with the OKs first. The wind wasn’t any more stable. 5 minutes before the start the wind shifted 40 degrees to the left. At the start another shift to the left prevented most of the fleet getting over the line on starboard.

The fleet split up, with most boats going left and some going right, but only in the middle there was enough wind to sail. It was more important to find wind (mostly by luck) than to play the shifts. At the first mark Dirk Dame (GER) was well in front followed by Karsten and Hedley, after a small gap Peter rounded the mark with Bart Bomans just behind. The middle of the fleet was caught by the J22s, which had started 10 minutes behind, at the windward mark. Only the first 3 managed to reach the leeward mark before most of Js, which sailed a up-and-down course. Peter had trouble with just one J, while the others got a lot of trouble at this mark.

By some very clever moves to find wind, Karsten not only overtook Dirk, but was also faster than the Js. Hedley managed to get second at the windward mark with Dirk 3th. Peter, 4th, was still in front of the main J22 fleet with Bart and Antoni following at some distance. With a big left-shift and some wind the first six managed to stay out of most problems with the J22s and oncoming J24s, while the rest of the OK fleet was stopped by the back-wind of the keelboats and total lack of wind in the middle and right side of the course.

Karsten won from Hedley and Dirk, Peter 4th, Bart 5th and Antoni 6th. Behind them there was a gap of several hundred metres to the rest of the fleet.

Due to lack of steady wind the race committee abandoned all further races.

Over all Karsten won this fifth edition of the Spring Cup, his second one after winning the 1993 edition, with Antoni Pawlowski second and three-time winner Hedley Fletcher third.

Results
Pl Sail Nbr Name R1 R2 R3 R4 R5 R6 Pts Pts-1
1 GER672 Karsten Hitz 3 8 2 1 1 1 15.25 7.25
2 POL31 Antoni Pawlowski 1 4 1 6 3 6 18.50 12.50
3 GBR2073 Hedley Fletcher 5 2 6 7 2 2 24.00 17.00
4 BEL4 Bart Bomans 4 7 8 12 9 5 45.00 33.00
5 GBR1985 David Carroll 6 3 5 10 23 15 62.00 39.00
6 GER666 Jörn Richter 8 1 12 2 24 19 65.75 41.75
7 GER634 Rüdiger Prinz 2 5 3 23 14 24 71.00 47.00
8 GBR2056 Giles Hudson 13 11 29 5 11 12 81.00 52.00
9 GER618 Peter Scheuerl 17 24 20 9 4 4 78.00 54.00
10 GBR2054 Ken Carrol 7 16 18 18 5 10 74.00 56.00
11 GER607 Ingo Ballerstein 10 17 PMS 6 10 16 101.00 59.00
12 GER693 Martin von Zimmerman 21 15 10 8 6 DNC 102.00 60.00
13 GBR2074 Terry Curtis 11 19 11 11 8 29 89.00 60.00
14 GER576 Ralf Tietje 12 10 13 15 13 21 84.00 63.00
15 GER703 Torsten Teutloff PMS 18 9 20 12 9 110.00 68.00
16 GER449 Soenke Behrens 14 6 21 25 15 18 99.00 74.00
17 GBR2010 Alistair John Deaves 18 9 7 24 20 22 100.00 76.00
18 GER707 Thorsten Schmidt 19 13 23 14 7 DNC 118.00 76.00
19 GER688 Dirk Dame 25 14 24 21 18 3 105.00 80.00
20 POL57 Marian Jankowski 20 29 15 17 16 14 111.00 82.00
21 GER690 Jan Dissel 9 26 4 26 19 DNC 126.00 84.00
22 GER670 Hinnerk Ries 22 12 28 3 22 28 115.00 87.00
23 GBR2071 Alan Atkin 24 22 16 19 27 7 115.00 88.00
24 GER637 Kirstin Brand 16 25 14 34 31 11 131.00 97.00
25 GER662 Gerd Breitbart 34 21 17 22 21 17 132.00 98.00
26 NED661 Erik M. Vliegenthart 27 30 30 16 17 26 146.00 116.00
27 GER628 Matthias Mueller 23 36 22 31 33 13 158.00 122.00
28 GER697 Joerg Posny 38 35 34 13 25 20 165.00 127.00
29 NZL494 Rob Hengst 15 32 27 28 28 30 160.00 128.00
30 BEL177 Franz Hawer 30 27 19 33 32 23 164.00 131.00
31 BEL14 Kris Lauwers 29 33 32 32 DNF 8 176.00 134.00
32 GER633 Rainer Schroeter 33 20 31 30 26 DNC 182.00 140.00
33 NED660 Adrie Kuypers 28 28 26 29 34 31 176.00 142.00
34 GER664 Thomas Neveling 26 23 25 27 DNF DNC 185.00 143.00
35 FRA2000 Raymond Dodard 37 31 35 37 30 25 195.00 158.00
36 NED659 Ton Vogelzang 32 34 36 38 29 27 196.00 158.00
37 BEL1 Rod Andrew 35 40 33 35 DNF 33 218.00 176.00
38 GER692 Horst Duwe 36 38 37 36 DNF DNC 231.00 189.00
39 NED638 Robert Bancken 31 37 38 DNS DNC DNF 232.00 190.00
40 BEL125 Johanna Kreuzinger DNF 39 39 DNF DNC 32 236.00 194.00
41 NED609 Willem Dijkstra DNC DNC DNC DNC DNC DNC 252.00 210.00