KZ & RV Hollandia, Medemblik, May 1.-3.

Report by Peter Scheuerl

33 sailors from 5 countries competed in the well organized Spring Cup. Two light wind races and seven moderate to strong wind races were held. The course was a Triangle-Run with finish downwind. Hedley Fletcher (GBR) and some Swedes and Poles were missed.

Friday 1. May

Race 1

Light north-easterly winds.

Shifty and light winds saw Ingo Ballerstein (GER 607) in front in the beginning of the race, but Bart Bomans (BEL 44) took the lead on the second beat to win.
Sönke Behrens (GER449), who did very well during the series went third.

Race 2

Light north-easterly winds.

Positions in the front changed several times, Rüdiger Prinz (GER 711, current GER champion) won from Ingo Ballerstein and Nick Craig (GBR 2042, new boat from Rushford).

Race 3

Breezing north-easterly winds.

With the wind building up, some guys in the fleet started to smile. Karsten Hitz (GER 672), current bronze medallist at the worlds, won with some distance. Nick Craig again showed good tactics to follow up with Bart Bomans 3rd.

In the evening the fleet went to a good chinese restaurant in Medemblik to have a meal and some drinks sponsored by the NED OK association.

Saturday 2.5.

The wind had build up during the night (even in the harbour there was some, everybody been in Medemblik knows what that means).
from about 20 knots (10 m/s, 4 Bft) in the morning, the wind builds up to 26 knots (13 m/s, 6 Bft) and some gusts with great waves during the day.
Northerly winds.

Race 4

The right side of the beat was slightly better.

Jan-Dietmar Dellas (GER 698) already known from the worlds in Adelaide in 1998 as an up wind racer, was first at the first mark, but lost his place with his also famous downwind “speed” to Karsten Hitz.
Bart Bomans watched the battle from the 3rd position.
Some Boats (even in good positions) went to the wrong windward mark (about 500 meters to the right and windward).
The race committee showed a course diagram of about 1×1.5 m between the races.

Race 5

The wind started to increase to 5-6 Beaufort during this race.

Again Karsten was well in front, hard to read his sailnumber from the next positions. After reaching from 11th to 3rd, Peter Scheuerl (GER 618) was the second boat to know that the second windward mark was different to the first. Nick Craig went from a safe second to 9…
Sönke Behrens became 3rd.
Bart Bomans got bad luck when his mast came out of it’s step at the gybing mark and made a hole in the hull. He managed to capsize, refix and sail back to the harbour. After taping the hull, he managed to come out in time for the third race of the day.

Race 6

The wind builds up as well as the waves.

Karsten showed his upwind speed to the rest of the fleet with only Jan-Dietmar fast enough to follow upwind (even with a early start and sailing back with a capzise…), but no chance to follow downwind. Volkmar Kiene (GER225, the only boat with alloy centerboard in the fleet), showed great tactics and speed to become second. Nick Craig third.

During the evening there were some guys drinking free beer at Cafe Brakeboer and some guys repairing. A good live band with Salsa and so on helped to recover the muscles until 2:00 in the morning

Sunday 3.5.

The breeze had got slighty lighter but was building up again up to 20 knots, much more just after racing.

Race 7

Karsten Hitz again got a competitor only on the first beat in Jan-Dietmar. Bart Bomans became 2nd following Karsten with 200 meters and a lead on Sönke Behrens of about 100 meters.
(And the writer of the is article had to go to the shore again to fix his mast step again…)

Race 8

Jan-Dietmar was in front enough at the first mark to defeat his place against everybody except Karsten. Oliver Gronholz (GER 679) was good enough on the final beat to defend his 3rd on the run to the finish by half a meter.

Race 9

Jan-Dietmar was in front at the first mark again and this time Karsten was out with a OCS. Jan’s upwind speed was good enough to take the win home with good shifts-sailing on the second beat. On the final beat the positions 2-4 changed several times, in the finish Nick Craig became 2nd with Bart Bomans 3rd surfing the same wave with Peter Scheuerl, 4th into the finish

The course with downwind finish (two beats, one reaches, one downwind), seems to be very interesting in a breeze, but is very open to pumping in no-planing conditions. This year we got 6 wind-races with interesting downwind finishes, as it was possible to win 3-5 places just 10 meters to the finish with a wave.

Results
Pl. Sailno. Name R1 R2 R3 R4 R5 R6 R7 R8 R9 Pts Pts-1
1 GER 672 Karsten Hitz 5 6 1 1 1 1 1 1 OCS 51 17
2 GBR 2042 Nick Craig 6 3 2 6 9 3 6 5 2 42 33
3 GBR 2085 David Carroll 10 8 6 19 4 5 4 6 6 68 49
4 GER 449 Sönke Behrens 3 5 5 15 3 9 3 8 OCS 85 51
5 BEL 44 Bart Bomans 1 4 3 3 DNC 4 2 OCS 3 88 54
6 GER 679 Oliver Gronholz 12 9 12 7 8 7 5 3 8 71 59
7 GER 711 Rüdiger Prinz 8 1 17 8 17 12 9 7 7 86 69
8 GER 618 Peter Scheuerl 21 18 9 5 2 8 DNS 4 4 105 71
9 GER 698 Jan-Dietmar Dellas 31 25 22 2 6 6 12 2 1 107 76
10 GER 607 Ingo Ballerstein 2 2 10 14 15 14 14 14 10 95 80
11 GER 576 Ralf Tietje 11 23 15 9 10 11 11 10 9 109 86
12 GER 670 Hinnerk Ries 24 14 19 12 11 10 8 9 5 112 88
13 GBR 2060 Greg Casey 13 29 14 10 7 13 15 15 11 127 98
14 GER 693 Martin von Zimmerman 19 12 8 4 18 OCS 7 11 DNC 147 113
15 GER 662 Gert Breitbart 9 21 21 17 14 15 13 16 12 138 117
16 GER 225 Volkmar Kiene 7 11 4 23 5 2 DNC DNC DNC 154 120
17 GER 721 Jörn Wille 4 OCS 7 11 12 DNF 10 12 DNC 158 124
18 BEL 207 Franz Hawer 14 15 23 18 DNF DNC 17 13 14 182 148
19 NED 661 Erik Vliegenthart 16 26 20 22 20 DNF 16 17 13 184 150
20 GER 703 Torsten Teutloff 17 13 16 13 16 DNF DNF DNC DNC 211 177
21 GER 665 Peter Stephan 27 10 13 25 19 DNC DNC DNC DNC 230 196
22 GER 640 Helmut Mannsbarth 15 7 18 DNC DNC DNC DNC DNC DNC 244 210
23 GER 680 Marina Dellas 30 28 24 16 13 DNC DNC DNC DNC 247 213
24 GBR 2054 Ken Carroll 26 22 11 21 DNF DNC DNC DNC DNC 250 216
25 GER 630 Norbert Petrausch 29 31 29 DNF 23 DNC 18 18 DNC 250 216
26 FRA 2000 Raymond Dodard 23 24 28 20 22 DNF DNC DNC DNC 253 219
27 GER 637 Kirstin Brand DNC 16 25 DNF 21 DNC DNC DNC DNC 266 232
28 NED 660 Adrie Kuijpers 25 19 30 24 DNF DNC DNC DNC DNC 268 234
29 GER 642 Ralf Mackmann 20 17 DNC DNC DNC DNC DNC DNC DNC 275 241
30 GER 664 Thomas Neveling 18 27 27 DNC DNC DNC DNC DNC DNC 276 242
31 GBR 2004 Kris Lauwers 22 20 DNC DNC DNC DNC DNC DNC DNC 280 246
32 GER 615 Klaus Stephan 28 30 26 DNC DNC DNC DNC DNC DNC 288 254
33 GBR 2058 Mary Reddyhoff DNC DNC DNC DNF DNF DNC DNF DNC DNC 306 272