KZ & RV Hollandia, Medemblik, 30 April – 3 May

Report by Neil Goodhead

‘Going Dutch with the Chuckle Brothers’

Following the trauma of a ferry trip from Dover to Calais and 8hrs trapped in a car with our Class Chairman (luckily Mike has a great car apparently), we arrived along with 9 other British sailors at one of Europe’s premier sailing venues, Medemblik. Located in the Northern part of the Netherlands, it is essentially a vast lake, but to the unwitting observer could be mistaken for the sea, as you would struggle to spot the opposite shores with the naked eye, but there are several inlets joining it to the North Sea, all making for an ideal venue for the annual Spring Cup. This regatta is a prestigious event on the International OK calendar and this year was extended to four days from the 30th April – 3rd May.

Day 1 got off to a slow start with there being very little wind at the advertised start time, all 34 competitors from 7 countries (America, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Great Britain, Poland and Sweden) were forced to wait until the postponement was lifted, racing eventually commenced at 1400 hours. All three races were held in light and variable (force 1-2) winds, giving some fairly inconsistent results for most except for Karsten Hitz (Ger) who scored firsts in all three races.

Day 2 started even more slowly than Day 1, even less wind meant yet another postponement which was eventually lifted at 1200 hours with little response from the less than enthusiastic competitors, there seemed to be not a breath of breeze across the racecourse. Eventually Neil (Homer) Goodhead (GBR) spurred on by his success on day one broke ranks and launched to go in search of wind, reluctantly followed closely by the rest of the fleet. This of course came to no avail as this only led to another 2 hour wait on the water. The wind eventually starting to fill in, race 4 got underway, and Karsten wasn’t going to get it all his own way today, as Goodhead’s eagerness paid off as he won race 4 and Tomasz Gaj (Pol) winning race 5. Race 6 saw a building wind of about force 3-4 but this turned out to be short lived and promptly died back to a force 1 by the end of the first beat. Terry Curtis (GBR) took advantage of this breezy start and found some form going on to win this race. The fleet eventually got ashore at 1930 hours for a few well earned beers.

Day 3 started with a little more promise as there was a small amount of breeze as the fleet cast off for the 10.30 start. Unfortunately the wind promptly died as the fleet approached the race area and then kept filling in from various directions causing another indefinite postponement with everyone being sent back to shore. Racing recommenced at 1430 hours in a building breeze, causing some very tricky conditions on choppy water. Terry Curtis went on to get his second win of the series. With the breeze now a nice force 3-4 race 8 commenced, with a well deserved first going to Oliver Gronholz of Germany. Only 2 races were sailed due to the very late start, with the third race of the day being the scramble to get back to Cafe Brakeboer for the wonderful Indonesian meal put on for all OK sailors by Jack the bar’s owner. Some of the fleets youngsters went on from there to the Black and White club and kindly allowed grandfather figure Mike Edwards to join them, a good night was had by all.

Day 4 came complete with a lovely force 3-4 forecast to strengthen later. This allowed us to start race 9 at the advertised start time of 1030 hours. Several boats were noticeably absent (perhaps it’s just coincidence, but the helms of these boats were back rather late from the Black and White Bar). With both Karsten and Oliver being flagged OCS, Tomasz Gaj achieved another win. With Race 10 starting soon after, Karsten went on to take his 5th victory of the series, making him the well deserving winner of this years Spring Cup.

Thanks must go to RYA Hollandia for an excellently managed event under some trying wind conditions. With Medemblik being proposed as the venue for the 2010 International OK European Championships, everyone will surely be delighted to return to this wonderful town and premier sailing venue.

2009 Spring Cup – Results
Plc Sailno Name Pts R1 R2 R3 R4 R5 R6 R7 R8 R9 R10
1 GER 744 Karsten Hitz 14,0 1 1 1 2 5 4 2 2 OCS 1
2 GER 717 Oliver Gronholz 30,0 2 12 8 3 4 2 4 1 OCS 6
3 GBR 2118 Terry Curtis 31,0 4 9 12 23 7 1 1 3 4 2
4 POL 1 Tomasz Gaj 31,0 6 6 6 10 1 9 3 4 1 4
5 GBR 2126 Mike Edwards 63,0 13 2 5 8 14 18 7 14 9 5
6 POL 27 Jakub Kania 63,0 22 17 3 11 3 10 11 10 5 10
7 GER 731 Thomas Glas 64,0 15 8 20 22 15 3 8 6 6 3
8 DEN 1361 Rene Johansen 64,0 8 15 10 4 11 7 9 12 3 14
9 GBR 2125 Neil Goodhead 70,0 9 4 2 1 20 DNF 18 9 14 13
10 GER 737 Thorsten Schmidt 72,0 3 11 15 9 16 11 14 21 2 7
11 GER 727 Jürgen Splieth 73,0 5 3 11 16 2 16 5 20 15 18
12 GER 711 Ralf Mackmann 73,0 10 5 19 6 6 8 6 25 13 DNC
13 GER 750 Ralf Tietje 88,0 7 27 23 18 12 6 22 5 7 11
14 SWE 99 Hans Elkjaer 98,0 11 19 4 19 8 21 15 17 16 8
15 GBR 2101 Julian Burnham 102,0 12 16 7 12 22 15 20 26 11 9
16 GER 656 Daniel Gröschl 114,0 16 10 9 15 9 12 26 DNF 17 DNF
17 GBR 2123 Andy Turner 121,0 14 13 16 20 23 DNC 23 13 10 12
18 GER 747 Andreas Pich 123,0 DNC DNC DNC 7 13 5 12 8 8 DNF
19 POL 11 Darek Kras 128,0 17 18 21 24 19 14 21 11 12 16
20 GER 665 Peter Stephan 140,0 19 21 13 21 21 20 10 15 OCS DNC
21 GER 607 Christian Heinze 146,0 25 25 18 5 17 19 27 16 OCS 21
22 GBR 2122 Jon Fish 148,0 20 23 dns 27 10 13 13 7 DNC DNC
23 GBR 2117 Alex Scoles 151,0 26 7 24 13 26 17 19 19 DNC DNC
24 GBR 2059 Pete Turner 161,0 18 14 17 14 18 22 DNC DNC 23 DNC
25 GBR 2129 Alan Atkin 165,0 21 26 22 17 24 25 16 18 22 DNC
26 BEL 220 Ronny Poelman 169,0 23 24 25 25 25 30 17 22 18 15
27 BEL 214 Paul Verrijdt 179,0 24 22 14 30 27 26 25 32 21 20
28 GBR 2065 Simon Shaw 181,0 28 20 27 OCS 28 23 24 23 19 17
29 GBR 2130 Deryck Lovegrove 201,0 27 30 29 29 29 24 29 24 20 19
30 GER 649 Kai Wehmhoerner 223,0 30 29 28 32 31 27 32 29 25 24
31 GER 728 Karsten Kath 229,0 29 28 26 26 30 OCS 28 27 DNF DNC
32 GER 651 Heinz Ridder 230,0 DNC DNC DNC 31 32 28 30 28 24 22
33 GER 567 Jan Beckmann 249,0 DNC DNC DNC 28 33 29 31 31 27 DNC
34 GER 690 Brad Johanson 252,0 DNC DNC DNC DNC DNC DNC 33 30 26 23