Gybe MarkDCIM102GOPRO

KZ&RV Hollandia, Medemblik, May 1 – 3

Reports from Robert Deaves

Day 1: Charlie Cumbley wins three in a row on first day at the OK Dinghy Spring Cup

Gybe Mark
Gybe Mark

Charlie Cumbley (GBR) made the first day of his first ever international OK Dinghy regatta look easy as he took three straight wins on the opening day of the OK Dinghy Spring Cup in Medemblik, in The Netherlands. Sailed in a shifty 8-14 knots onshore breeze the 45 sailors from eight countries enjoyed a great day’s sailing, if a little on the cold side.

All three races got away first time, though race 1 featured five OCS as the bunch at the pin pushed too hard. Cumbley started in the middle of the line and played the shifts well to the first mark to lead round in the first two races. He was pushed hard by both Jim Hunt and Nick Craig. It was slightly more open in the final race as Jørgen Lindhardtsen (DEN), led at the top. However Cumbley rounded sixth and was soon taking places offwind to round the downwind mark in the lead, which he held to the finish. Craig gained a lot on the final beat on the left to ensure Cumbley only won by the narrowest of margins – a couple of boatlengths.

Cumbley said it was anything but easy. It was absolutely not easy. I came here with no expectations or any idea of the pecking order. I did’t know who was slow or quick. So it was nice to be up there and that’s the the best I have sailed for a good while. Maybe because I was relishing the new challenge. Because I had no expectation I just tacked on the shifts and sailed my own race. Luckily I had a bit of pace downwind so that got me out of trouble.

Charlie Cumbley
Charlie Cumbley

Racing continues until Sunday. Light winds are forecast for Saturday and very strong winds for Sunday, so the fleet should see a little bit of everything.

DCIM101GOPRO  Bo Petersen
Bo Petersen

Results after 3 races

  1. GBR 2173 Charlie Cumbley 3
  2. GBR 1 Jim Hunt 13
  3. NZL 544 Greg Wilcox 14
  4. DEN 1442 Rene Johannsen15
  5. GBR 2150 Nick Craig 18
  6. GBR 2175 David Carroll 27
  7. GBR 2045 Tony Woods 30
  8. GBR 2042 Richard Burton35
  9. DEN 1 Bo Reker Andersen 38
  10. GER 772 Oliver Gronholz 39

Day 2: Three races and three winners on day 2

Nick Craig DCIM101GOPRO
Nick Craig

Charlie Cumbley has moved into a seven point lead at the OK Dinghy Spring Cup in Medemblik after three more races were sailed on Saturday. It was always going to be the lightest day and the fleet woke to a mirror like IJsselmeer with most forecasts showing very little wind. However, by 11.30 a light breeze was developing and the fleet was sent out for three very tricky races in a shifty and variable breeze that left many scratching their heads in frustration.

Rene Johannsen (DEN) dominated the first race to lead at the top mark and hold onto it throughout despite a strong challenge from Nick Craig (GBR). With the wind slightly increasing, Frank Strelow (GER) smacked the left hand corner in race 2, to lead at the top mark from Jim Hunt (GBR). Hunt took the lead offwind and held onto it until the finish, favouring the left side, which largely proved to be profitable all day. The final race was perhaps the trickiest with Cumbley emerging from the middle to lead round from the left and extend to win his fourth race of the series. A major left hand shift on the second upwind produced a lot of changes, with Bo Petersen (DEN) the biggest beneficiary moving from the 20s up to fifth.

Andreas Pich and Tom Lonsdale DCIM101GOPRO
Andreas Pich and Tom Lonsdale

The most consistent sailor today was Greg Wilcox (NZL) with three third places, to stay in third overall. He said, It was champagne sailing compared to what we were expecting. But it was very tricky. You think you are on winner and then you lose and then when it looks ordinary you have gained.

However, Hunt, had the best of the day with a 4, 1, 2. The defending champion from last year described it as a very tricky day, It was a very difficult day because there wasn’t really enough pressure to do anything downwind. Upwind, you only needed to get bounced once and that was enough to lose a lot. There were increases in pressure but they were very hard to see coming. A lot of people were taking the pressure drop as a shift and having to tack back across later and losing twice. It helped today if you were in the right place at the right time to make the gains.

2-medemblik-fleet DCIM102GOPRO

The OK Dinghy Spring Cup concludes Sunday with two more races and some very strong winds forecast. It should be a great finale to what has been a tough event.

Results after 6 races

Martin von Zimmermann DCIM103GOPRO
Martin von Zimmermann
  1. GBR 2173 Charlie Cumbley 6
  2. GBR 1 Jim Hunt 13
  3. NZL 544 Greg Wilcox 16
  4. DEN 1431 Bo Petersen 21
  5. DEN 1442 Rene Johannsen 22
  6. GBR 2150 Nick Craig 24
  7. GBR 2151 Jon Fish 45
  8. DEN 1420 Jørgen Lindhardtsen 47
  9. GBR 2177 Alex Scoles 48
  10. GBR 2045 Tony Woods 58

Charlie Cumbley wins OK Dinghy Spring Cup

Charlie Cumbley (GBR) has won the OK Dinghy Spring Cup in Medemblik for The Rüdiger Prinz Trophy at the first attempt after a win in race 7 sealed the event for him. Jim Hunt (GBR) finished second with Greg Wilcox (NZL) just maintaining third after a late charge from Rene Johannsen (DEN).

Windward Mark

The forecast strong winds seemed to blow themselves out overnight leaving a choppy sea and 14-18 knots, which gradually reduced during the day. It was a grey day though with rain coming through later. Wilcox made the best of the first race to lead round the first triangle. Then Cumbley came through on the second beat to lead to the finish for his fifth race win and the overall win with a race to spare.

The wind moderated slightly for the final race with reduced visibility and grey skies. This seemed to suit Hunt, who rounded the top mark in the lead. Cumbley briefly took the lead downwind, but on the second beat Hunt favoured the middle while the rest took the right. Hunt crossed back with a nice lead again and led to the finish.

Top 6: Rene Johannsen, Bo Petersen, Greg Wilcox, Charlie Cumbley, Nick Craig, Jim Hunt
Top 6: Rene Johannsen, Bo Petersen, Greg Wilcox, Charlie Cumbley, Nick Craig, Jim Hunt

With Cumbley and Hunt a clear first and second, Wilcox took third by a very narrow margin after Johannsen and Bo Petersen (DEN) closed the gap with some consistent sailing.

It was a very tough weekend, sailed in some testing and tricky conditions across all wind ranges. Charlie Cumbley was the deserved winner of the Rüdiger Prinz Trophy. This is the first year that this trophy has been presented. It was created in memory of long time OK Dinghy sailor Rüdiger Prinz who died earlier this year. It is a half model OK Dinghy in orange, the colour of his boat. The Spring Cup was one of his favourite events, so his friends decided it would be a fitting tribute to his memory. A collection was also taken in the Brakeboer pub last night, where € 300 was raised to be given to his family’s chosen charity.

– Results
No Sailno Name Scores 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
1 GBR 2173 Charlie Cumbley 10,0 1 1 1 6 2 1 1 3
2 GBR 1 Jim Hunt 18,0 2 4 7 4 1 2 4 1
3 NZL 544 Greg Wilcox 27,0 7 3 4 3 3 3 5 6
4 DEN 1442 Renesarabia Johannsen 28,0 4 8 3 1 11 6 2 4
5 DEN 1431 Bo Petersen 30,0 ocs 2 5 5 4 5 7 2
6 GBR 2150 Nick Craig 37,0 3 13 2 2 ocs 4 8 5
7 DEN 1420 Jørgen Lindhardtsen 57,0 ocs 5 6 11 17 8 3 7
8 GBR 2177 Alex Scoles 76,0 6 10 24 14 6 12 12 16
9 GBR 2151 Jon Fish 81,0 ocs 9 8 8 10 10 6 30
10 GER 693 Martin v. Zimmermann 87,0 14 16 28 7 9 13 13 15
11 GBR 2145 Tony Woods 89,0 10 7 13 23 12 16 14 17
12 GBR 2175 David Kenneth Carroll 90,0 5 12 10 20 13 28 17 13
13 GBR 2042 Richard Burton 100,0 20 6 9 25 35 19 9 12
14 GER 772 Oliver Gronholz, 106,0 9 15 15 18 ocs 22 19 8
15 DEN 1 Bo Reker Andersen 109,0 16 11 11 13 23 26 16 19
16 GBR 2171 Simon Cox 113,0 19 23 20 16 5 7 26 23
17 GER 778 Sönke Behrens 120,0 8 31 dns 27 7 21 15 11
18 GBR 2172 Dave Bourne 123,0 17 17 27 26 16 30 10 10
19 GBR 2154 Simon Cowood 127,0 13 18 12 39 15 14 34 21
20 GBR 2156 Robert Deaves 128,0 22 19 21 10 19 23 24 14
21 DEN 1397 Henrik Kofoed Larsen 129,0 12 25 14 30 29 29 11 9
22 GER 775 Jörg Rademacher 132,0 15 28 19 21 8 20 21 29
23 GBR 2147 Tom Lonsdale 142,0 25 22 dns 24 20 11 20 20
24 FRA 1823 de Kervénoaël Guillaume 149,0 23 21 25 19 30 15 28 18
25 GER 777 Andreas Pich 154,0 18 29 29 9 18 24 30 27
26 GER 791 Frank Strelow 155,0 11 30 22 22 ocs 9 33 28
27 DEN 22 Ask Askholm 156,0 ocs 14 18 31 27 18 22 26
28 GER 790 Thorsten Schmidt 162,0 27 24 17 29 22 32 18 25
29 DEN 1430 René Bruun 170,0 33 33 30 15 14 17 29 32
30 DEN 142 Malte Pedersen 180,0 28 20 31 28 26 38 25 22
31 GER 77 Ralf Mackmann 186,0 21 26 26 12 21 33 dns dns
32 SWE 99 Hans Elkjær 189,0 24 32 23 37 28 35 23 24
33 GBR 2139 Kenneth Carroll 209,0 32 36 16 36 31 dnf 27 31
34 GBR 2141 Simon Davis 237,0 dns 27 33 38 24 37 31 dns
35 GER 665 Peter Stephan 237,0 26 34 32 35 36 27 dnf dns
36 BEL 214 Paul Verrijdt 238,0 30 39 34 17 32 39 dns dns
37 NED 663 Stephan Veldman 255,0 34 35 38 33 25 43 dns dns
38 GBR 2130 Deryck Lovegrove 255,0 31 40 36 45 39 44 32 33
39 GBR 66 Martin Bower 257,0 29 37 35 40 33 36 dns dns
40 GBR 2129 Alan Atkin 260,0 36 43 37 34 38 25 dns dns
41 GER 678 Heinz Ridder 268,0 dns 38 39 41 40 41 35 34
42 GBR 2170 Bob Bourne 288,0 37 dns dns 42 34 34 dns dns
43 GER 793 Karsten Kath 292,0 35 41 dns 43 37 42 dns dns
44 GER 737 Christian Heinze 298,0 dns dns dns 32 ocs 31 dns dns
45 NED 638 Robert Bancken 311,0 38 dns dns 46 41 45 dns dns
46 DEN 112 Svend Jakobsen 314,0 ocs 42 dns 44 ocs 40 dnc dns