Blade/Falcon F16 - BEL666

Falcon teams @ F16 Europeans, Italy 2015

2015-07-10T12:13:00.001+02:00

Only 1 more week until the start of the F16 Europeans in Cesenatico Italy. 11 Falcon teams will be there and we would like to introduce them all to you. We have teams from Belgium (3), France (2), Switzerland (3), Germany (1), The Netherlands (1) and Australia (1). Mixed teams, 2 solo riders and an all-male and an all-female team, they are all in the mix.

Let’s start with the all-female team of Kim-Anne and Chiara. A new team to the boat, this all-female youth team will need to battle against other top youths! French Kim-Anne already sailed the Falcon at Eurocat Carnac this year. We are looking forward to seeing them on the water in Italy! They will have to work hard, especially on their language skills, Chiara is from the United Arab Emirates and does not speak French. Bonne chance! :-)

Geert Ruesink, from The Netherlands, has been to a lot of F16 events these last years, and will sail solo in Italy. He took part in the very first “Global Challenge” organized in 2007 by the then still very young F16 class and has been a big supporter of the class.

Ray and Lea (Switzerland) are new to the F16 scene. They bought a second hand Falcon last year and have been training very hard to get to know the boat. They are very enthusiastic to meet the other F16 sailors and have fun on and off the water.

Floris and Sonja are a Belgian mixed team. They used to sail an F18 but switched to F16 for the lighter weight and easier to handle on the beach. They love sailing and spent a lot of their free time on the water. They are sailing with an American sail number, but are well and truly Belgian; you can ask them anything about Belgian beers :-)

Adrian and Jesse are the current F16 World Champions. This Australian couple won the event last year in Newport, Rhodes Island. Adrian is a sail maker and they will sail their own set of sails. I am sure they will also bring the Aussie way of life to this party in Italy.

Andreas (call him Andi!) and Andrea are a Swiss couple and this is one of the first events they will sail together. Last year they were going to sail the Europeans in Le Touquet together, but right before the event Andrea broke her wrist. They are very eager to show how it’s done Swiss style. On and off the water you will hear Andi laughing and joking. But competition is competition. Don’t let him beat you!

Jacques is another solo sailor. He is from France and he is always sailing the Eurocat event in Carnac. Look out for the very nice design on the hull of his Falcon, a true artist! And this time he will not be sailing solo because his wife really wants to test their new jib J

Katrin and Thomas are a German couple who have been sailing for a long time now. They used to sail a Hobie FXOne and are now hooked on F16 sailing. Katrin is our first female helm and she does a great job. We know for sure she will love the light to medium wind in Italy :-)

Another Swiss team: Daniel & Dominic, also quite new to the F16 scene. They love to push it. We have sailed with them at Lake of Como this year, and the more wind the better. In Italy, they will learn to love the medium wind too (unless we get some thermal breeze?).

Belgium team Aurélie and Morgan do not usually sail together, but when they do they rock! They won silver at the Europeans in Travemunde in 2013 and Morgan is sailing an Olympic campaign. Right now he is sailing the F17 Worlds in Aarhus, Denmark, together with Carolijn Brouwer. Aurélie has been focusing on her studies this year, but she will get back in the groove of sailing quickly.

Only one team left and that’s us :-) No need to introduce us? We will be sailing together at the Europeans and looking very much forward to it. Not only the sailing but also the social program will be great.

We are very happy to be able to introduce you these nice Falcon team riders and we hope you all have a great time in Italy! For the ones stuck at home: follow us on Facebook for daily reports. Event starts on July 20.

Adrian and Jesse take F16 world title on the Falcon!

2014-07-06T07:55:00.000+02:00

Newport, Rhode Island

From June 23 to June 27 the F16 worlds were held at Newport, USA. There were 4 days of racing scheduled. 29 boats appeared on the starting line: mixed teams, youth teams, single handlers,... a mix of configurations typical for the F16 class.

Our Falcons were sailed by teams from all over the world, including Australia, Switzerland and of course the USA. Below our report on this event.

Adrian Fawcett & Jesse Dobie, Australia: "The venue for this Worlds was fantastic. Newport is a place all sailors need to visit. Friendly people, lots to do and see and really great sailing conditions. We did lose a day due to unstable wind but Mike the PRO still managed to get in 13 races."

During the practice race the teams experienced the challenging conditions of the race course. Matt McDonald, USA says: "It was a very interesting race course, each race the course was different with changing winds and current throughout the day. Reading the course and adjusting to it was really important."

Racing started on Tuesday in challenging conditions with winds up to 20 knots. From the start it was close racing, especially between the top 4 teams. Adrian: "The Falcon definitely has a different feel to the F16 that we are used too. The helm is balanced and light, and it can be pushed extra hard without fear of pitch pole, especially interesting on the windier days like Tuesday."

Wednesday was as sunny day but the winds were a little lighter, which was to the benefit of the lighter mixed teams. Andi Lutz, Switzerland, sailed with Tim Bohan. They were 2 men so one of the heavier teams. "Wednesday the wind was a little lighter and we started to feel it. The lighter teams really accelerated and the Aussies hauled ass! On Tuesday the first racing day, there was more wind and we, the heavy guys, had great speed."

On Thursday the wind was really unstable and Mike, the PRO, decided to cancel racing for the day. Ideal to explore the area. Andi: "we took the opportunity to check out the Newport Warf. It was great to see that many yachts and racing boats! The American VOR70 Team was there and the Spindrift (former Banque Populaire V) the 140 foot trimaran."

On Friday, the last day of racing, the top 4 was well ahead of the rest of the fleet but only a couple of points apart, so the racing was really exciting! Andi: "Friday final day, we all decided to sail more races and we started earlier to sail 5 more races, to make up for the lost races on Thursday. The wind was quite good. Altough still a bit lighter with 10-14 knots."

Adrian & Jesse, leading throughout the event, kept their act together and their better boat speed enabled them to stay on top, the Aussies were crowned World Champion!

A world title for the Falcon F16, an acknowledgement for everyone who has supported us!

"This is the first World title for the Falcon, thanks to Adrian & Jesse! It is no coincidence we manage to win the world title now", says Matt, designer and builder of the Falcon F16. "After winning a couple of World titles in the early days of the class with the Blade, the class started to grow and attract new builders. But even in these challenging conditions we kept following our strategy of supporting the base, the weekend sailors and investing in them, in youth and giving them the perfect boat to mix it up with the pro-sailors sponsored by other manufacturers. And now, 5 years later, we see the strategy is paying off. Across the world Falcons are winning local races, national titles and now a first World Championship title. This attracts the more professional sailors to look at the boat and make it their preferred choice as well. Sailors like John Casey, Tripp Burd and Michael Easton, the Glasers, etc putting their effort into our boats is just great and is the cherry on the cake to refine the Falcon F16 to the refined racing machine it is today."

After taking 3 national titles end of 2013, the Falcon is on a roll in 2014 with a 2nd and 3rd at Eurocat this year and of course winning the world championship. Gill from TheBoatshop.be says: "I can't wait to sail the F16 Europeans in France this year. The Belgian youth teams have proven to mix it up very well with the European top and we will also have a European top-sailor on the Falcon for this event. More on that in the coming weeks!"

F16 Worlds 2013 – Travemünde

2013-08-14T11:55:00.000+02:00

This year the F16 Worlds were held in Northern Germany, during the Travemünde Woche. This is a very big sailing event, with a lot of boats and sailors present. Not only the F16 were sailing, also the F18, Tornado, Hobie 16 and many monohull classes. Since our first baby daughter Marie was born on May 25 we knew we wouldn’t sail this event. But as an European dealer for Falcon we decided to be there to provide service, support and spare parts to all the Falcon sailors. We had 8 teams ready to race, learn and get to know each other during the social parts of the event. The teams were a great mixture of youth, mixed crews, 2 men sailing and Geert was also there sailing one-up. Countries represented: Belgium, Germany, Luxemburg and the Netherlands. In total the event had 32 contestants registered. All F16 brands were represented: AquaRaptor, Bimare, Cirrus, Falcon, Nacra and Viper.

We travelled to Germany a few days before the event. We towed a RIB for the RBSC and we used this RIB to give a training session to the Falcon sailors on the Saturday before the racing started. Also on the Friday evening we had a small informal coaching on racing preparation (wind direction, start procedure, racing rules) and boat preparation.

For us it was a bit weird to be on the other side of the racing scene. Being at such a lovely event with super weather conditions (always sunny, hot and enough wind) but not racing ourselves felt awkward. But it was also for us a nice experience. We had a great time with Marie (8 weeks old), walking along the promenade, watching the sailing from atop a cliff, being there when the sailors got back in the evening and going out to diner all together.

There was also a lot of work to do sometimes for us. Since we were the only dealer there with a trailer with parts we had a lot of inquiries on spare parts from all the sailors (not only Falcon) and also some repair work. So sometimes I had some mother/daughter time while Gill was fixing things J

Racing started on Monday with very light wind conditions. 2 teams dominated the fleet: BEL666 (our boat!) with Aurélie and Morgan crewing and SUI001 (Andi and KC!). They took respectively silver and gold that day. Very happy faces on shore that evening! The Travemünde Woche TV interviewed them both and they would be closely watched the next day during the SAP media course.

This was a very cool way to make sailing more a spectator sport. On Tuesday the F16 could sail the SAP media course, this was a course in front of the beach and all boats got trackers on them and on the beach there was a special SAP area where you could watch the races on a big screen with live commentary from sailing journalists. Normally there was also on board footage (1 video kit on BEL666 and one on our other Youth Team (BEL111)) but unfortunately there were technical problems and the on board filming didn’t work. It was windier this day and Andi and Aurélie were falling down a bit in the ranking.

Falcon youth team BEL333 (at that time 5^th in ranking) was performing very well. We were rooting for them! But then they capsized and helmswoman Marie-Laure dislocated her shoulder L She was immediately brought to shore and luckily one of the dads of another youth team is a doctor and he could put her shoulder back into position. To be sure she needed to go to hospital tough for an x-ray. Gill stayed at the boat park while I drove with Marie and Filip (crew of Marie-Laure) to Lübeck to check on Marie-Laure and to bring her back as soon as possible. We had to endure some patience tough, it was very hectic and chaotic on the ER of this University Hospital and we only could get her released at 6 PM…

Luckily all was good, no other injuries and no more pain. No more sailing tough for her for the rest of the week. This was a pity, as they were really on fire and high in the ranking at that time. It’s also really sad to drive such a distance and then to be able to sail only 1 day.

The next day Marie-Laure and Filip joined us for a day watching the racing on top of the cliff.

Filip was very lucky tough to find Emilie, the sister of another youth team and she was willing to crew for him for the next days! And they did very well. In the end they ended on a 19^th place, but with a whole day not sailed (there was only 1 discard at this event, with 18 races sailed, so consistency was even more important, every mistake now was really punished).

Hereby an overview of the full results:

Falcon scored a great result at this Formula 16 worlds. Aurélie and Morgan, on BEL 666, took the silver medal home, making them Vice World Champions F16! Well done to both. They were really sailing top notch. At this young age, make sure you watch their future sailing events! They are an RBSC mixed youth team and sailing their first event together. Ruling the fleet in the light to medium wind and just a little less consistent in the higher winds as Aurélie never sailed an F16 before. Both have a lot of monohull experience and this shows. Awesome result!

When we took the initiative together with the sponsors to setup an F16 youth team last year we could have never guessed the results the youths have sailed on this F16 worlds. We started with 3 Falcon F16's and had to convince quite some people this was the way to go, one year later there are more than 10 youth teams competing from Belgium and Holland in the worlds and sailing for top positions, great to see!

We are of course extremely happy with the Falcon performance as well. Winning Belgian, US and Italian titles last year, finishing 2nd, 7th and 8th on the worlds is a great confirmation of what we can achieve.

The 8 Falcon teams sailed 18 races over the 5 days. A great mix of low, medium and high wind conditions over the week ensured the teams with the best overall performance stood out.

Different countries were represented with a different mix of crew weights and configurations: LUX 001 (men - 31st), NED 237 (single handed - 27th), GER 002 (men - 24th), BEL 246 (mixed - 20th), BEL 333 (mixed youth - 19th), SUI 001 (men - 8th), BEL 111 (men youth - 7th), BEL 666 (mixed youth - 2nd).

Read an article on the F16 Worlds at CatsailingNews: http://www.catsailingnews.com/2013/07/formula-16-worlds-2013-travemunde.html

Also some great video footage of this event: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNyP06jkO4c

Pictures of this World Championship on our Facebook page: Action pics F16 Worlds

Next events: Belgian and Dutch Nationals! And also of course the Diamond Cup. The first race Gill and I will sail this year, wow! Very excited about that. We'll keep you up to date...

Kathleen

Happy new year, highlights 2012 & Falcon F18 launched...

2013-01-09T09:29:00.002+01:00

We wish you a fantastic new year, good health and lots of sunshine and great sailing!

The start of a new year is a great moment to look back to the past year. For us it was a great sailing season with lots of racing and great results for the Falcon F16.

Some of the highlights

The start of the season traditionally is Carnac, France. At the buoyracing the first Falcon finished 4th in tough conditions. The last day the raid was sailed, there youth team Hendrickx/Bols finished 3rd overall!

At the Open Belgian Championships at Oostduinkerke there were 3 days of racing to decide on the Belgian Champion long distance and buoy racing. Also there we were topranked with gold and bronze in the buoy racing and a first place for us in the raid!

Not only in Belgium we had great achievements. In Switzerland and Italy Falcons won the Bol d'Or and took 2nd place at the Italian championship F16. In Florida Falcon youth sailors Jeremy & Sam qualified for ISAF youth worlds. Also there was the battle for the US F16 Nationals. Matt & Gina McDonald took second place and Sarah Newberry and John Casey convincinly took 1st! They are now training for their 2016 Olympic campaign. Support them here: http://www.usamultihull2016.com

Canadian Olympic team training on the Falcon

The season in Belgium was closed with the Belgian Youth nationals, with 42 participants a succesful edition! In the F16 class Falcons took 1, 2, 4 and 5.

Launch of the new Falcon F18

Ofcourse we are looking forward to the next season when the newest in the Falcon family will be introduced in Europe: the Falcon F18. Matt McDonald inroduced with the Falcon the only US built F18 and clearly sets a new benchmark in quality for the F18 class. The US debute was in California were 2 Falcon F18's raced in the F18 worlds in Long Beach. Everyone was impressed with both the new features and the built quality! In sneak preview below already some pictures of the F18 in action! More information to come second half of January on our new website!

Want to see more of the F18? Check our Facebook page

Winter promotions at TheBoatShop.be

Eventhough we are not sailing in Belgium, we're full force preparing the new sailing season. If you place your order for a new boat before end of January 2013 you take advantage of our special winter promotions for both the F16 and the F18! Call or mail us for more information!

Photo / Film shoot Falcon Youth Teams

2012-07-10T18:27:00.000+02:00

Last Sunday we organised a photo/film shoot for the Belgian Falcon F16 Youth teams. The 3 teams were present and Gill and I were on a rib filming and photographing them. We have hours of film, hundreds of pictures and some bruises from bouncing aroung in the rib while trying to maintain a stable shooting angle :-)

Here is a preview of one of the shots of the team, lined up in an upwind course. More will definately follow, but you'll have to give us some time to edit...

Vintage Trophy RBSC Zoute

2012-07-10T18:26:00.000+02:00

A first, but very cool version of a race, organised by RBSC Zoute.

Have a look at the amazing poster they made to announce the race.

Gill and I couldn't particpate in this one because we were sailing the Raid West at our home club, VVW Heist. But Youth Team BEL 222 (Arnout & Klaas) did participate and they won the race. Congratulations to them! Conditions were hard, very tactical racing was needed with an offshore Southerly wind and lots of puffs and lulls. But the sun was out. Very rare these days in Belgium... :-)

Full results:

Raid West VVW Heist

2012-07-10T18:25:00.001+02:00

Each season our club organises 2 raids (long distance sailing with a night on the beach included). The first one is Cat Raid East, direction The Netherlands and the second one is Cat Raid West, direction France.

We didn't join in on the first one and for the 2nd one we only had the time free on Saturday so we decided to do half of the Raid. We started on Saturday around noon and we sailed until lunch time at around 2 PM. We had a lovely lunch break on the beach of Wenduine together with another 13 boats!

Me steering :-)

After lunch 11cats sailed on towards France. We sailed back to Heist, together with 2 other Falcons. Anton and Mathieu sailed with BEL 777, recently bought, so new to the boat, Simon and Filip (one of our Youth Teams) sailed BEL 333 and Gill and I sailed our BEL 666.

Like always (boys and their toys) everything has to be a competition. So we picked some buoys we had to round on the way back and we made it a race! It was super sailing. Great conditions, Southerly (offshore) winds, so flat water, enough wind to double trap upwind and to trap with the kite up. And the sun was out most of the time. Truely great! We enjoyed this afternoon of sailing. Right before we had to cross the harbour of Zeebrugge (large port with lots of freight traffic, big container boats!), we ended the competion and waited to cross the harbour together.

What do you think of our new spray tops? (Thanks Gina!!!)

Once the harbour crossed, Gill and I decided to switch places and I steered the rest of the way home. A very cool upwind track, cunningham (downhaul) full on, Gill sheeting and the pink girl (thanks Matt & Gina!!) holding the stick :-) Awesome! I loved it. It was sooo easy. You really feel when the boat is trimmed correctly. The rudder felt so light, I could hold it with 1 finger. Very important for a girl ;-)

Kustzeilevent Noordwijk

2012-07-10T18:23:00.001+02:00

2 weeks ago Gill and a couple of guys from our Youth Team decided to sail the Kustzeilevent Noordwijk. A race in The Netherlands. Weather forecast did not look good (again very heavy winds predicted) but they decided to try their luck anyway.

Unfortunately no luck... Forces 6 to 7 beaufort meant no sailing at all, for the entire weekend. After having driven the 2 hours to Noordwijk and having waited and rigged the boats, they decided to go out anyway on Sunday for an hour or so. After seeing the Go Pro footage they shot, I am very glad I wasn't there :-)

Gill sailed with Filip on Falcon BEL 333 and Philip & Gaetan sailed on BEL 111. Here's a trailer to make you all very curious to see the whole movie.....

Texel Dutch Open 2012

2012-07-09T19:27:00.001+02:00

This was the 2nd year we decided to travel to Texel, The Netherlands to race the Texel Dutch Open and to try to sail Round Texel, a classic big long distance race around the Isle of Texel. Unfortunately this year this race was sheduled very early in the month of June and therefore none of our Youth Teams could participate. Their school results are ofcourse equally important (altough they sometimes don't think so ;-)).

To reduce the costs and to have more fun we decided to travel together with one other Belgian team, Wim Deca, one of our loyal readers (hello Wim!!!) and Gilles Tas, sailing a Nacra Infusion. We rented a holiday house (with a jacuzzi!! (never used it)) and more importantly, free WIFI.

When we arrived on Monday it was really blowing hard, again. What is it with this season and alot of wind? We rigged our boats and watched some boats trying to get out. One of our friends also went out, but had bad luck, a wave caught them on the side, they capsized in the breakers, they tried to right their boat quickly, but the force of the waves was just too much and their mast broke :-(. This was really painfull to watch from ashore. Our hearts broke in sympathy with our friends, not a good start of the week. We all rushed to help them and with joined efforts the boat was quickly out of the water, the crew shaken but OK, and we all helped them back to their trailer. And then they got some well deserved beers, to recuperate a bit...

The next day Gill and I went out together with Wim & Gilles to have a short training session out on the Texel water. A great day, sun, not too much wind (yeah) and great practicing tacks and gybes. I did get a bit sea sick of constantly looking at my watch to tack every 2 minutes :-)

Wednesday was the first day of the Texel Dutch Open. There were 2 starts, one separate start for the Nacra Infusion Worlds and then one start 5 minutes later for the C1 class. So a bit a devided field, but nevertheless great racing. Last year we did very well during the TDO, this year tough we felt a bit dissappointed with our result. Our upwind speed was very good, but downwind we lost places. I didn't feel too comfortable with the waves, it was really a skill to surf of the waves and gain speed. We got 3 races in that day, with varying conditions, not so easy sailing!

Surfing down the waves

That evening we went out with some of the other Falcon sailors (Geert & Raymond from The Netherlands, Andi & Katrin from Switzerland and Sandro & Johannes also from Switzerland/Germany). A very fun night, that reminded us of the good times we had last year at the F16 Worlds in Bordeaux!

On Thursday it was immediately very clear that there would be no racing that day. Very high winds, stormy weather. We had to tighten everything very well and some sailors forgot to do that, so there was some carnage...

Instead we wanted to go Carting, but unlike in Carnac, there was no decent Carting Track. So instead we did some site seeing (big tractors!) and we went back to our house and had a nice elaborate barbeque :-)

Gill, Gilles and Wim enjoying the barbeque!

Friday, 3rd and last day of racing and we got an awesome day of sailing. Sun, wind, flat water, tight racing, we felt great. A bit too great in fact, because our 2nd start of that day got us a Black Flag Disqualification, ouch, we pushed it a bit too hard.

Awesome!

Yiha :-)

By Friday night we already knew that there would be no Round Texel Race on Saturday because - again - of the predictions of too much wind. That night there was a party in the big tent and we had a "dance off" with Chris & Georgina and Raphael & Marcela, Sandro & Katrin,... We really laughed alot, great fun!

So on Saturday indeed no Round Texel and a one-of, for the first time in it's 35 year history the Round was postponed untill Sunday. Unfortunately we did not foresee this in our agenda and we had to be back on Monday for work, so we decided to travel back to Belgium on Saturday, meaning we missed Round Texel again. Gill immediately told me: "this only means we will be back next year, because one day I definately want to sail the Round!" :-D

Round Texel: see you next year!

Gaastra North Sea Series

2012-07-09T19:24:00.001+02:00

We had 2 great days of sailing during the Gaastra North Sea Series. Alot of boats, very tight racing. And up untill the last race we were fighting for the first place with Philip. He won.... :-(

Our match racing skills definately need to improve!! ;-)

Some cool pictures:

Let's catch up!

2012-07-09T19:23:00.001+02:00

It has been a while since we have posted recent news here. We have been very busy with sailing and training and traveling. But now we're back :-) You are warned: a number of posts of past events will follow shortly one after another. So for a quiet summer reading: sit back and enjoy our stories!

Belgian Nationals

2012-05-20T16:01:00.003+02:00

After the first international race in Carnac, now the first national race to measure ourselves against the other Belgian teams.

In total there were 2 titles to win this weekend. The title of Belgian Champion buoy racing and the title Belgian Champion long distance.
Buoy racing was held on Thursday and Saturday, on Friday a long distance race was foreseen.

Show sailing for the sponsor :-) (Christophe Colpaert, Falcon, RBSC/McDonalds).

After the KYC race last weekend we knew what to expect and made sure we were well rested to start the weekend. The meteo for the weekend predicted light and shifty winds, so we prepped for some long and nervous racing.

Day 1 - buoy racing
On the first day 3 races were sailed in, as predicted, light and shifty winds. A lot of current on top of that made tactics extremely important but difficult at the same time.

BEL 111 upwind

We were immediately in the groove and got a good start with about 5 teams in the first race. Throughout the race we managed to get the correct shifts and the 5 got away from the pack. 4 F16 of which 3 Falcons and an F18. In the 3rd round Falcon BEL 222 and the F18 with Anouk & Gilles managed to get away and they finished 1st and 2nd. We were chasing them closely behind but hit a bouy. After the penalty we were still comfortable in 3rd position, but too far away to fight for 1st or 2nd place. Falcon BEL 111 was fighting for 4th or 5th and had to settle with 5th in this race, but well in front of the other F18 and the F20.

Front of the fleet - 3 Falcons, 2 Wildcat

In the second race our start wasn't good and we quickly got caught in the middle of the pack. The 2 Falcon Youth teams got a good start and where battling with the F20 throughout the race. The wind had picked up again and BEL 111 knew where to find it first, finishing well in front of the other teams, BEL 222 was OCS so their great performance didn't pay off this time ...

By the third race most of the teams had found the correct trim and racing was getting closer too each other, with positions changing all the time. On the downwind we lost some ground again, while gaining a lot on the upwind each time. As the wind was still light it was difficult to make the choice to go for pressure or just go straight down to the gate. I guess we didn't make the right calls on the downwind :-)

BEL 222 gybing for the gate

By the end of the day, after 3 races, we managed to be in 3rd position dues to 2 OCS of other teams. BEL 111 in first position. The performance of our youth teams has improved a lot thanks to the intensive training in the RBSC/McDonalds youth team.

Day 2 - long distance
Less competitors during the long distance race or changed configurations. Friday was not an off day for everyone, meaning in our case only 2 Falcons at the start. The race started light again in about 5 to 7 knots, but surprisingly the wind picked up to about 15 knots gusting to more after about an hour into the race.

Long distance start

Our start wasn't good and we were 8th at the upwind mark. After that a downwind run. We managed to catch the first shifts of the building wind and got into 6th at the second mark, less than a minute behind 3 F18, the F20 and the second Falcon.
A long 2 sail reach led us through a gate and 2 buoys. First boats we catched up with were an F18 and a Falcon. Philip sailed with his dad on this occassion and was steering and sheeting. Not used to this we over took him on the reach.

About 1,5 hours into the race we tacked sailing upwind to the coast again. The last races our upwind speed has been awesome and here again we got the trim just right. Building speed in every gust we managed to overtake an F18 leaving just an F18 and F20 in front of us.

Back at the coast we had to return to the starting area on a spin reach to start our second run. Double trapping in these windy and gusty conditions made us feel our boat is 2 feet shorter than the 18. We lowered the risk and single trapped only. The brothers Proot over took us again so we were in 4th by the time we finished the first round.

After about 2 hours into the race we started for the second time the long reach which had become almost an upwind leg. The wind had now clearly built to about 15 knots gusting to 20 and we were able to depower the best giving us the best performance in speed. We overtook the brothers Proot again and went chasing the other 2 boats in front of us.

In the last upwind leg we almost caught up with the F18 and F20 and were about 1 minute behind.
For the final spinnaker reach the wind was even too much for the F18 to twin trap meaning we didn't loose ground anymore here.

Finished third and a rating helping us getting 1st place meant we became Belgian Champions long distance, with Spilleboudt (Wildcat F18) in second, Philip and his dad in third and Proot in 4th.

Day 3 - buoy racing part 2
Final day of the Belgian Nationals.

With low winds again, down to 5 knots, the race officer made the call to go out and race. Happy to be able to drop our worst score but at the same time worrying if we would be able to get some quality racing in.

Eventually 2 races were finished in conditions that were sailable. The finishing order of the 2 final races confirmed the performance of the teams of the first day so the actual scoring didn't change too much. 1st Philip&Gaetan (Falcon), 2nd Proot (Wildcat), 3rd Arnout&Klaas (Falcon), 4th us and we were first mixed team!

Finally big respect to all the youths, coaches and parents that joined the event in all classes! And ofcourse a big thanks to SYCOD for the great races! All winners below.

Belgian Champions C4 buoy racing

Belgian Champions C3 buoy racing

Belgian Champions C1 buoy racing

Belgian Champions C4 long distance

Belgian Champions C3 long distance

Belgian Champions C1 long distance

Photo credits: RBSC/McDonalds

KYC race and Belgian Nationals @ SYCOD

2012-05-20T14:32:00.002+02:00

What a great month May has been to us so far! Great sailing and great results for us and the youths.

The month started in Carnac, France where a large group of Belgian youth teams from VVW/Protest and RBSC/McDonalds attended the racing including 2 teams on Falcons.

The weekend after we got some training in to prepare for 3 weekends of racing in a row.

Last weekend we sailed the KYC race in Koksijde.

Only one day of racing in Koksijde in windy conditions, dying towards the evening. We managed to rig our spinnaker wrong making us return to the beach and missing the first race. Luckily we got in 4 races so we could drop one!

As in Carnac also here a lot of youths showed up giving the adults a run for their money.

And in difficult conditions (big waves and dying wind) Philip&Gaetan managed to get into first position by the end of the day!

F18 team getting second!

C3 youth having a blast

BEL 111 heading for first place!

Our own performance was up and down making us finish mid fleet the first day. Upwind speed was good, but on the downwind our wavesurfing wasn't as good as the other teams. :-)

We would have loved to take some revenge the next day but all we got was sun (which wasn't too bad either :-) ).

As a lot of the C1 teams were the same ones competing next week for the Belgian nationals it was a good indication we needed to perform at our best to get higher up the rankings....
Photo credits: RBSC/McDonalds

Eurocat Carnac 2012

2012-05-02T20:18:00.001+02:00

Eurocat is the first big event in Europe and is not to be missed. Unfortunately this year we really did not have any luck with the weather conditions. Of the 4 possible days of racing, only 2 days went trough. On Saturday the C1 class sailed 3 races and on Tuesday the long distance raid was scheduled.

We arrived early to practice and train together with the youth teams. Next to the 3 Belgian teams there was also a Swiss and French team competing.

Friday
First day of sailing was on Friday and was a training day with Sebbe Godefroid. Focus was on practising starts as in a 60 boat fleet getting a good start is extremely important. While training we found out that winter had not done us any good :-)!

By the end of the day we did some small races in nice and sunny conditions.

Saturday

Saturday we went out at 13h to go racing around the buoys. It took the race committee some time to get the (difficult) course into place, but eventually we were able to sail 3 races in great conditions. Wind built from 15 knots to about 20 knots for the last race. Little to no waves made for some very fast and cool spinnaker runs regularly reaching 18 knots of speed.

Race 1 can be considered a practice race for us... :-). Bad start and trying to find our way around the inner/outer loop course. Our first race didn't seem to end, especially because we had to finish 3 times to do it right! Shame on us!

Race 2 and 3 was a lot better, with an 8th place on 60 boats in the last race! Good starts and great speed both up- and downwind. The last race we even beat Darren Bundock upwind and stayed ahead the whole time. Just before the finish he managed to pull one of his many tricks out of his sleeve and got ahead! Well done Bundy ;-)

Also for the youths and Swiss it was a great day! One team finishing continuously in the top 10, the other youth team and Swiss finishing within the first 16 boats.

3 Falcons in persuit of Falcon 111 battling with the top 5

Overtaking the F20

Hot at the top mark!

Sunday and Monday
Heavy winds made Sunday and Monday a day for 'tuning' by the Falcon teams. Some visiting of the surroundings and kart racing filled the day.

Tuesday
Finally some racing again. The race committee decided to to a short version of the raid instead of a second day of buoy racing.

I switched Kathleen for Maarten who crewed with me on the raid. Conditions about 15 knots with some lulls towards the end of the race.
At 10h30 we took off for a bit over 2 hours of racing with 300 other boats.

We got lost in the middle of the pack at the start giving us no opportunity to sail in clean air. After some 5 or 10 minutes we managed to get clear and could start catching up.
Maarten did the mainsheet and I needed to get used to this. Especially in the reaching parts (about a third of the race was 2 sail reaching) I needed to grow confidence in Maarten doing the main while I beared away in the gusts to gain speed and sail deeper. But it paid. Having 2 hands on the main in these reaching parts is definately faster.

One of the reaching parts. Team 111 clearly ahead of the pack

Next to the reaching parts the first part of the race served us with a long upwind leg. We got the boat in the groove sailing faster and higher then most of the boats around us. We have been working on mast settings lately and copied this to the other Falcons racing. All of them had the same experience the boat was sailing high and fast! Great improvement.

The second part of the race was a downwind with some reaching to finish off with. On the spinnaker run the wind started to go down a bit and we didn't anticipate fast enough to this. Some of the boats we passed on the upwind overtook us, luckily only a couple and not all of them :-) !

BEL 666 in 'raid configuration' :-)

Again great results with the first Falcon team finishing 3rd F16 after 2 Olympic level teams!

Tuesday - 16h
Late, but we decided to drive back yesterday instead of today. Mainly to be able to write this lovely report, but also because we like our bed more than the one at the hotel!

Next up are some races at the West Coast with the Belgian Championship as most important one!

Bye!

First race of the season, Paascup 2012

2012-04-18T21:11:00.001+02:00

Always very exciting to head for your first race of the sailing season. Even after all those years racing, I still feel nervous right before a race. As soon as the 5 minutes starting sequence begins tough, the focus is back.

Our club (with a new fantastic location this year, check: www.vvwheist.be) always aims to hold the very first race of the year and all the sailors always hope for nice warm spring weather. This year we got lucky! Sunny and not too cold. Hip hip hurray for a drysuit! We even had a nice turnout of both C1 (F16 and F18 cats) and C3/C4 boats (Hobie 16 & Dragoon). In total 14 boats, very good for a race this early in the season.

Wind: 3-4 BFT, NE, small waves. Temperature 12°C and water temperature 8°C, chilly. 3 races with 2 laps each for the C1 class. Traditional triangle with Start, Upwind, Dogleg, Gate, Upwind, Dogleg, Gate and Finish.

Short races made us very aware of the fact that we didn’t train enough during winter. But this way we never felt the cold! It was very exciting to race with 3 other Falcons, 3 youth teams who are all very ambitious, very energetic and very keen to win. Furthermore they all just had a one week training with coach Sebbe Godefroid. Gill was confident we could beat them because of our experience, I wasn’t so sure.

It made for a very close game between the 4 of us, switching places, looking over our shoulders a lot to see where the others were. Also Annouck and Gilles on their F18 Wildcat were to be held an eye on, especially in the downwind runs.

After 3 races these were the results for the C1:

1/ Falcon Youth Team 111 – Philip Hendrickx & Gaetan Bols

2/ Falcon BEL 666 – Gill De Bruyne & Kathleen Vandenbulcke

3/ Falcon Youth Team 222 – Arnout Victor & Klaas Victor

4/ Falcon Youth Team 333 – Anton Coppens & Filip Olyslaeger

5/ F18 Wildcat – Annouck Phillipron & Gilles Tas

6/ F18 Cirrus – Ivan De Pauw & Luc Maertens

7/ F18 Wildcat – Annelies Bolle & Wim Braeken

Falcon Youth Team 111 did an excellent job, sailing their sail number: 1 – 1 – 1. We stuffed up in the last downwind of race 1 ending with a 4. Last 2 races we sailes a 2 and 2. We had a great time on the water, with lots of excitement, lots of to do’s for this season (for me: be quicker, don’t fiddle so much before going out in trapeze, don’t enter the boat on your ass! (use your knees), get the kite up quicker!....) and a nice barbeque and party in our new club afterwards. And 2 large bottles of Duvel to celebrate! J

We have made a movie about this race, with our new Go Pro, very cool to watch, we’ll post it on here soon!

Tradewinds 2012 - Florida Keys

2012-01-28T17:00:00.000+01:00

How we wish we could have sailed this event in the beautiful Florida Keys! Next year maybe...

This event was an awesome showcase for the Falcon F16.

Matt & Gina were there and wrote this great story about the event:

By Matt McDonald

Tradewinds 2005, I attended with the first US built F16 (US Blade).We had about 4-5 boats and were assigned to the slow boat small course.

In 2012 the F16 class was the winner of the Carlton Tucker trophy for the largest class in the regatta. Add to that prestige, with the F16 event being both the Olympic development team qualification and the US youth multihull Worlds qualifier. 25 F16's registered to race and some of the country's top youth teams and multihull racers got on F16s to race this event.

This event was the brainchild of Leandro Spina, the US development coach and Jamie Livingston , the US multihull youth manager.

As there is not a boat currently selected as the next Olympic multihull, they were instrumental in pushing US sailing to select the F16 as the youth and development boat so teams can move forward with training and associated programs leading up to 2016 in Brazil. Working closely with this group, Falcon Marine set up 5 brand new stock boats to teams looking to enter into the Olympic fray.

3 mixed teams traveled to the event with us, all of who were sailing with each other for the very first time. 2 youth teams came with us as well. All 5 of the teams were sailing a Falcon F16 for the very first time.

After a very hectic few days of assembly, tuning and going over the systems on their new boats all the teams hit the water for the first day of racing on Friday.

This event of course attracts teams in a huge variety of boats from all of the country coming for some winter sailing and of course the lure of the event being the F18 as well as other classes mid-winter championship.

What a great site to see all the boats and especially the huge fleet of F16's on the beach and heading out for the start with a big mix of Blades, Falcons, Taipans and Vipers. After all the build up for everyone, it was a pretty big disappointment to have such a beautiful site, nice weather and then no wind for Fridays scheduled day of racing. A few hours floating around, some swimming and lot of people catching up with each other on the water racing was finally abandoned for the day and the traditional Tradewinds scattering could begin.

Saturday morning broke gray and with the windows rattling in the rental, it was obvious that we were not going to be suffering from the lack of wind that killed Fridays racing. With gusts coming through in the mid 20's as the teams rigged and more than a few boats upside down heading to their respective courses there was some obvious nerves with a few of the less experienced teams in the fleets. The experienced racers headed out with grins.

I was spending the event on a coach boat and got an unique (for me) view of the racing and some great lessons from Jay Glaser on sail shape, tuning and trim. Watching the first few races it was really apparent which teams had been practicing and sailing together as the gusty conditions and busy course made teamwork pay some huge gains over the new teams. John Casey and his new crew Sophie Shultz had to retire from racing after the first race when she was hit in the eye with a trap handle. The top 4 remaining teams though quickly separated themselves from the rest of the fleet as the racing continued.

The highly practiced team of Taylor Reiss and Matthew Whitehead split up to run coed, but their time on this boat and the coaching they have had was evident in their holding the first 2 places for the day. Following closely at the end of Saturday were the 2 Falcon teams of Pease Glaser / John Williams and Mike Easton / McKenzie Wilson.

Sunday broke with a little more sun, but very similar forecast for the weather. There were a few casualties from the weather conditions to the less experienced or prepared teams but a strong contingent headed back out to finish the battle. JC and Sophie made it back out luckily with nothing worse than a black eye. With a bullet and the rest 2's they won the day on Sunday to restore their hurt pride from the day before. With 5 races now under their belts the newly formed Falcon teams began to figure out their teamwork and the boat and showed a lot more consistency around the course.

Despite a rather nasty pitch pole and a messed up spin pole, with some quick on water fixes the team of Pease and JW worked their way into second place for the regatta and finished with a bullet in the last race. Mike and McKenzie continued to sail faster and consistently to finish third. The team of Sarah Newberry and Matthew Whitehead started the event sailing extremely fast, especially in the bigger winds early each day and their skill and team work paid off giving them the 1st place title in the F16's for Tradewinds.

Many youth teams traveled to this event to vie for the coveted US spot at the ISAF youth multihull Worlds. 2 of those teams raced Falcons. Jeremy Herrin and Sam Armington came down from the Sarasota Sailing squadron, where their coach Brian Paine has been working very hard and has put together a great youth multihull sailing program. (Brian was racing an F18 with another youth and many of his other team members were in attendance on other boats as well.)

The other Falcon team of Ben Brown and Luc Lisi traveled all the way from Northern CA for this event. For both teams this was their first time racing on this boat and it was just the second time that the team of Ben and Luc had ever raced a spin rigged catamaran. With almost all top 10 finishes and consistently the top 2 youth boats in the event, the Falcon teams took 1st and 2nd in the youth qualifier. (Jeremy/Sam 1st and Ben/Luc 2nd)".

All the pictures of Tradewinds can be found on our Facebook page.

John Casey was also there and you can read his experiences about Tradewinds and getting his youth sailor chick a black eye :-), on Sailing Anarchy (scroll down the page, article "cat crowd").

New hydrofoil from Hydrosail called the "Osprey"

2012-01-27T10:37:00.000+01:00

While we are still hibernating here in Europe (it's getting colder this weekend!), sailing in the USA is full on.

Here is a cool video from Adventure Online TV of a new hydrofoil from Hydrosail. The Osprey Hulls were built by Matt McDonald from Falcon Marine.

Enjoy!

Osprey Hydrofoil from Adventure Online TV on Vimeo.

Falcon crash at Hiram's Haul, Florida

2011-11-02T15:23:00.000+01:00

This is really something you don't want to experience yourself, ouch!!! From 3:30 onwards:

John Casey and Dalton Tebo win the Buzzelli multihull regatta, USA

2011-10-28T11:40:00.001+02:00

John Casey and Dalton Tebo win the Buzzelli multihull regatta on the Falcon! Well done guys!

John Casey's write up on his blog:

Flyin’ on the Falcon

Last weekend was the Buzzelli Multihull Rendevous, a huge multihull event with classes such as the Stiletto, F-Boat Trimarans, Waves, Wetas, and of course our portsmouth A fleet, which included some F18s, F16s, Randy Smyth’s Scizzor trimaran and us. Since I sold my Nacra MK2 last week, Matt from Falcon Marine let me borrow his F16 Falcon. Thaaaank You Matt!

The regatta started on Friday with a 35-mile distance race from Sarasota up to Tampa and back. We were a little late for the start, but on the close reach in 10-20 knots of breeze, the F16 took off upwind, bouncing over the waves. I was impressed with how much power stayed in the boat during the lulls even though Dalton and I weighed in at about 330 lbs. The double trap reach was so much fun we didn’t want to turn around. In the first half of the race we passed everyone but Randy’s trimaran. After the turn mark we gained until we were almost even with the tri that we gave a 12 minute lead to, but that was as close as we got. When the wind backed off the light wind designed Scizzor left us in the dust.

Saturday was bouy racing and with a 10-15 knot cool northerly we were excited to get out there. The Falcon performed really well again, outpacing the F18s around the course. Upwind, the helm was light and the Falcon accelerated quickly in the puffs instead of tripping over itself like many other designs. The 12:1 cunningham worked well, and the Glaser mainsail flattened out evenly. I was again surprised with the amount of power the rig created. We were able to hold the upwind line of the F18s in lighter breeze, and could hold a higher line as soon as we single wired.

Downwind I didn’t know what to expect. When you first look at the Falcon, since it doesn’t have much freeboard and even less bow, it looks like it might be prone to pitchpoling. Well, when we were on the boat and looked at the hulls from above it’s a whole different story. There’s plenty of volume in those little hulls. Even in the 15 knot puffs we were never close to putting the bow in, and actually the crew never went behind the rear beam on the trapeze. The volume and flat section between the bow and front crossbar worked well to keep the bow up and spray flying. We were grinning like crazy downwind! In the lulls the F18s did have a little deeper line, but when it was breeze on the Falcon was gone.

Sunday was light and tricky, so there it was more about being in the right place than how fast the boat was. However, when we were in boat-to-boat situations the Falcon shined even when it was single trapeze conditions. In the end, the Falcon performed marvelously to give us a victory with six points to spare for the weekend!

Oktoberbokaal Hellecat

2011-10-26T11:31:00.001+02:00

We have been very lucky with October's weather. The last 2 weekends we sailed each Sunday 4 races at Hellevoetsluis, Holland and each time we had the sun as our perfect companion.

The first Sunday (October 16) we had very light winds, very shifty conditions but nice sailing.
Last Sunday (October 23) we only slept for 4 hours before we had to get up to race and the sun made sure we had enough energy troughout the 4 races :-) It was a good 5 BFT when we started race 1 and it dropped and shifted a bit during race 3, but for race 4 we had good steady winds again.

The Oktoberbokaal consist of 4 Sundays of sailing in October on nice protected (i.e. FLAT!!) water in The Netherlands.

The first Sunday we didn't participate because we were accompanying our VVW Youth Teams at The Veerse Meer (also in Holland). So after 2 sailed days we are happy with our 8th place overall. Can we make it to place 7 after next Sunday's last day? Weather forecast looks promising, sun and a 3 to 4 BFT breeze, nice!

Overall results can be found here: http://www.hellecat.nl/wedstrijden/uitslagen/2011/oktoberbokaal23102011.html

Youth weekend Catclub Zeeland

2011-10-12T19:12:00.000+02:00

Last weekend we joined the VVW Heist Youth team on their trip to Catclub Zeeland for the Dutch Dragoon Cup. Located at the Veerse Meer we were happy to coach the youth sailors a bit.

We also took our Falcon and Emile took his Blade so we took the 2 F16's out for a sail on the Veerse Meer. Gill has been talking alot about how cool it is to sail here, so I had to try this. I don't think it's really my thing, I was stressed knowing that there are alot of undepths and that we therefore risked of hitting the sand with our daggerboards.

On Sunday we went out again and I got used a bit to the location and was more at ease. We had a great weekend, only downside was the weather. It rained all weekend. But the great hospitality of Catclub Zeeland and the great group of people made it a wonderful weekend!

More pictures from us sailing at the Veerse Meer will follow!

October 2, my birthday!

2011-10-12T19:10:00.000+02:00

My birthday weekend was unique, celebrating in sunshine, bikini and 27°C.

To start my weekend I had the day of work on Friday and we tuned our Falcon a bit, just relaxing on the beach, no wind to sail unfortunately.

Saturday there was a bit more wind and we went out in the late afternoon. I steered and managed to get some speed in the boat. It was cool to practice the manoeuvres with this little wind. We ended the day with some nice spaghetti made by Caroline at VVW Heist. And then off to party in Brugge.

On Sunday we organised a little apéro on the sandbank of Heist. One of the last times we could "enjoy" this sandbank since next year we will be moving to our new location, further along the coast, with hopefully no more sandbank in front of the club! Drinking cava in the middle of a sandbank with fellow sailors, how cool is that!

We took our Falcon so the others could use it as a landmark to now where we were located :-)

Once the tide came in we drifted back to the beach on our boat, very nice!

In the afternoon we relaxed some more on the beach and Sonja and me even went on a little "ride" with the Banana, very refreshing. Sour muscles the next day tough, haha. We ended the day with pizza and drinks at Maarten's caravan with Filip, Mathieu and Renke. Had a great weekend!

RBSC Club Championship, September 24, 2011

2011-09-26T14:35:00.001+02:00

Yesterday was the RBSC clubchampionship and this is one of the last races sailed in Belgium. We decided to lend our boats to 2 youth teams: Arnout & Klaas Viktor sailed Falcon BEL666 and Philippe Hendrickx and Gaeton Bols sailed Falcon USA208. The day started early, 9 AM at the beach to rig the boats and to coach the youth with some light wind tips before they were of to the starting area. Emile De Moor sailed his Blade F16 together with Louis Verstraete, so 3 F16's getting ready in the morning, a very nice view!

Wind was very light and start was postponed. Luckily a little sea breeze settled in so racing could go on! Gill went out on the water on a rib with RBSC Youth trainer Laurent to watch the teams and to take pictures. I stayed on shore, as a true trolley dolly :-)

Sun was out and so were alot of boats! No less than 80 boats made the start. This included 60 cats (the other 20 were all yachts from RBSC Zeebrugge). Of the 60 catamarans there were 4 Dragoons battling it out in the youngest class. With the low winds (5 knots) and the heavy current they had the hardest time on the water. There were about 25 boats in both the C3 and C1 class. The C3 was crowded with youth teams. One of the teams was a youth team from our club, VVW Heist: Gilles Hendrickx and Filip Olyslager. They finished first youth on a third place in the C3!

In the C1 the there was 1 youth team on an F18 and 3 youth teams on F16's! "Our youth" had been training the whole week in medium to heavy wind but they weren't too confident to sail light winds. Weighing 138 kgs Anout&Klaas were the heaviest of the three. In total 3 races were sailed in dying winds and increasing current. Clean air and not overstanding the layline was key but very difficult in these conditions. Because of all the training they did, the Falcon teams were off the line very well each time. It was great to see them battling it out in the front!

With steady top 3 finishes it was clear that they had done great! They even came across the line first one time!

Finally the prizes were given and they ended 1st and 3rd in the C1! Winning against some of the best Belgian teams. They were super proud! (and so were weI!).

Great to see so much youth in the top 3, certainly in the 'dad' dominated C1 class! Full results and all pictures.

Raid des Corsaires 2011, France, September 3-4

2011-09-21T09:14:00.000+02:00

Although we didn’t race this one ourselves, we think this is a great race, put it on your list! The organization is wonderful and the scenery magnificent. It was a tough job with the wind changing direction all the time and a heavy current, but I think everybody looks back at a great event.

We let a French team sail our Falcon: Thierry Wibaux with his wife Christine. We arrived on Friday with beautiful weather (finally some sun in Europe!) and great ambiance.

On Saturday the start wasn’t until 2 PM because of the high tide (no beach to launch from, until 1PM!). Thierry sailed very well, finishing after Gildas Griziaux on a Viper and behind the 2 F20's and 2 Tornados. For a long time he kept pace with the Tornados making him finish in front on rating I guess. It was a very light wind day and they had to shorten the course. The latest participants arrived after 9 PM! The 2 F20's had a huge lead on all the other boats in these light winds, it was amazing. We followed the race and this was a race in itself :-)

We took the car and drove from waypoint to waypoint checking the race from on top of the rocks or on the beach, a great day for us with great views of this big catamaran race. Lots of spectators followed this race too, it's truly a legend in the St Malo area.

We ended the day with a great Paella diner and some fun lottery with very cool prizes. They do a great job with many voluntary staff. The diner (with nice free red and rosé wine :-)) was held in a large venue. To clean up the tables and chairs after diner they found a great incentive. They first showed a 7 minutes movie about day 1 at Raid des Corsaires and then after this movie they told all the participants they wanted the venue emptied in less then 7 minutes so everybody had to help. They showed the movie again and indeed once the movie was over the venue was all cleaned up thanks to the effort of all 130 teams! Nice work and they create a very friendly atmosphere like this.

On Sunday it was blowing in the morning so racing was postponed. Thierry didn't start the first race as it was only the 5th hour on the boat and it was very windy just before the start. The second race of that day and the last one of the weekend we watched him from ashore and he had a great start, but then suddenly we saw him coming to a stop?! Some bad luck because his adjustable trapeze came loose, ouch :-).

Eventually he was well in front of all the 16's, gaining a lot on the downwind run he said. Before the finish the wind dropped (and changed directions too, a very tough day of sailing wind wise again) and everyone came together again, so I'm not sure what the final results are (no official results yet). The F18's started 5 minutes after the C1 start and Misha Heemskerk took a huge lead on the downwind, even finishing in front of the F20! Everybody came back around 5 PM and an hour later we watched the price giving.

The best 3 teams of each class (C1, F18 and C3) got a nice Sword as a price, very cool! Micha Heemskerk won the F18 and the F20 (Francis Ferrari) won the C1.

At 7PM we drove back home, tired but very happy after a great weekend at St-Malo!

Diamond Sailing Cup 2011, August 20

2011-09-21T09:01:00.000+02:00

This is one of our favorite events. For Kathleen because she can win a little diamond (very little but she is saving them all to have – one day – a ring made of it) and in general because this is a compulsory mixed event. Since we are always sailing mixed we like this format a lot.

With a total of 71 boats registered this was again a very successful race, organized by RBSC Zoute. Saturday announced to be a very light wind day, with predictions of force 2 to 3 with maybe a sea breeze coming in and making it a force 4 in the afternoon. Gill had hurt his back while biking (in fact he was texting and biking and he ran into a parked car, not so smart!) and up until Saturday morning we were not sure he would be able to participate. On Saturday morning he felt ok and since the prediction was for light winds we decided to go out.

Start was at 12, we were out on the water at 11 to make it in time (we had to sail for about half an hour to the starting area, because of the light wind). The racing committee did a great job and managed to get 3 races in, but it wasn’t an easy job. They had to change course after each race. The wind turned but no real sea breeze settled. We had a lot of shifts and holes of no wind in the racing area. Tactical sailing!

In the second race we were in 7th place when suddenly the wind turned and instead of sailing downwind we were faced to drop the kite and sail upwind. Unfortunately 3 other boats who were sailing a bit higher than us could keep their kite up and these 3 boats passed us right in front of the finish. Damn! We finished 7th, 11th and 13th, leaving us on a 10th place overall. We were happy with this result, with these light winds and tactical course we still struggle but we had good boat speed and we didn’t really screw up.

Youth team Klaas & Valerie sailed for the first time together (Klaas is normally crew for his brother Arnout Viktor) and they needed some time to get into the groove, but when they did, they rocked. They were very happy to finish race 3 in front of Olympic Sailor Carolijn Brouwer on a Viper, even on corrected time! Great sailing guys! They finished overall on place 9, their last race they were place 4, just behind Wouter Samama, Wim Deca and Patrick Demesmaeker, very happy faces after this great result!

We beached at RBSC Zoute to derig the boats and to put them on the trailer. After the price giving (yes we got another little diamond!) we left for our next race in Oostduinkerke, the Raf Verhaeghe Challenge at Sycod Oostduinkerke.