Terry Curtis OK Belgian Open Champion

by Terry Curtis on 18 Sep 2008 OK’s from five nations attended the Belgian National Championships on Lake Galgenweel in Antwerp over the weekend 13-14 September. Due to major disruptions on the channel crossings due to the tunnel fire, only two British entries made the trip from the UK.

After a short delay Saturdays racing got underway in a very shifty, patchy North Westerly blowing across the lake. As the day progressed the wind veered to the east & settled a little. Terry Curtis from the UK finished the day with 3,1,3 to hold a narrow lead from Belgian Yannick Laumans with 4, 4, 1 and Jorg Rademacher of Germany with 1, 5, 4 in third place.

True to tradition, the host club put on a fantastic BBQ with an appropriate amount of free beer, to ensure a sound nights sleep. Sunday dawned with a very welcome force four from the North East and bright sunshine which stayed throughout the day.

Curtis made the most of the conditions winning all three races to take the championship with a race to spare. Germanys Ralf Machman took 3 second places losing race 5 by only half a length. Laumans couldn’t get to grips with the conditions and slipped to 5th place overall with Rademacher doing enough to keep third overall.

OK - Final Overall Results

1st Terry Curtis GBR2118 7pts
2nd Ralf Mackmann GER711 14pts
3rd Jorg Rademacher GER730 15pts
4th Christian Heinz GER605 19pts
5th Yannick Laumans BEL205 21pts
6th Maurice Slap BEL203 26pts
7th Paul Verrijdt BEL214 29pts
8th Ronny Poelman BEL220 35pts
9th Heinz Ridder GER651 47pts
10th Rod Andrew BEL1 52pts
11th Stephan Klaus GER615 61pts
12th Thomas Neveling GER664 62pts
13th Joost Rommelaere BEL56 62pts
14th Koen Hopsy BEL0 68pts
15th Maxime Manca FRA1336 72pts
16th Torsten Albrecht GER596 77pts
17th Jan Bechmann GER567 79pts
18th Jan Taelman BEL4 82pts
19th Uli Borchen GER587 86pts
20th Susanne Mackmann GER723 99pts
21st Arne Good NED657 102pts
22nd Alexandre Rosier BEL 108pts
23rd Dominique Istasse BEL125 108pts
24th Denis Gilles BEL5 109pts
25Th James Andrew GBR2090 113pts
26th Thierry Demblon BEL44 135pts