Zwitserleven Sailing Week day 2 - Perfect racing day

by Diana Bogaards on 8 Jun 2012 The second day of the Zwitserleven Sailing Week was a perfect racing day. Despite that the wind suddenly turned from southwest to southeast halfway through the day. Thursday started out sunny and showed a sturdy wind force 4.

During the morning the wind decreased. After the lunch break, even before the third race started, the wind disappeared completely and turned more than ninety degrees. It took some time for it to come back steadily and the racecourse was moved. Around 6.30 pm all the sailors came of the water very satisfied. Four races were sailed today.

After seven races Darren Bundock (AUS) and Jeroen van Leeuwen (NED) are in first place in the Texel Dutch Open, with a lead of five points to title defenders Mischa Heemskerk and Bastian Tentij.

Bundock: 'The first three races went well, we came in first once and second twice. But in the last match the spinnaker halyard broke and we didn't finish very well. We couldn't hoist the spinnaker anymore in the last track. So a deduction race it is. Jeroen and I haven't sailed together since the world championships last year. We're a bit rusty. But it's going better every day. It's nice to be first, but in the end it is a great training for the Round Texel Race itself. That's the real work.'

Title defenders Mischa Heemskerk and Bastiaan Tentij went up from third to second place overall. Despite a bfd (disqualification due to an early start) in the fifth race. 'We had a difficult start of the day', says Tentij. 'The black flag and because of that a disqualification wasn't good of course. But we got our boat speed back. And not to forget, we slept for more than ten hours last night. We needed that. To bad that the wind was less, but at least we won the last two races. We hope the races will continue tomorrow, because we're not in the lead yet.'

Oscar Zeekant and Karel Begemann dropped from first place to third. Despite that the protest of Wednesday still was assigned in their favour today. Outsider Frits Jongepier yesterday seemed to have won the first race, but he appeared to have sailed not enough rounds. Zeekant went up to first place in the first race of yesterday, but it didn't change anything in the overall ranking.

Begemann: 'The first two races of today went very well, but in the afternoon it became worse. We saw that sailing on the left side wasn't favourable, but we had devised that plan. So we did it anyway. The wind turned against our favour, so from then on we were only catching up with the other contestants. That while Oscar's gut actually told us to go to the right. Alas. All in all we had our fluctuations, but we ended the day positively.'

The traditional Horstocht for recreational sailors was sailed this year, unlike 2011. But none of the catamarans arrived on the beach the Hors at the south end of Texel. About sixty participants headed south at 1 pm.

Unfortunately the wind decreased more and more and the current turned against them. The sailors were forced to turn around and sail back to Paal 17. While just piles of fish had been fried on the beach. The organisation made sure these were distributed on the water to the hungry sailors. Only two catamarans reached the Hors, but they had left two hours ahead of the rest.

Four teams tried to set a new record for sailing around the island. Though it turned out to be more of a training session than an actual serious attempt. In advance the teams already knew they wouldn't succeed, because there wasn't enough wind and it was only decreasing more.

John Moret and Danny Radelaar were the challengers. Hans Bouscholte/Peter Vink and William Sunnucks/Oliver Egan picked up the glove and tried to break the record for the second time this week. The last team were the Czechs Martin Sedevis and Jan Kopun. 'It turned into a match racing with Hans and Peter', Sunnucks says enthusiastically. 'On the Waddenzee there was more wind at the coast and there we had to tack. Those who tacked to the coast took the lead again. Actually we tried to beat Hans, instead of sailing a record. And so we did.' Sunnucks was the fastest with a time of 3h24m52s.

Gunnar Larsen and Sam Frank are tied with Coen de Koning and Thijs?Visser for the number one position in the Nacra Infusion World Championships.

Larsen and Frank sailed four bullets today and hold the overall lead.

Larsen: 'It was weird. This afternoon looked completely different. The racecourse had to be reversed completely with the changed wind. My compliments to the committee for taking care of this so fast. It took a completely different strategy and a different tactic. We sailed pretty conservative and that turned out well.'

De Koning and Visser dropped to second place in the ranking. De Koning: 'It didn't go well today. I don't really know what the reason is of this disappointing day. I don't blame the weather because it's always the sailor's fault. We just made some mistakes today.'

The sailors hope the races of tomorrow will be sailed. According to the forecast there will be a strong wind force six, but the wind will increase in the afternoon with strong gusts.

The Texel Dutch Open and World Championships Nacra Infusion continue until Friday June 8th.

On Saturday June 9th the 35th Zwitserleven Round Texel Race will start. The start is between 11 - 12h and will be broadcast live on the website www.roundtexel.com.

The Zwitserleven Sailing Week includes multiple championships and races. The whole event started Wednesday June 6th with the Open Dutch Championships Catamaran Sailing and the official World Championships Nacra Infusion 2012. The recreational sailors sailed the Horstocht today and will sail the Trip to the North on Friday.

On Saturday June 9th hundreds of catamarans will participate in the biggest cat race of the world, the Round Texel Race.

Texel Dutch Open - after seven races
1 Darren Bundock/Jeroen van Leeuwen
2 Mischa Heemskerk/Bastiaan Tentij
3 Oscar Zeekant/Karel Begemann
4 Xander Pols/Stefan Dubbeldam
5 Carolijn Brouwer/Wouter Samama

Nacra Infusion Worlds - after seven races
1 Gunnar Larsen/Sam Frank
2 Coen de Koning/Thijs Visser
3 Jorden Veenman/Frank de Waard
4 Juan Faustin/Lucas Gonzalez Smith

Results here
http://www.roundtexel.com" target="_blank">Event website