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Cowes Week 2008 was almost exactly what Cowes Week is these days: a week of sailing (and the racing being secondary).

I got invited by Chris to join Sanguma for the week and we did exactly what the plan was: Have fun both on and off the boat, sail as well as we can and let the courses (and results that go with them) not spoil the week.

The weather wasn’t all that great (especially after two weeks of sun in the Baltic) but it wasn’t too bad either. Everything that went wrong didn’t go wrong for very long or was permanent and watching the fireworks with the Walmsley family from the deck of the Royal Corinthian with some bubbles was a very classy way of finishing the week.

As I was on Sanguma there are no photos from me but Tim Wright has a very nice website that allows you to search per boat: http://www.photoaction.com

I’m not sure what to say other than that it has been another fun week of sailing and that life kept smiling at me even though the result-streak from July (1st boat overall Comedy Cup, 2nd in class for Cork and two leg victories and two seconds to win the BSC overall) did seem to have ended August first.

Life’s good!
Ciao!

ps. Talking about the fireworks:

Didn’t have the time nor the opportunity earlier to actually update the blog-thingy so in small pieces, here goes:

After spending just enough time in the UK to do a tiny bit of laundry and have a fun night in Hamble it was off to Lithuania and what an interesting place that is. It wasn’t until I arrived at the marine I actually saw something that didn’t look to be build in the past two years. It all looks and feels very new and I can’t say I liked it all that much. However meeting up with the team was a great pleasure and the opportunity of more sailing with some great guys (and girls) was not one to let go by. From Lithuania the course took us to Poland and then on to Denmark. The crew worked very well together and they managed to get and keep us in the right positions during the offshores (the inshore we found out had to be our discard and the result showed…). Again a big thank you from here to the entire crew throughout the two weeks with a special mention to our skipper Mike Castania.

I’ve got a bunch of photos but I haven’t had the time to sort them and there are some more on the way so when all that is sorted I’ll put them up as well.

More on the way,
Ciao

ps. We did actually win the event with a 1-2-2-1 score. And a cheecky preview of the unsorted and unedited photos can be found if you look for it here.

Well the first leg of the baltic sprint cup was good fun but I unfortunately had to leave. However a small change in my schedule has me flying out to meet up with Danebury again to do legs 3,4 and 5 (and thus only missing the previous leg).

I really am looking forward to that ’cause the atmosphere on board was really good and I could (and have) learnt a lot from the people on board. They did very well without me though, a second into Lithuania which sees them holding on to the first place overall. The bar is high and there is still half of the race left. As always mor can be found on the website of the regatta:
http://www.balticsprintcup.com

In the mean time I’ve had the pleasure of sleeping in my own bed for the first time in over a month and this time in my new house. Really really nice. It has also given me the oppurtunity to do some quick washing, which might come in handy with the move straight into Cowes Week after returning from Denmark next week. Looking forward to that as well, just fun sailing with Sanguma!

Anyhow I’ll better get back to getting organised for the coming two weeks. Take care all.

Ciao!

WOW!

That is the first thing that comes to mind when thinking about the past few days. After a great time in Cork (and the sailing wasn’t too bad either with a second in class IRC0 on board Tiamat, the new Mills 43) I headed down to Cork airport to meet up with a bunch of people whom were all travelling to Germany for the start of the Baltic Sprint Cup on board Danebury/Horizon. So Friday night and flying into London, 4 hours of sleep on a hotel room floor and then on to Germany (Hamburg Lübeck) early Saturday morning. It was great fun travelling with a great bunch of guys together but the little sleep of the regatta and travelling might come and bite us when doing the first (and longest) leg of the Baltic Sprint Cup.

So on Saturday close to mid day we arrived with seven of us in Travemünde for the start of the offshore at about 1-ish. The boat was already prepped close to perfection by Mike Castania (with a little help of some of the others) and it was a case of changing to foulies and stepping on board. The boat is build number one of the Rogers 46 line of which 5 are now build and is racing against two sisterships. Basically it is a carbon racer with our boat in a pole (with jockey poles) a-sail configuration and the other two boats with just a sprit. Not only is the boat well looked after, the systems are all trouble free and the foredeck is just a dream (in my opinion). The forecast for the race: 216miles and for all but the first 2 miles a 15-25 knot downwind race… NICE!

The crew for the first leg (which is the only leg I’m doing unfortunately) worked togeter really nicely and showed great competence. The skipper (Mike again) was great but so were all other 10 of my fellow crew. And the combination with the boat and conditions made it such good fun. The conditions didn’t really allow for photos but possibly one or two have been taken on board and after Cowes Week they might actually show up… I was bow but as with an offshore I did a bit of everything (this time even driving!).

The conditions were challenging due to several depressions passing by and throughout the night we could see lightning on the horizon. A great call by the afterguard saw us peeling to a heavier kite early on and when the big breeze hit it was full-on! The nature of the breeze made 20 knots feel like 35 and the boat showed some tendency to nose-dive a bit. Working away on the coffee grinder for the kite trimmer a wave filled the cockpit with water up to my knees and the speed incresing to 20 knots.

When dawn broke the wind had become less but the race was still very challenging especially for the navigator (Mike Broughton) with the tricky Swedish coast. On the radio we could here one of the faster boats in the fleet finishing and we kept pushing the last few miles really hard. In the end we finished the 216 mile in just over 20 hours which gave us victory on corrected time, a great start to the Baltic Sprint Cup for the team and a great result period.

Now I am in Sweden helping the team get ready for the second leg and the atmosphere is great within the team which makes it all the more regrettable that I couldn’t commit to more legs. I would like to thank Horizon for sponsoring the team and making the event possible for the boat as well as the owner. Then of course the rest of the team for such a fun few days with a special mention for skipper Mike and for Andy O who got me in as a replacement for himself this leg.

Photos, results and more info on the team and the boat can be found by clicking the appropriate underlined text.

Ciao!

Hi Everyone, just a quick update from Ireland. After a uneventful but not very pleasant delivery last week from Hamble to Cork (or Crosshaven to be exact) I am racing on board Tiamat (brand new Mills43 have a look at http://www.mills-design.com). We’re doing not too bad (3 seconds and 2nd in class as well) with three days left. There are plenty of nice photos about (some can be found here: http://www.photoaction.com/fcw08/fcw08.htm and the search function works really nicely).

The regatta itself is good fun with a different type of race each day and some very, very nice hardware to look at and study (taking notes for next years courses on ship design). Weatherwise we don’t have much to complain about either with the best weather usually in the morning and afternoon when not on the water.

At the same time the world famous KaagWeek regatta is taking place, another fun regatta which I am unfortunately missing this year. However my parents are there and enjoying the fun (even partaking). More info -> http://www.kwvdekaag.nl/RS/Freepage/Freepage.aspx?name=Kaagweek

Anyway I’m off and I might just not do an update till after I’ve returned from the Baltic Sprint Cup. This for me starts on Saturday and I step of theboat after the first leg into Sweden. I’ll be racing on board Danebury a Rogers 46.

Anyhow enjoy the summer (I am)!

Ciao,

A selection of photos from the past week or so, credit to various people:
Rolex (click here)
James Boyd (click here)
Gregor (click here)

Enjoy…

Well a tough week has just finished and I’ve actually been able to get some sleep and be awake and fit again within 24 hours of the event finishing. The 2008 Commodores’ Cup was a great event to compete in and I thoroughly enjoyed the week. A big thank you to the crew on board Kees Kaan’s ROARK/Claus en Kaan Architecten.

For a proper report on the events can be best found on the events’ website (http://www.rorc.org/comcup) much better than I can do. However some interesting parts of the week I will comment on…

The event started on Sunday with measuring, registration and a reception at the Royal Yacht Squadron. Monday two short inshore races and a second and first for the boat. However the most important thing about the event is that it is a team event and individual results are not that important. However getting a 2-1 on the first day and 3-1 on the second was nice for the team. On Wednesday the offshore started which was about 24 hours and as Netherlands Red we won the offshore race and as a boat we led our class out of the Solent and led the entire way to be first across the line in class and win our class on corrected time but it wasn’t easy!

On Friday a single inshore race and we were able to get another bullet (first place) with the boat. Saturday and Sunday were much harder on the team and boat but as a team we managed to stay lowest scoring boat of the event until last night. Which had to be celebrated with another reception at the RYS with free Mumm (nice…)

Next for me on the agenda is a delivery of a boat to Cork for Cork Week (http://www.corkweek.ie) and Cork Week as well before the Baltic Sprint Cup (first leg: http://www.balticsprintcup.com). Cork Week will be on board Mark Mills’ designed 43 footer Tiamat – Alfa Romeo a result of fun nights in the Pier View…

More reports on the performance of ROARK can be found on the team’s website: http://www.roarksailingteam.com with photos by Diane Bogaards (http://www.diabo.nl). Gregor Vlasblom (crewmember on board) has kept his blog more up to date ( in Dutch: http://www.gregorvlasblom.com/My_Blog/My_Blog.html).

Ciao!

Hi all, quick update from Cowes.

I’m currently thouroughly enjoying participating in the Rolex Commodores’ Cup with the Dutch boat ROARK.

Info oin the events and performance can be found on http://www.roarksailingteam.com, http://www.rorc.org/comcup and various other sailing news websites.

I will report on events in more detail after the event has finished.

Ciao,

As mentioned below, after the IRC-nationals I went with a couple of friends of the Sanguma crew up the river to look and listen to The Police closing the Isle of Wight Festival.

On invitation by Pete and Kat we left the PV and stopped to pick up some classic English stuffed newspaper for supper (Fish ‘n Chips) which fed us on the way up the river Medina towards Newport. We found a great spot when we got to the festival area when we could moor next to a boat that had been watching the entire weekend and was anchored in such a way it was fully ready for tidal changes. When we arrived quite a large crowd had already formed on the water in addition to the 60,000 people who were actually on the festival terrain. In a very relaxed atmosphere the festival was winding down as the sun went down whilst the tension among the crowd was increasing in anticipation of The Police.

When it had become almost fully dark all attention was focused on the stage and The Police made their entrance. The kicked off whit some great songs and it was great fun watching and hearing it all. However before they had played all of their hits they left the stage and this strange feeling among the crowd was noticeable. Everyone knew they would return for an encore and when they did they upped their level even more. With just Roxanne left they thanked everyone and left the stage again only to return once more and absolutely blow the crowd away with a great live version of the song. I’ve put some photos up, unfortunately my battery ran out and shots of the great fireworks show that marked the end of the festival are missing as are photos of the ride up the river as that was dinner time.

Pete and Kat thanks very much again for the invitation and Fred and Laura thank you for letting me stay another night after getting back to Hamble at one in the morning.

Ciao!

What started as a leisurely walk in Cowes ended as three days of helping friends out in the GBR-yard preparing boats for the UK IRC nationals. Three days of being outside, getting a meal (and sometimes a drink other than water) and learning about the different parts of what it takes to get a custom build boat ready for racing.
Some rigging, some maintenance, a bit of building and even stepping a mast were all tasks I’ve been doing throughout last week. It was actually good fun and really quite interesting to see several boats in different states after their build and launch earlier in the season (one only a couple of weeks earlier). And everyone was very appreciative of the extra pair of hands that made sure they could finish the jobs in time.
The best fun was preparing a quarter tonner for this weeks quarter ton cup. These small classic race yachts are where a lot of great sailors competed in two decades ago. The current class champion had found a sistership to his winning boat of last year under a palm tree somewhere sunny and decided he wanted to race it this year without spending any money on gear. With the original mast breaking in half at the first attempt to step the rig the pressure was on to get the loaned rig to fit and stay up on the boat. Halyards had to be spliced to each other and the angle grinder was needed to fit the mast through the deck but on Thursday night the rig was in and the Monday morning start looked like a possibility. Throughout the weekend spare minutes were used to get the rig straightened and the rest of the boat sorted with a large number of spectators everytime. When I left Cowes on Sunday night a mainsail and a jib had been hoisted and most controls were there and working. This week I’ll keep checking out the quarter ton cup results to see if the boat has made it past the first start, the paintjob is very promising however I’ve just realised I have failed to take photos of the boat…

Then the racing itself. With Jump Juice being cancelled for the nationals and commodores’ cup through various reasons I found myself without a boat on Monday. However numerous people were quick to get in touch and tried to find me a good boat for the weekend. Although quite a bit of effort was put into it by them (of which I was and am very appreciative) Sanguma also still needed a crewmember.
The entire weekend was dominated by light and fluky breeze which did not made things easier. Combined with not the best job North Sails has ever done on a jib (the two overlapping genoas were a bit wrong) sailing wise it was quite tough for the little boat. But the Sanguma crew hung in there and gave it their best and it was all good fun on board.

There was however one downside to the weekend and from what I have heard and read this is a general feeling. The race committee was not at their best. As they had opted for one fleet the race course had to be able to accommodate everything from a 68footer with 4,5 metre draft to the 20-and-a-bit footers. The startline was too long to be controllable and during the starting procedure the RC commented on the positioning of boats with a wealth of racing experience which is in my opinion really odd for a national championship. The courses themselves were really long and in many peoples’ opinions did not suit the conditions and boats. Almost three hours of windward-leeward racing does not result in three races per day. It will be interesting if the comments will be used when in two weeks time the RORC runs the Commodores’ Cup…

Still this could not ruin the weekend and with one of the builders of the Russian Volvo70 on board the postponement on Sunday gave a nice opportunity to have a peak at the boat:
After the racing of the weekend I went up the Medina (river from Cowes inland on the Isle of Wight) to see and hear The Police performing at the Isle of WIght Festival, more on that later…

Ciao!