Emmanuel Dodé wins Belgian Nationals at Knokke

The Belgian 2017 Nationals were held on the North Sea at Knokke on the 15-17 July.  Michel Warlop reports.

We had 10 competitors including 2 French, 1 German and 7 Belgians. Conditions were quite hard, at least for those not used to sail on choppy waters as the wind ranged from force 3 to 5 in the first three races and even force 6 in the last race on Saturday. The latter race forced the foilers to sit thight on their boats whilst going downwind.

On Sunday we had again very nice weather and a sustained force 4 throughout the day.  4 courses were completed on Sunday which, combined with the four races on the day before, obviously led to a valid championship.

Differences between foilers and c-boards (like Philippe Muyzers) were not that big as expected, probably due to the choppy conditions which forced them to be more kissing the waves like navigation than really hovering above the waves. Fantastic organisation by the Royal Belgian Sailing Club hosting the event again. A big thanks to the sailors that came from as far as 900 kms to join our event!   And finally, congrats to Philippe Muyzers who prolonges his title as first Belgian. 

Check facebook pages RBSC and Belgian Multihull Association and https://youtu.be/-UE1MkAFg0Y

Final result (see picture): 1.  Emmanuel Dodé (France, DNA F1), 2. Hervé Ledue (France, Exploder 2016), 3. Philippe Muyzers (Belgium, Vision) 

Link with full results here: http://www.rbsc.be/inc/wedstrijden_uitslagen.dhtml?wedstrijd=853,language=nl