Hellecat event proves popular with some Champagne sailing!

As things try to return the the new normal, the Hellecat club managed to run it's July event for the Dutch 'A' Cat fleet in Champagne conditions, with a few neighbours joining in the fun.  

Wiro Zijlmans reports on the Foiling class. -  Finally racing was made possible again after almost a year of training only. The weather was gorgeous with sunshine all weekend. Saturday had a good breeze increasing from 10 to 16 kts during the day. Sunday was somewhat less with 8 to 14 kts. The results of the races after the long waiting time since the 4 Nations Cup were not much of a surprise, because the number 1 and 2 were Mischa Heemskerk scoring 8 bullets and Thijs Visser second in seven races. They were both able to create a clear advantage with stable upwind foiling. Sunday Rutger Krijger scored a second place in his first year’s race in his out of the box new DNA F1X, so plug and play.

Behind them the battle was on between the Hellecat club sailors with sufficient excitement until the end in which Wiro Zijlmans managed to grab the third podium place. Due to the heavy rainfall in Europe there was an unusual current at the Haringvliet which triggered some early starting on Sunday.

Kees Krijger - NED 15 - reports on the classics. Due to the weather forecast and the summer holidays only 5 classics were registered. Beforehand Philippe Muyzers was the absolute favourite with his Vision, Saarberg and blue OXO-sail. Conditions on Saturday were tough, so many classics did not compete in all 5 races. Great Grandmaster Piet Saarberg broke his trapeze and joystick in race two and had to stop, Josje Verbeeten and Kees Krijger stopped after three races because of the windy conditions. Philippe Muyzers was “très fatigué” after scoring 4 bullets and stopped racing as well, so heavy weight Walter Gonzalez scored a bullet in the fifth race sailing as the only survivor of the classic fleet.

Sunday Philippe Muyzers again scored two bullets, because of his superb downwind “wild thing” skills. Upwind gave some close racing, with Kees Krijger reaching the top mark first in the second leg, The last race on Sunday Philippe and Josje were out of sight for the disappointed Walter and Kees, but at the end they could laugh, because Philippe and Josje had been to eager at the start and both had an UFD.

All in all a great event with many thanks to the organizers and helpers! We look forward to meet more competitors from the 27th to the 29th of August for the Dutch Nationals.