Results / Open Dutch Skiff Trophy - 18/09/2010
Open Dutch Skiff Trophy Report (This year’s Vareo European event)
Two Dutch Vareos of Arwin Bos (NED341) and Niek Grobbee (NED551) were joined by Nick Crickmore (GBR550). With insufficient numbers for a race of our own, we found ourselves racing in Allcomers B ‘matched’ with 5 foiling Moths, an RS100 sailed by local RS dealer and sailing school boss Richard Rot, RS800, RS700, Laser 4000 and Iso.
Race officer ‘Archie’ from RS UK set courses for 3 class starts for Musto Skiff, 29er and 49er reaching off after mark 1 to the outer loop then Allcomers A (RS500 and Feva) and Allcomers B staying on the inner loop. There were separate finishes at the base of each course to avoid conflict between the 2 groups.
Saturdays racing took place in a comfortable maximum Force3.
Action from fleet 5 Allcomers B
In race 1 both Vareo550 and Vareo341 managed to finish close enough to the RS100 to claim the first 2 places. There were some significant shifts requiring some delays for repositioning of the marks before Race 2, which the Vareos used for some boat on boat tuning.
At the start of Race 2 Vareo550 took a port flyer and quickly found himself amongst the 500s who had been becalmed part way up the first beat, the RS100 with it’s 10M mainsail had better upwind speed in the lighter airs and finished just far enough ahead to claim 1st. following a large wind shift in increasing breeze.
The committee boat had to be moved to suit the new wind direction for race 3 with the increasing wind suiting a new winner in the Belgian RS800.
Overnight leader was RS100 with 9 points, followed by Vareo550 and 2 foiling moths joint 2nd with 10 points each. The results were amended to exclude the Moths in the morning as they had asked to be recorded as a separate fleet within the start.
Sunday saw smaller shifts but much stronger winds, the first 2 races in 12 to 15 knots, the last two in 15 to 22 knots, blowing offshore from the launching area to a new race area to the left of the islands. With numerous capsizes causing breakages and some minor injuries the fleet gradually reduced during the day.
In race 4 the RS800 repeated his first place performance from Race 3 and the Iso posted a useful 2nd bringing them both back into contention.
In race 5 Vareo550 was the only boat to successfully gybe every time with the spinnaker allowing him to finish ahead of the RS100 on the water for the second time that day and 1st overall on corrected time.
In race 6 the RS100 and Vareo550 were now fighting it out for first overall. The 100 avoided capsize by keeping his spinnaker below deck but lost on handicap following a death or glory final spinnaker run from the Vareo.
The last race saw just Vareo550 and the fully depowered Iso complete the course in the strongest wind of the weekend.
Lots more information on this and other nearby continental events open to vareos on http://www.skiffbenelux.com
I know the Dutch guys are keen to compete against and train with more from the UK next year, so maybe we can work on a Vareo Europeans event for next year, possibly the Belgian Open Skiff which is a shortish drive from Calais, usually the last weekend in June, or linking with any RS Eurocup event?
1 GBR550 Nick Crickmore 9 1 2 (3) 3 1 1 1
RS Vareo
2 NED108 Richard Rot 14 3 1 2 4 2 2 (dns)
RS100
3 NED1001 Hans Smorenburg 18 (5) 3 5 2 3 3 2
Maarten Mortier Iso
4 BEL1106 Luc Meeuwissen 28 4 4 1 1 (dns) dns dns
Blondie RS800
5 GBR879 Jan Tymowski 38 6 5 4 5 (dns) dns dns
RS700
6 GBR4062 Marc Josse 43 7 6 6 6 (dnf) dns dns
Thierry Cravatte
Laser 4000
7 NED551 Niek Grobbee 45 (dnc) 7 dnf 7 4 dns dns
RS Vareo
8 NED341 Arwin Bos 47 2 (dns) dns dns dns dns dns
RS Vareo