by Diana Bogaards
"I thought we would get a 15 knots breeze today”, says former Olympian Sebbe Goderfroid (BEL). "It is obvious that I had a different weather forecast.” Race officer Norbert van der Kooij had just announced a steady 17-20 knots throughout the whole race. The south/southwestern direction makes it a long beat on the Wadden Sea and spinnaker runs on the North Sea. However, the surf should not cause too many troubles.
"Twelve to fifteen knots would have been nice, as I am sailing with Philip Hendrickx, a youth member of RBSC. 20 knots is more surviving and trying to keep our boat in one piece.” They are sailing Godefroid’s Olympic Tornado.
John Moret and Danny Radelaar decided to leave their 12 meter tall mast on the beach. They switched to their normal rig. On the other side of the Pit Lane, the wing is being prepared for its race debut on a beach cat. "I have no idea about our chances in these conditions”, says Herbert Dercksen. "We will use it and let’s see how it is going.”
Special jib
"I think the long mast is too much. That is my opinion. This boats has plenty of power”, said William Sunnucks yesterday. "The wing is absolutely fantastic. It takes a little while to develop it, but good luck to them. When they develop it a bit further, I like to buy one of those.” But for now, the Englishman introduces an unusual jib on his M20 Vampire. "It is big at the top, slim in the middle and it has a big bottom too. It has a special luff line on it to reduce forestay sack.” Under tension, it flattens the luff of the sail.
Sunnucks and Egan tried their new invention yesterday at their second record attempt of this week. "The jib did work actually. I’m quite surprised at that. We had the luff line tight the whole time, so the jib was really flat and we had great speed. It is a good weapon.”
Olympian Renee Groeneveld joins last-minute
It was a last-minute action, but Dutch Olympian match race skipper Renee Groeneveld will line up for the start as well. She will helm a F18 with Mischa de Munck on the wire. Her Olympian team mate Merel Witteveen will race with her brother Olivier. Let’s see what their match race skills will bring in this cat race.
Zwitserleven Round Texel Race
