2012 Dutch Open
Championships
Report by Tris Williams
Photos Tris Williams, Graeme Oliver and Karel Walters
 What
an event it was! Two days of coaching, followed by the
inaugural Dutch Open Championships. It’s no wonder we
needed a good sleep afterwards.
The 6th to 9th of September 2012 saw the second Masterclass
training camp kindly supported by the Musto Skiff Class
Association. Class ‘veteran’ Graeme Oliver travelled
to Bruinisse harbour in the south of Holland to lead
a focused two days of training for 7 enthusiastic sailors.
Light winds on Thursday meant that there was an opportunity
to have a thorough shore-drill and rig tune session.
We could really break down the sequence of each manoeuvre
and find where things were going wrong and why. Late
afternoon the breeze came through at a nice 10-12knots,
allowing us to get out for a few hours and try to apply
some of these new techniques.
As is so often the case when un-learning old habits
while trying to learn new ones, things got a little
tricky and some peoples’ heads were a little too ‘in
the boat’, leading to a highly questionable port-starboard
incident at the top mark. Seems I didn’t have quite
as much room as I thought...
Friday dawned with the sun shining and a forecast for
the breeze to hold. We were up early and on the water
for a nice long session for starting and racing drills.
This is where the smaller group really excelled – a
short start line and brilliant conditions meant that
everyone pushed themselves very hard, ending with hotly
contested start lines and some impressive demonstrations
of low speed control.
The wind held for the afternoon session and so Graeme
set us off on a drill to test the tactics. Two windward
marks meant we needed to look around and choose the
best course for the breeze. A nice counterpoint to the
focus of the previous sessions and good preparation
for the racing the next few days. Also, a good way for
the coach to tire out the competition before the real
racing started.
Saturday & Sunday saw the inaugural Open Dutch Musto
Skiff Championships, held in conjunction with the Open
Dutch Skiff Trophy. The Musto’s and RS700’s shared a
racecourse with the rest of the fleet divided into RS500’s,
low handicap & high handicap. Unfortunately the
beautiful breeze of Friday didn’t last through Saturday
and so two races were finally set off with a mass start
for all boats. Fickle winds and many various boats (and
skills) meant that it was imperative to keep clear air
and momentum. Paul Dijkstra (076) sailed the smartest
and took both bullets of the day.
Sunday had slightly better breeze, though still patchy,
shifty and fickle. A lot of waiting near the start boat
for the wind to fill in long enough to set a course
and execute a full start sequence was the name of the
game. Ultimately there were three successful races for
the day, with three different race winners; Paul Dijkstra,
Tristan Williams (371) and Graeme Oliver (376). The
final two proving neither weight, nor age is a barrier
to success in this class...
Overall win went to Paul with relative newcomer Jelmer
Kuipers (175) second and Tristan Williams rounding out
the top three. Also good to see was the noticeable improvement
of the fleet, firstly due to the time and energy spent
by those competing in the world titles at Weymouth,
then again over the course of the weekend.
No Zeilno Naam Punten 1 2 3 4 5
1 NED 76 Paul Dijkstra, MustoSkiff 6,0 1 1 1 3 (6)
2 NED 175 Jelmer Kuipers, MustoSkiff 11,0 3 3 3 (6)
2
3 AUS 371 Tristan Williams, MustoSkiff 16,0 7 (dns)
5 1 3
4 GBR 421 Elaine Turner, MustoSkiff 16,0 4 (7) 4 4 4
5 BEL 788 Laurent Declercq, RS700 17,0 2 5 (6) 5 5
6 GBR 376 Graham Oliver, MustoHandicap 20,0 (dns) dns
2 2 1
7 NED 229 Huud Ouwehand, MustoSkiff 22,0 5 2 (11) 7
8
8 BEL 733 Gueuning Nicolaas, RS700 29,0 6 4 8 11 (dns)
9 GBR 171 Stewart Patience, MustoSkiff 35,0 9 8 (10)
8 10
10 NED 269 Erik Loeff, MustoSkiff 36,0 8 6 7 (dns) dns
11 NED 950 Koen Sibbel, RS700 38,0 10 9 (12) 10 9
12 GBR 879 Jan Tymowski, RS700 40,0 (dns) dns 9 9 7
13 NED 109 Roelof Kuipers, MustoSkiff 60,0 (dns) dns
dns dns dns
13 NED 422 Sijbrand Jongejans, MustoSkiff 60,0 (dns)
dns dns dns dns
Cheers, Tris Williams
MPS 371
|
