J/22, J/24, J/109s Enjoy Close
Racing(The Hague, Netherlands)- The major summer regatta in the Netherlands, Delta Lloyd North Sea Week, saw some great competition, nice weather and one of their best turn-outs for participation in recent years. Teams from all over Europe migrated down to the beautiful seashore off the Hague, including the J/22, J/24 and J/109 one-design classes.
The J/22s saw some new faces at the top of the podium
this past week, a refreshing change in this ever evolving fun class in the
Netherlands, Germany and France. Sailing an amazing series and counting
only top three finishes after ten races was the FRAPORITA team led by
Jean-Michel Lautier, Giuseppe D'Aquino and Denis Neve-- 13 pts net for 10
races! Showing flashes of brilliance with three bullets in their
shoreline was the all-women XJE team led by Misja Adamczyk, Lilith Michaelis
and Marion de Ha. Starting out in the lead after four races, the girls
faded in their last four, never finishing higher than fourth.
Nevertheless, they maintained their composure and with 22 net pts secured
second overall. Third overall on the podium was JABBADABBADOO sailed by
Stan Heltzel, Nadine Fritz and Audrey Paterson with 23 net pts. The
balance of the top five was Sander Brinkhuis's DJINN in fourth and fifth was
Ivo Jeaukens's DE KANTOORBUTLER.The half-dozen J/24s sailing saw NED 49 take the silverware by a significant point margin. The team of Erik Jeuring, Calijn Muller, Jeroen Horts and Merk Meester ran away with the regatta counting straight firsts in eight races! Second was NED 51- DE JANS sailed by Nils Jannichsen, Nina Hagoort and Peter Jannichsen followed by BED 68- AS IS helmed by Dirk de Brouwere.
With nine boats sailing, the J/109s had some awesome one-design racing. Like some of his fellow J sailing colleagues in other fleets, Tom van der Vecht's EXPECTO nearly swept the class counting eight 1sts in ten races to be crowned North Sea Week J/109 Champion. Second was A van Leeuwen's JOULE finishing second overall with 16 pts. Third was Niels Groothuizen's TAXATION with 19 pts. Fourth was BIG TIME (Rein Bakker) and fifth was the offshore veteran sailing team on YETI (Paul van der Pol).
In IRC Class, an initial contender was the J/111 XCENTRIC RIPPER sailed by John van de Starre and Robin Verhoef. After flirting with the lead sailing a 2-2 on the first day, their hopes vanished for a podium finish after struggling to regain their "mojo" and momentum, ending up an uncharacteristic 5th in their class. For more Delta Lloyd North Sea week sailing information
