Spakenburg Musto Skiff Regatta 2011

Report: Tristan Williams (AUS 371)

Photos: Thomas Trieb (GER 398) http://www.flickr.com/photos/sailreport/

10 Musto Skiff’s descended on the small town of (Bunschoten) Spakenburg for this year’s open meeting on the weekend of the 14th & 15th of May. Also counting at the Dutch stop of the EuroCup circuit, we saw sailors representing NED, BEL, GER, GBR and a token Aussie.

Saturday morning saw sailors greeted with a fresh 5 bft breeze and ominous clouds threatening much worse.
Racing got underway and immediately Huud Ouwehand (NED 229) took control of the right hand side of the course; leading at the first mark and running away to take the first win.

Race two. Well, to be honest I have no idea what happened in race two. I’m sure it was epic, but I was...er...testing the seals of my new spray jacket and missed the start window. Oh, I believe Paul Dijkstra (NED 076) actually took the race win, but more importantly, the spray jacket still kept the water out even when immersed! Great stuff, very happy with it.
At the end of the day, we had three races sailed and three different race winners. Tristan Williams (AUS 371) was channelling some Dave Poston tactics, recovering from the disaster of a DNS in race 2 to take the bullet in Race 3.

There had been a lot of big rides and even bigger crashes throughout the day, fatigue was clearly written across everybody’s face that night in the bar. To the trained eye however, once could clearly spot that manic glint skiff sailors get in the corner of their eye after a day of hard competition. We may have sailed to the wrong corner, but by ... did you see how fast I was going?!

Sunday the forecast was for slightly more forgiving breeze in the morning but building in anger by afternoon. Conditions were quite tricky with the breeze shifting a lot, plenty of holes and some unfathomable land effects. Those that didn’t watch for the pressure fronts coming down the course often got caught out while concentrating on their bottom mark approach.

Tristan picked up where he left off Saturday with a win in the first race of the morning, following up with another win in race 4.

Erik Loeff (NED 269) took out race two showing good speed and clever tactics – and no side effects from using a borrowed mast (more on that later).

Paul took races 3 and 5 but, more impressively, didn’t score worse than 3rd in the entire event. A deserved champion and proof that you don’t need to clean your boat for 10 years and still be fast.

For me, there were a few highlights of the event. Firstly, the generosity and friendliness of Huud and the rest of the team from (Bunschoten) Spakenburg is fantastic. It’s a credit to everyone to be able to run 8 races over the weekend with boats ranging from 49ers to RS Feva’s.

Also, thanks to the people who travelled such a long way to join in. Four friends, old and new, came from Germany whilst Nicolas made the trip from the south of Belgium.

Finally, I can’t help but be impressed with the development of skill within the fleet. It was only at this event last year that some of these people sailed or raced a Musto Skiff for the first time. In this report, I’ve given the barest impression of the regatta as I can’t seem to capture just how close the racing was across the whole fleet.

Last, but not least, the Miner’s trophy was a tough one to award with plenty of spectacular crashes in the fresh breeze. In the end it had to go to Erik Loeff (NED 269) for race 3 Saturday and his interpretation of a twisting-somersault-with a tuck from the pike position. It’s a complex manoeuvre with a very high degree of difficulty whereby one catapults down the mine so hard, the mast tip is driven into the shallow mud to the spinnaker block, while the hull is lifted clear of the water as it flips over the top. Needless to say, the mast didn’t agree with the awesomeness of the manoeuvre; but in a fantastic display of determination, Erik sorted out the mess, re-set the kite and still finished the race in style!

Final Results:

Uitslag Mustoskiff

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