A new challenge
I have a new boat to sail, as you might have noticed, since you managed to find my site. And I am overly enthusiastic about this new project. The boat is a mini 650 proto, and it is meant to be raced in a class, against similar boats.
After having sailed across the Atlantic with Laura Dekker World Sailing Foundation, and having sailed 3 years with Holland Ocean Racing, I was looking for a new challenge. This challenge turned into Boatsje. (For the full story check the site)
Last months have been crazy, I finished my high school exams end of May and immediately joined Laura and Sander to sail around Scotland, The Shetlands, The Faroer Islands, and Norway. These were and amazing 2 months, during which I also got to know I passed my final High School exams, so the next year I could start my studies to become a maritime officer. After coming back from this trip, it was time to take over Boatsje from Sander. Boatsje required some maintenance before I could sail her, but every boat owner knows: A boat requires a lot of TLC, so no issue there.
When Boatsje was prepped, I could start training for the 24 hours race end of August. Boatsje took some getting used to, but the training sessions were productive in learning, as well as in pointing out points of improvement. The last weekend before the 24 hours race I had a training weekend with Florian, my crew member for the race. Since Florian already has a lot of experience in mini 650, this was especially productive.
When Boatsje was prepped, I could start training for the 24 hours race end of August. Boatsje took some getting used to, but the training sessions were productive in learning, as well as in pointing out points of improvement. The last weekend before the 24 hours race I had a training weekend with Florian, my crew member for the race. Since Florian already has a lot of experience in mini 650, this was especially productive.
After cleaning the hull and doing the last boat work Friday afternoon, Friday evening we took the start line; sailing 24 hours on the IJsselmeer, Markermeer, and the North Sea was officially started. The race is all about tactics, choosing the right legs to sail, to not sail unfavorable directions, but also to keep the final legs around the finish free. After a steady night, we saw the sun rise, but during the night our 2 biggest competitors didn't fill out their sailed legs anymore, so it wasn't clear how we were doing, we just knew we sailed fast during the night, so we should just keep it going.
One of our biggest rivals was another mini, later during the day we saw them, and it was clear we were a lot faster. This gave us a nice mental boost after the short night of sleep of about 1.5 hours each. The last hours are always a big puzzle, which legs can you still sail without taking any penalty time for finishing after 24 hrs. We decided on a route which would fit if we averaged around 7 knots, so we would finish with 10 minutes to spare. However, soon after we rounded the mark to start this course, it was clear to us that we didn't average 7 knots, but 9 knots, the waves were just long enough for us on the 6,5m boat to surf, but too small for the bigger boats. It was too late for us to do a bigger course when we realized this, so we needed to just go with it.
When we finished we finished with 35 minutes of spare time and not pushing the boat, but on the last leg we hit top speeds of 14 knots! So it was amazing to see us overtaking all of the bigger yachts. After cleaning up we had a good dinner and after dinner when we went out for a drink the official scores were published. And we got 1st place in class and overall, which was amazing, although we were already expecting it, the confirmation was really nice. After a well deserved night of sleep we had the price giving the next morning.
It was an amazing start to a great adventure and you will surely here more of me!!
