After three cancelled attempts due to strong wind we finally got the boat in the water on a dead-calm Tuesday afternoon. Saturday we tuned the rig and made a small practice run.

Sunday morning we were ready for our first competition in two months. A small winter breeze from the south was just enough to start a race. With a nice sunshine we had a good start and spent the next half hour to get clear of the start line. Although we were quite successful, there was not enough wind to overcome the current effectively. So the race was cancelled and the re-start postponed.

Luckily a little breeze kicked in and we started again with a good start. We could held on to the leading group of the X-35s, passing "drs. X" in a very nice downwind buoy rounding. Upwind we held on, and on the last downwind leg we tried to pass "Quantum racing". In the process however we nearly forgot to round the last buoy, but found out just in time to make it with a tight reach. We didn't gain any places, but avoided a disqualification. We finished second in ORC1 behind the "Foxy" (who later retired because they did miss the buoy) and also second on handicap behind the "Rosetta".

photograph by: Leo Eggink - www.ijspegel.com

The second race was only one lap, so the start was quite important. We had a superb start, defending our place at the starting vessel with success. We rounded second at the top mark, and passed the leading boat downwind to win line-honours. We also won the race on handicap.

We won the day with a second and a first place. The boat handling was almost flawless, and the boat speed was quite good, especially when we changed the mast settings for the second race. So we were really content!

Team Triple P:

   1  Ernst-Jan van Housselt

   2  Joost Kroon

   3  Gregory Vlasblom

   4  Ko Stroo

   5  Toon van Liebergen

   6  Fezi Khaleghi

   7  Jeroen van der Velden