Last Saturday the 24th september the 32 nd Ronde Tien gemeten has been sailed with very light and difficult wind conditions.
Catamaranparts was on the water with 2 Visions and 1 Raptor F16. The 2 Visions where sailed by Piet Saarberg, Nigel Lovett and the Raptor F16 was sailed by Chris Field. For Chris this was his first time ever on a F16 and was looking forward to see how the boat will do.
The briefing was at 10 AM and there was already a possiblity to shorten the race because of the wind conditions and they were right, the race was shorted just before the island Tiengemeten with a gate and this was a good choice.
At 11 AM the start signal was given and off we go with a 70+ boat field. Right after the start it was the best choice to go North and then crossing the lake to the South and stay under the dike. Chris had a good start and was with the Raptor in the middle of the F20's going upwind to the island. Piet on the Vision went earlier to the South under the dike and in the beginning this was not ideal but he managed to sail free and off he went with a big battle with John Moret on his special made M20.
It was a complete up wind beat and a lot of the A-cats and the Raptor were in front of the fleet. At the gate it was Piet in 3th and Chris in 6th place, this was ofcourse very good with a downwind leg to come.
It all went different and more difficult because the wind was dropping further and a lot of wind holes were spread out around the lake.Piet was in the lead and went to the North side close to the finish and this did cost him the victory, the boats on the North side had a little sooner the upcomning Westerly wind and could go full trapeze to the finish and Piet did miss the victory by half a boat length.
Chris was also struggling to get out of the windholes and instead of a downwind beat with the spinaker it was changed into an upwind beat again. Finally Chris did made a 11 th place overall with the Raptor and Piet a 3 th place overall with the Vision.
Overall we can say that you needed some luck today to get a real top finish. The club Hellecat did made again a very good effort with the organisation and we are now already looking forward to next year.
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