6:36 PM Mon 21 Sep 2009 GMT
Team Boskalis narrowly missed out on a podium finish at the Delta Lloyd Dutch F18 Nationals in Medemblik/Netherlands. Current F18 World Champions Coen de Koning and Thijs Visser (NED) had difficulties to find their golden shape of July. They finished fourth in a strong fleet of 55 catamarans, representing eight countries.
Their team mates Hugh Styles (GBR) and Ferdinand van West (NED), bronze at this year's F18 Worlds, were fifth overall. The occasional team of Carolijn Brouwer (BEL) and Jeroen van Leeuwen followed by just one point.
Mischa Heemskerk and Bastiaan Tentij defended their title successfully.
'It was noticeably that we haven't sailed that much together in the last two months', commented Thijs Visser afterwards. 'We trained hard for the Worlds and now it is not easy to get back in the groove.' On Saturday there was only a few knots of variable breeze, which required lots of concentration from the sailors. The first race was cancelled, since nobody could finish in time. After shortening the course, two more races were completed. By the end of day one, De Koning and Visser were third overall. However, they could not maintain their bronze position on Sunday. They finished fourth after four races with a slightly building wind (force 3-4).
Despite missing out on a medal, the Boskalis sailors enjoyed the competition: 'The top guys were smoking.' Among the F18 fleet were the sevenfold World Champion Tornado and silver medalist of 2000 and 2008, Darren Bundock (AUS), and Olivier Backes (FRA) who finished fourth at the 2008 Games. They won respectively silver and bronze at the Dutch F18 Nationals.
'Our sailing was injury influenced', concluded Hugh Styles on Sunday afternoon. Styles suffers from a knee injury and Van West was fighting the flu. Despite these physical inconveniences, Styles and Van West were not too dissatisfied with their fifth place: 'We could have done better, but we had a few moments of brilliance and some really good starts. We struggled to put it all together.'
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'Let's start the Dutch nationals tomorrow, we are ready for it', laughed Carolijn Brouwer (BEL). For the weekend, she teamed up with Jeroen van Leeuwen (NED). As an irregular F18 duo, they had to figure out the right trim and teamwork onboard of their Nacra Infusion. Brouwer: 'The conditions on Sunday were very different from those on Saturday, so we had to start all over again.' Van Leeuwen adds: 'We were sailing well by the end of the championship.' The occasional teammates were happy with their final result: 'The sailing and competition were great. A sixth place in this fleet of high quality is not too bad and we were third in the solely Dutch ranking.'
Sascha Larsen and Christa van Helden (NED) had a good season so far, but could not impress at this year's Dutch F18 Nationals. Van Helden: 'It was a fantastic racing weekend, but we did not do really well in terms of results. We didn't make major mistakes and we sailed nicely, but it didn't go the right way for us. It was simply not our event, but nevertheless we enjoyed it very much.'
Top five Dutch F18 Nationals 2009:
1. NED - Mischa Heemskerk/Bastiaan Tentij, 10 points
2. AUS - Darren Bundock/Will Howden (GBR), 12 points
3. FRA - Olivier Backes/Arnoud Jarlegan, 14 points
4. NED - Coen de Koning/Thijs Visser, 21 points
5. GBR - Hugh Styles/Ferdinand van West, 33 points
6. NED - Carolijn Brouwer/Jeroen van Leeuwen, 34 points
24. NED - Sascha Larsen/Christa van Helden, 104 points
Websites: ww.teamboskalis.com and
www.deltalloydonk.org
by Diana Bogaards
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