Two LBC teams traveled to the island of Texel in the Netherlands to compete in the 2012 Dutch Open and the Nacra Infusion Worlds on June 6 – 8, 2012, and the Round Texel race—the world’s largest catamaran event—on June 10.
LBC sailors Steve Wallace and Jade Wong finished 3rd in the Nacra F16 class, thus garnering a place on the awards stand. “A bit of a surprise!” commented Steve. They were 34th overall, after encountering a few equipment issues with their just-assembled, brand-new boat. Their best race was the first of the seven, when they finished a very creditable 16th.
“We had a couple of mishaps which didn’t help,” said Steve. “In our best race, we were up with the leaders after having a good start, even ahead of the Nacra 17 about to round the first mark, when our mainsheet rope came apart. A quick re-running of the thick rope through the main blocks and we were off again, but it did take a while, leaving us close to last.”
Lantau Boat Club
Jade and Steve (at right) placed 3rd in the Nacra F16 Class in the Dutch Open.
The Dutch Open was won by Darren Bundock and Jeroen van Leeuwen, sailing on a C2 F18 for Australia. Complete results are here.
LBC team Alexandra Nitsch and Christoph Grebe were 33rd in the Nacra Infusion Worlds, again with equipment issues resulting in a few DNCs. The Infusion World title was captured by Gunnar Larsen and Sam Frank, just edging out Coen de Koning and Thijs Visser. Detailed results are here.
2012 Round Texel Race
LBC’s two entries both also sailed to a very respectable finish in the 35th Zwitserleven Round Texel Race on Sunday, June 10. Steve Wallace and Jade Wong, sailing their new Nacra F16, finished 88th on corrected time out of more than 200 boats, while Alexandra Nitsch and Christoph Grebe, sailing a chartered Nacra Infusion F18, finished 119th. On total elapsed time, the two teams were within one minute of each other, Alex and Christoph finishing in 4:08:49, Steve and Jade in 4:09:46.
Carolijn Brouwer and Wouter Samama, sailing for the Netherlands on a C2 F18, narrowly won the Round Texel on handicap, defeating fellow Dutchmen Xander Pols and Stefan Dubbeldam on their Nacra F20 Carbon by 59 seconds in the three-hour, ten-minute race. Brouwer and Samama’s is a historic victory, marking the first time a woman helm has won at Texel, the world’s largest catamaran race.
Round Texel winners Carolijn Brouwer and Wouter Samama. Photo: Laurens Morel.
Pols and Dubbeldam took line honours, finishing with an elapsed time of 2:50:21 (corrected time 3:11:24), compared to Brouwer and Samama’s 3:10:25. In third place were Dutchmen Gunnar Larsen and Sam Frank, with an elapsed time of 3:12:15.
Pols and Dubbeldam took line honours. Photo: Laurens Morel.
A total of 250 boats started this year’s race, with 210 finishing. The race was delayed to Sunday because of excessively strong winds on Saturday.
Complete results for the Round Texel race are here. The official press release is here.
Detailed press releases for all the Texel events are available on the Texel website.
