Round Texel

[alutz]

Hi everybody

I am planning to race the round texel Regatta for the first time.
It would be perfekt to see some other F18 HT there!!

We are leaving Switzerland at the 12th June (Wednesday).

Does anybody have any recommandations for camping and travelling there?

I'm sailing a CAT Rigged Ventilo HT18.
As I read, the F18HT still dosent have a texelrating. Don't know if this is true!

Whats the exact procedure of the mesuring? How long does it take?

So hope to see anyone there!

[[e-mail]]

Go to www.texelrating.knwv.nl

and look for the e-mail adres of Geert Reusink or Nico Boon and put the question to them. You might be required to let your boat be measure well before the regatta.

One tip, whatever you do make sure you inspect the surf and time your departure. A single glance is not enough, look carefully for sandbars, wind direction, undercurrent and stuff. A decent amount of boats get damaged in the surf there. It is not that the waves of the surf are really bad but mostly that the bad breakers are right on top of a sandbar so your boat can get sandwhiched.

Wouter

[alutz]

Thank you wouter!!

For that superfast response!

[alutz]

Now that I have everything figured out about the rating and the measuring of the boat
I only need a good tip for a nice camping location, close to the beach and close to the starting place of the race.

Any tipps are very welcome!

[alutz]

This is a short review in bad english

We arrived at the 13th June in the morning after a 12 hours roadtrip through the night from switzerland.
got the boat to the beach and rigged.
It was allready blowing around 6 Bft. and the waves were hitting the beach. as we had totaly no expirience in starting from the beach we decided to wait for the next day. some boats allready didnt make it through the surf at there first try.
after allot of talk (I had to knew everything about beach starts and return, thanks to Dirk, Guido and Thomas) and a first great party, we had easy sailing on the next day.

The wind and the sea were easy too (2-3 Bft) and no big waves.

The next day was the race day. the boat was perfektly prepaered but we forgot the watch to take with us.....
So we had a reallly bad start (I guess we were about the last boat witch crossed the line )
the wind was blowing with 6 Bft. and the first leg was a downwind leg. We didn't pulled our kite as allready many boats capsized and other boats had allredy some major breakdowns, broken beams and mast loses.
Still we were nicely catching up.
Then on the upwind leg we really got the boat going. the waves were bad because of the current running against them. many competers gave up at this point. the ventilo was still hammering through the waves and the boat felt very stiff. we were overpowered as we only weigh 130 kg (260lb).
after we made the upwind leg through the waddensea, the last downwind leg to the finish apeared.
we were still to scared to run the kite as we were quite exhausted. many boats capsized here again, because of the lake of concentration (I guess), our friend thomas capsized just in front of finishe line and ruined his main.
We were very happy to finish without damaging the boat, as half of the baots didn't made through.

In my opinion, when the wind is blowing hard like this with a light crew and not flying the kite, it is very hard to compete with hc16 and other small cats as the rating is quite high.

[W.F. Oliver III]

Alutz,

After reading your account of your Texel adventure, I would like to congradulate you on a job well done! Finishing 154th out of 594 registered boats is an acheivement in itself, when you consider that you had no experience sailing off the beach and that you sailed with extremely light crew weight (260lbs). Finishing was impressive, after all Booth, Marstrom, and others could not make it around the island.

I understand that you did not fly your spinnaker. Was there any downwind work, where you were not reaching? If so, you would have found that the spinnaker actually helps the boat stabilize in waves and winds, if the course is downwind and does not require spinnaker reaching. At your crew weight (260lbs) and in those conditions (b6), spinnaker reaching would prove very difficult!

Once again congradulation on your finish. Are you planning to attend the 2003 F-18HT World Cup in Fort Walton Beach, Florida next in October 2003? Let me know if you are interested. We will try to arrange some charter boats for Europeans.

Sail Fast and Light,

W.F. Oliver
F-18HT USA-3

[lightcat]

Mr Lutz,
It sounded like you had quite an adventure! Does your Ventillo have the max height mast -34.5ft/10.5m-? Did I understand that you sail at 260lbs for total crew weight? If so, your acheivement of finishing in the top third at Texel is even more commendable!

I understand that you sail mostly in mountain lakes in Switzerland and France. Your Ventillo is optimized for this lighter air, flat water sailing, and for your lighter weight. I think that the Jav 2 sailed with 32.8ft/34m mast and with wave piercing hulls would be better suited for Texel races. What do you think?

I see that M. Heemskirt, who sailed a couple of years ago in the Worrell 1000 was part of the winning team on a Tornado. M. Heemskirt sailed in the 2000 W-1000 and I beleive placed 4th. P. Heemskirt sailed in this past W-1000 and was running 9th overall before retiring in the last leg. Maybe Heemskirt will return to the Worrell in 2003, especially considering the package deal offered.

It would be interesting to see some of the top teams from the W-1000 visit Texel next year, as well as the Texel sailors visting for the W-1000. Perhaps, there could be a W-1000/Texel Challenge?

[alutz]

Thank you for your invitation! I have to think about it.

The conditions on the first reach were quite rough and were somewhere by a close reach, we were quite fast without kite. On the second reach we should have pulled the spinnacker, but we were quite exhausted and were looking for a save finish..

At the upwind leg while the current was hitting the waves I was very satisfied with my boat. It wasn't bashing and was very stiff (didn't flex) when hitting the waves, we could almost allways fly one hull and it went quite smooth and stable through the seas, so i think the ventilo is a good boat in choppy conditions. We were using a chicken line (very helpfull). This helps the crew to stay very stiff and pushes the boat harder though the waves.

We were having the 10.5m mast height and the main totally depowered (downhaul to the max, mast rotation only 15° off), the sail is a Ullman Sail (Giorgio Zuccolli). It was perfectly flat with this configuration.

I' would love to try a javelin, also I guess that the shorter mast would be nice for our low weight. The wave piering hull design could be advantage. But I would not know how work with crew weight (in front/ back).

One thing I was wondering on the upwind leg is also, how open the traveller and how much twist the main should have. Also any other tips are very welcome.

We tried two configurations, one was the mainsheet very tight and a bit more traveller (to 20-25cm), the other was with a bit more twist and less traveller. I think not to much twist is good and the traveller around 15 cm off.

thank you for your comments and congratulations!

Andi