35 knots breeze and 47 knots gusts... it can be done with a Radial

thieuster

Active Member
Last Friday, Saturday and Sunday were the days of the Dutch version of the Europa Cup*). One year in Ostend (Belgium) the other year in Hoorn (20 miles north of Amsterdam). The last few days we've been hit by bad and uncommon weather: afternoon supercells and local tornadoes have hit our country. Very uncommon. Friday's wind was around 25 knots and a massive burst of bad weather around 7 PM when everybody was safely ashore.

Saturday is even more uncommon, weather-wise: a storm with a steady 35 knots from the south, with gales up to 50 knots in the afternoon hit the courses. As you can understand, all races were off for Saturday.
That didn't stop the girls from the Dutch National Squad, TeamNL, to rig up their Radials for a 90 min session on lake IJsselmeer. Supported by their female coach on a RIB (3x Olympian, 2x medal winner, 2x World champion and 2x European champion) and two other men on two RIBs accompanied the super-Team. The anemometer on the RIB hit 35 knots steady wind, gusts up to 47 knots. That was later verified by the weather report.

After 90 mins, the ladies returned. Safe and sound. With no damage to the material. It was impossible to jibe normally, only to perform what we call -translated into English- 'chicken jibes'. Returned ashore, their mood was great! Especially because of the boys: they'd stayed ashore, slowly walking off to the 90 mins gym-session...

I would not advocate going out in those conditions. But at least we've seen that it's possible!

Menno

*)I won't go into details about how this event was organized... I am too ashamed to admit that my fellow countrymen didn't reach the level of other Europa Cups we've attended.
 
Just came back from the grocery store where tabloid headlines said, "Finnish weather a complete mess". :eek: Snow forecast in the north, but a warm sunny day here on the south coast... and a steady southwesterly wind exceeding the Lightning class maximum, so the first day of the Europeans and Masters Worlds was cancelled.

I am sure that had we gone out today there would have been tons of gear failures. Interesting that the Dutch girls' Lasers could handle much higher winds. Don't the waves, too, get very nasty on the IJsselmeer when it blows like that?

_
 
It was certainly uncertain if the equipment would hold this force. I happen to think that the boys would have had trouble. Somehow, the girls are always more accurate than the boys with their gung-ho attitude(...) when it comes to facing the elements. Waves + wind were brutal: Hoorn is located facing south towards the IJsselmeer (or to be more correct: Markermeer). And the wind was south as well. So Hoorn-harbour was the lee shore... The boats came into the harbour with an incredible speed! Luckily, they had to turn to the right towards a sheltered stretch of water where the slipway is located.

The waves on lake IJsselmeer are always nasty: short and choppy. On days like Saturday, the waves look like whipped cream pointing upwards. It's not easy to find a wave that you can 'ride' going downwind! And that's on a good day...

Coming back, the girls were totally 'chuffed' with none of the lads in sight... They all sat on a stationary bike in the local gym...

Menno

Still inside the harbour...

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Sunday morning...
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I've seen a Marit Boowmeester, And read her post! That was incredible! I never couldn't even think that they'll hold the boat.. But anyway, Congratulations TeamNL! Waiting Marit again on Olympics in Tokyo, she'll take 1 more gold for sure❤️
 
This!!! Last weekend was the Northsea Regatta. Lots of 'sailing parents' with yachts have the NSR -weekend underlined on their agenda! It's the Dutch sailing equivalent for the Tour de Flanders in cycling. The High Mass of sailing.

Unfortunately, this year, Saturday's storm ground the NSR to a halt. Port authorities locked down the non-commercial part of the harbour: too dangerous to sail. Marit was asked to do a performance run with tons of boats on the water. Only for her, the Port authorities made an exception, provided that there would be professional support nearby. So, out she went!

Steady wind around 45 knots, 48 knots gusts. (Same time the others went out in Hoorn, that's more inland obviously). Later that afternoon, the wind tipped 50 - 55 knots.

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She lost the Dutch flag on her sail. She's from the most-northern province Friesland - with their own language (like Welsh and English). Comments under her postings read - in Frisian: '...you should stick the Frisian flag on it.' No need to think about separation, politics or whatever. Just Frisians who are proud of her being a Frisian 'famke' ( = little girl). Well, we're all proud of her!
 
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... part deux...

Sander van der Borch, who used to work for Americas Cup - Artemis Racing, took the pics. He went out on the RIB with Roelof, Marit's brother and coach (in that sequence) and took more pics!

There's a lot to learn from those pics. E.g., look how Marit has trimmed her sail! the outhaul is totally pulled back! The whole sail is as flat as a bathroom tile! Also, look at the trim of the kicker/vang. I am sure you'll notice more when you study the pics!

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Awesome photos and Marit Boumeester is pretty amazing! That second to the last with the bow pointing at the sky...speechless. I always appreciate your posts Thieuster...
 

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