What started as a grey and raining North Sea Regatta morning in Scheveningen, turned into a day with champagne sailing conditions. We had to wait a little, but around noon the sun came out, the wind picked up and the chop machine was turned on! During the first race on the South Course, the wind went from 5 to 15, maybe even 20 knots, there was a lot more wind and waves then the forecast showed us, no complaints here!

Championships current leaders
At the end of the North Sea Regatta Dutch Championships will be crowned in ORC 2, ORC 3 and ORC TwoHanded (offshore and inshore races combined). ORC 1, ORC 4 and J111 have their Class Championships and the J22 will have a new World Champion.

Class	Sail Number	Team Boat Name	Skipper
ORC1	NED 17001	Team ROST	Gerd-Jan Poortman
ORC2	NED 7935	Flying Dolphin	Willem Ellemeet
ORC3	NED 4994	Numero Uno	Rob Schutte
ORC4	NED 8493	Coppelia	Sebastiaan van Vliet
ORC TwoHanded	NED 8083	Hemels van der Hart	Roy Heiner
J111	SUI 2193	Lällekönig	Sigg Joerg
J22	NED 1609	Quantum Holland	Nic Bol

Lisanne Nijdam at the J22 Worlds 2017: “The whole day is one big battle!”

After three days Lisanne Nijdam lost her lead at the J22 Worlds 2017. After nine races the gap with the number one is only four points but with two black flag disqualifications she really needs to fight her way back to take over the first position again. We spoke to Lisanne after the first two races today: “The weather conditions today were totally different from yesterday. Similar boat speeds, closer racing, much more competitive. Unfortunately we had a false start in the first race, which means we got disqualified in stead of our fifth place. The fleet is very concentrated and focust, the whole day is one big battle!”

Nic Bol, the 2010 J/22 World Champion, is now in the lead at the J22 Worlds. Nic is sailing with his brother Chris Bol, Niels de Vries and Tim de Weerdt. At this moment, the top three here in Scheveningen is exactly the same as the top three boats at the worlds warming up event on the Braassem. The results on the Manage2Sail website only the results of the first six races are visible.

SAP Sailing Analytics is providing the North Sea Regatta with the latest technology which makes it possible to follow the races online for friends and family. For sailors the SAP Sailing Technology is a perfect way to analyse their performance after the race. Follow the fleet during the Worlds 2017 with SAP Sailing Analytics.

The acrobatic Contenders are excited to be back at the North Sea Regatta!

Ten Dutch and one Belgium Contender are battling wind, waves and each other at the North Sea this weekend. Conditions are tricky, but Paul Verhallen (NED 9) is not complaining: “We really like sailing here in Scheveningen and we’re super happy the Contenders are part of the North Sea Regatta again. I will definitely tell the race director how thankful we are to be here.”

“We had an awesome day on the water, especially this afternoon, the weather is perfect, but Scheveningen is always tricky! It’s physically pretty challenging for me this year. We had a little baby in March and I haven’t really had the time to train for the regatta. On these acrobatic boats you really need to be top fit, which I’m not, so it’s tough, but results are quite okay.” After nine races Paul is in third position behind Dirk Lafleur (NED 2544) and Rene Heynen (NED 2582).

Nynke Plaatsman: “Our goal is to take part in the Eredivisie Zeilen”

The ORC sportsboats class is a mixed class with MaxFuns, a Fareast, a Mazurka and one Sonar. The Sonar crew Hans Cheung, Nienke Conijn, Nynke Plaatsman and Marleen van Nes show that being disabled doesn’t mean you can’t take part in normal sport events. The team started sailing together two years ago, they are now part of a bigger movement, called the Dutch Adaptives Sports Team. All members of this team have a certain physical handicap but they all take part in groundbreaking sport events.

Nynke Plaatsman: “Today was a good day! We were not so far behind as we were yesterday, when we had some difficulties with our boat speed. I think we even got to the topmark at the same time as the MaxFuns’s with more sail. We just bought the Sonar from the Dutch Watersports Federation and had to get used to the boat, it’s not perfect for us but we’re happy we have our own boat now so we can train more. Our ultimate goal is to buy a J70 and participate in the Eredivisie Zeilen, maybe next year, when we have enough funding.”