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Diabo News

1 jul 2007
NSR and Valencia

Spring Wrap-up, part I

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It is a shame…such a beautiful new website and no time to publish any updates. Well, I do have a lot to talk about. While sitting in an internet café in Lisbon, I finally write it down. After my trip to St. Maarten to cover the Fort Marina Regatta 2007 as journalist and photographer, I went from one job into the other, but I will mention the bigger projects. It started with the ABN AMRO North Sea Regatta in May, for which I did the Pr for the third year in row.

Peter de Ridder entered his Mean Machine, former Pirates of the Caribbean, for both offshores. That was also his racing debut with the Volvo Open 70. His participation and that of many other national top teams attracted more media attention than normally. On the day of the start in Scheveningen, we had camera crews of national and regional television and radio channels and several photographers. In Harwich waited another TV crew, that of the Volvo Ocean Race organisation herself, who produced an online item on Mean Machine’s debut. Due to all this unexpected interest, we decided to go to Harwich as well, but I had to be back on Friday evening. Frans Sluyters, Pr representative of the committee, found a solution…he hired a private airplane for almost the same price as three commercial tickets with cheap airlines. It is all about connections! The brother of his son in law was our pilot and Nan and I became air hostesses for the occasion.

Historical fast run
On Friday evening May 18 2007, Mean Machine smashed the record of the North Sea Race, organized by the Royal Ocean Racing Club and part of the ABN AMRO North Sea Regatta. In last year’s edition, the Formidable (a Lutra 56) of skipper Piet Vroon set the fastest time so far, but De Ridder’s 70-footer broke it by more than eight hours. The beast needed 11 hours, 3 minutes and 50 seconds to complete the 185 nautical miles between Harwich (UK) and Scheveningen (Netherlands). It never happened before that the winner of the line honours started and finished on the same day. Due to a strong southwester of 16 up to 32 knots, 6 out of 76 competitors could break the former record of 19 hours, 14 minutes and 38 seconds. The rough conditions caused 14 retirements, because of damage to the equipment, but there were no personal accidents.
Close inshore racing on high level
ABN AMRO North Sea Regatta 2007 showed a tough competition at Whitsun. On Friday May 25, a fleet of nearly 400 dinghies, yachts and catamarans started racing on five courses off the Scheveningen coast in the Netherlands. The IMS-rating was replaced by the IRC. By means of an introduction to the Dutch sailors, the organisation allowed teams to subscribe for IRC and ORC. That resulted in some double scores and prizes. Unfortunately, the wind did not pick up on the final Whit-Monday and all races had to be cancelled for that day. After three evenings with outstanding live music, culinary dinners prepared by star cook Paul van Waarden for hundreds of guests and an exciting regatta on the water, this year’s edition has come to an end.

The Roark (Grand Soleil 43 of skipper Kees) and the Holmatro (Grand Soleil 44 of skipper Sander Speet) battled for overall victory in the IRC 1 class. Both teams competed in the offshores to Harwich and back to Scheveningen and those results are included in the overall ranking after the inshores. Roark had a good Sunday with two thirds and a bullet. Tactician Jurjen Feitsma analysed their success: “We changed some settings, which caused an increase in speed of a few tenth of a knot. Our starts went well and we chose the right left side of the course.” Since all races were cancelled on the final Whit-Monday, Team Holmatro could not make up any distance to the leader. According to skipper Speet, this year’s competition was very strong: “You got punished for every mistake.” Roark took the victory in IRC 1. Peter de Ridder of the Swan 45 Checkmate took the victory in the ORC 1. Rosetta from the Rocks, a Dehler 34 with Eric van Vuuren on the helm, won the ORC 2 and IRC 2. JimJams of skipper Paul van der Pol was the best in ORC 3 and IRC 3. l'Esprit du Morbihan of skipper Vincent de Vries remained unbeaten in ORC 4/5. For the results and reports about the one-design classes, please surf to http://www.nsr.nl/.

Unfortunately, there was not so much media attention for the inshore regatta. We had an article in the Haagsche Courant, but the national newspapers focussed on the Olympic Breitling Regatta in Medemblik, which was held at the same time.

Impressive AC-experience in Valencia
As an European water sports journalist, you must have been to the Port America’s Cup in Valencia. That is my opinion, so I bought a ticket to go to the finals of the Louis Vuitton Cup. My plan was to cover the last four days on the website of Zeilen, so I picked June 6 as arrival day. I had never thought the Kiwi’s would beat the Italians with 5-0, so my first day was also the last one of the Louis Vuitton Cup 2007. It was a historical win, since no other syndicate has remained unbeaten in the LVC finals so far. Team New Zealand became the challenger of the 32nd America’s Cup, defended by Alinghi (SUI). More than four years ago, the Kiwi’s lost the Old Mug to the Swiss with zero bullets. Now, they were ready for revenge. They had grown in the event, their boat speed was excellent and the team spirit was up. Team Alinghi had to prepare themselves outside the LVC-series, but seemed to be confident as well.

I found the whole atmosphere and set-up of Port America’s Cup very impressive. I have never seen that many colleagues from all over the world, focussing on sailing. Three reporters gave excellent live coverage from the media boat. Everything was well organized, sometimes maybe too much controlled, and the media center was the most professional one I have seen in the sailing business.

Due to the quick victory of Team New Zealand, my working schedule changed dramatically. Instead of ‘warming up’ for my final article in the next printed issue of Zeilen, I had to start interviewing the Dutchmen on Team Alinghi immediately. I wrote a kind of preview in which I paid attention to the defender and the challenger. It was illustrated with one of my photographs as well. I was lucky to watch a practise race between Alinghi and Luna Rossa from the water. We were allowed to get a bit closer to the action than normally, so I took thankfully advantage of that.

TP 52 Mean Machine
I spend the last day of my Spanish trip onboard the TP 52 Mean Machine in Alicante, which was another lucky day for me. They had their first training session for the Alicante Trophy, which was the start of the new TP 52 MedCup season. Helena de la Gandara, the team’s pr manager, organized a ride on the Mean Machine RIB. I had hardly taken any pictures, when the crew needed more weight, so I was asked onboard. Wow, that made my short night and early train more than worth it.

We had to wait, but finally the wind picked up and we did some racing against other competitors. Mean Machine’s teamwork and tactical decisions were amazing. It was a pleasure to watch these guys doing their job. After one of the crew members got injured, Team New Zealand’s after guard Ray Davies replaced him. It was my day! Davies is on the Mean Machine team as well. He will skipper the VO 70 around the World in the Volvo Ocean Race. I asked him some questions for my article in Zeilen. Since the next issue would be published one or two weeks after the Alicante Troph, I wrote an online update about Mean Machine’s first training session of the season and a preview on the event. The winners of last year’s MedCup finished second in Alicante.