Friday Review:
Image: A thrilling start line for IRC 2 in the second day of racing at the IRC Europeans in Breskens Image: Ineke Peltzer
Friday's day two of the IRC European Championship at Damen Breskens Sailing Weekend could not have been more different to day one. Thursday's opening race, a medium coastal, was tricky in the extreme for race committee and competitors alike as the wind went through 180° and built from nothing to mid-20s. But for this second day of competition for the RORC and UNCL’s popular rating rule, the wind had consolidated in the north. Here in the Netherlands on the mouth of the River Scheldt leading to Antwerp this is a more stable direction although today the breeze still built from around 12 to 21 knots.
In these conditions and still under a brilliant summer sun, PRO Menno Vercouteren laid on three races: two windward-leewards, followed by a round the cans. Once again, for the three IRC classes each involved three starts and three courses of varying lengths with, for example, the final round the cans being 13 miles for IRC One, 10.5 for IRC Two and nine for IRC Three.
Across the classes, it is the Goubou family’s Beneteau First 47.7 Moana that has put in the best performance. Fresh from her recent class victory at Cowes Week, Moana, which is the longest yacht competing here, posted a 3-3-1 today. At the half way stage of this seventh IRC European Championship the Belgium boat holds a commanding 10 point lead over RORC Commodore James Neville's HH42 INO XXX with Jean-Eudes Renier's MAT 12 Sailplane, winner of today’s second race, one point behind in third. The Gerd-Jan Poortman-skippered Ker 46 Van Uden-ROST, the scratch boat here, won Friday’s first race, but is still reeling from a costly DSQ in Thursday's double scoring, non-discardable coastal race.
In IRC Two the pair of J/109s, Arjen van Leeuwen's Joule and John Smart's Jukebox from the UK, continue to lead with Belgium's Wouter Borghijs and his A-35 Tontin third. Oddly none of them won a race yesterday. Instead Radboud Crul's Dehler 36 Rosetta took the bullet in the first windward-leeward, the second going to Jörg Sigg's J/99 Lallekonig with the round the cans claimed by Robert Jockin's Dehler 39 Griel. Rosetta and Lällekönig would most likely be on the podium overall had they not been among four boats disqualified under the third race's U flag start.
Despite her UFD, Rosetta is fourth overall, a mere point away from the podium. “We have still got Saturday and Sunday to go,” says Crul cautiously, a RORC race regular and veteran of six Rolex Fastnet Races. “We enjoyed the sailing today very much. It was very nice weather - a real joy to sail in this championship…so far.”
Of his racing today, Crul commented: “Every dog has his day and today I had some lucky breaks. We were not so good in the start, but we came back and did okay. The boat is going well. And you have to do your tactics right and go fast in the right direction. It was a beautiful day to sail with 15-18 knots.”
The only boat to win two races Friday was the new leader of IRC Three, Michel Dorsman's Extra Djinn. The Dutch X-362 Sport (which has kept its appealing name from when her previous British owner Neville Hodkin campaigned her on the Solent), won the first and third races, and has leapt ahead of yesterday's winner Alain Rousseau's Dehler 29 Picsou, to lead by two points. Kees Keetels CSI Rakker is third. His A-31 is one point from second, having won today's second race after a day never finishing off the podium, albeit still one point shy of Extra Djinn.
Extra Djinn’s genoa and spinnaker trimmer Madelon Voets commented: “We had a really good day. Today’s wind suited us very well – better than yesterday’s. The forecasts were saying different winds, but it turned out really well.
“Out here off Breskens, it comes down to the tactics. Boat handling is important, but there’s all the wind shifts (because we are between different parts of land and islands and the wind is different on different sides of the course) and because there is also shallow water in some places, so we have to look at all the current and see where we need to be regarding the state of the tide. Our tactician did a really good job today.”
Extra Djinn is having a successful season, winning events across the Netherlands including the Dutch National Championship. “We are on a roll this year,” continued Voets, adding that after Extra Djinn’s origins racing on the Solent, “she remains well optimised for IRC.”
Racing continues today (Saturday) with the wind still northerly but lighter (sub-15 knots). Once again a round the cans race and two windward-leewards are scheduled.