Netherlands J/22 Warming Up Report

(Brassermermeer, The Netherlands)- The J/22 class in the Netherlands are all “warming up” for the J/22 World Championship that is starting on May 30th and goes until June 4th in Scheveningen.

As part of that program, they host their annual “Spring Warming Up” Regatta series. Over the weekend, in the Dutch Roelofarendveen, the traditional Warming Up took place.  The Brassermermeer showed its most beautiful side with beautiful sunshine, a blue sky, and 3-5 bft breeze from the northeast.

Twenty boats participated, with most of the crews from The Netherlands, plus there were four top crews from Germany’s J/22 class and two top French teams. Everyone was highly motivated to prepare their boats, get their crews working like a well-oiled machine, and tune their rigs and sails for optimum performance.  After all, the World Championships are less than two months away, and the security detail (pictured here at right) are ready to hug, snuggle, and lick you to death! :)

After a total of nine exciting races, it was quickly clear who would be at the forefront of the World Championship!  Nic Bol (NL), the 2010 J/22 World Champion, won the Warming Up with 37 points lead, counting four 1sts and two 2nds in his scoreline. Nic’s crew consisted of Chris Bol, Niels de Vries, and Tim de Weerdt.

While Bol and crew were simply sailing in a league and class higher than anyone else, the fight for the last two positions on the podium was a rough and tumble one!  Those protagonists were a Dutch and French crew- Lisanne Nidjam’s NED 1365 and Reiner Brockerhoff’s FRA 1444.  Both teams started off their first five races quite slowly, in fact neither one was in the top five after five races counted.  However, both went into much higher gears, sailed faster, smarter and made less crew work mistakes and got better starts.  That combination enabled both of them to race up the standings.  Nijdam’s crew closed with a 3-2-4-2 while Brockerhoff’s team closed with a 4-ocs-3-1.  In the end, it was Nijdam’s crew (Tomas te Velde, Derk Hillege, Iris van Gerrevink) that finished with 56 pts to take the silver.  Three points in arrears was Brockerhoff’s crew (Christophe Deckecp & Charles Mic), settling for the bronze with 59 pts.  The balance of the top five included Jean-Michel Lautier’s NED 1273 with 65 pts in fourth place and 5th was Hylke Kooistra’s NED 1455.

Next event for additional World’s “training” will be the VanUdenReco Regatta in Stellendam at the end of April.  For more Netherlands J/22 class sailing informationAdd to Flipboard Magazine.


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