Delta Lloyd 24-hour Yacht Race 2008

All winners of the 44th Delta Lloyd 24-Hour Yacht Race sailed their legs on the Ijsselmeer. That was the place to be for covering most nautical miles, whereas the teams choosing for the Wadden Sea made a wrong call. Due to a light breeze, they could not benefit from the current and lost valuable time. Kornwerderzand in the north of the IJsselmeer welcomed the biggest starting group (90 yachts) on Friday evening August 29, but none of those competitors won in their class. Out of thirteen winners, only four set sails in the north. Jan Donderwinkel (NED), skipper of the Jazz, received the Cup of Medemblik for the best performance of all five ORC classes. He and his crew were also awarded with the Tim van Rootselaar Challenge Cup, since they clocked most nautical racing miles (169,45). A total of 607 yachts finished in accordance with the regulations and together they sailed 77,248 miles.

“It was a beautiful day. Despite the area of high pressure above us, we had nice sailing conditions and it was impressive to watch all boats coming in”, summarized Frits Berkel the 2008 Delta Lloyd 24-Hour Yacht Race on a sunny Sunday morning at Castle Radboud in Medemblik. The chairman of the Association of Dutch Coastal Sailors spoke to the competitors prior to the prize giving ceremony. The crowd started to laugh at his words: “Your entry was cosy in an old-fashioned way. Everybody stayed very close to each other, helped by the wind from behind. Some of you tried hard to secure a berth and in the end the police interfered, as you have noticed.” Berkel meant the enormous police boat that closed the entrance of the Medemblik harbour on Saturday evening, after the chaos became too big. “All went well, so I give you my compliments”, concluded Berkel with a smile.

Jazz – “We used our time at most”

Initially they had their doubts about the north/south decision, but the Jazz of skipper Jan Donderwinkel started in Lelystad-South (southern IJsselmeer). Donderwinkel: “At first we thought there would be more breeze in the north, but according to Windguru the pressure in south would become locally more and it was supposed to stay there longer.” The Jazz, that had to compete against 54 other competitors in the ORC 2 class, tried its luck pretty long on the southern IJsselmeer: “The wind shifted nicely with us, so we haven’t sailed one beat. We locked through at 8:30 AM in Enkhuizen. We wanted to be as quick as possible, so we started moving while the red lights were still being displayed. The lockkeeper told us to stop, so we were afraid of being disqualified.” That did not happen and the Yazz set course to the north: “We sailed many long legs. We work with the Rak 43 program, by which we calculated our finish time of twelve minutes after 7:00 PM. That would be three minutes before the limit for penalty time, but we finally crossed the line with only ten seconds left. We used our 24 hours at most.”

Cruising class – Long journey with unexpected success

“Last year we finished fifth and we wanted to improve that result, but we never expected a first place”, said skipper Lok of the 5.70 meter long Vrije Vogel (Free Bird) enthusiastically. “We sailed many north/south downwind legs and we decided to stay in the north continuously.” This strategy proved to be right, as the three person crew covered 119 miles. That yielded the best performance factor for which they received the Radboudbeker. Lok: “All participating members of our Sailing Club Amstelmeer always moor next to each other, so after coming back we heard their scores and we realised that our total wasn’t too bad.” However, according to the winning skipper it was a long journey with three men on a Waarschip 5,70.

For all provisional results, go to www.kustzeilers.nl/php_24_2008/uitslag/uitslag.php . In order to find out the route of a team, click on its sail number and a routing map will pop up.

For an impression of this year’s Delta Lloyd 24-Hour Yacht Race, surf to www.kustzeilers.nl/24uurs/index.html and click on Foto’s for images and on Video’s for video updates.

About the Delta Lloyd 24-Hour Yacht Race

The Dutch Association of Coastal Sailors organises for the 44th time the Delta Lloyd 24-Hour Yacht Race. It is still a popular sailing event, due to the combination of navigational and yachting skills, sociability and survival. The fleet consists of cruising and racing classes. All teams have to cover as many nautical miles as possible within 24 hours. They are allowed to sail the laps on the Ijsselmeer, Markermeer, Wadden Sea and North Sea only twice. Besides seamanship and endurance of the whole crew, interpretation of the weather, sailing area and currents are essential for the final result as well.

In addition to Delta Lloyd, the 24-Hour Yacht Race is also sponsored by PWN Waterleidingbedrijf. Co-sponsors are: Zeilen, the city of Medemblik and Stichting Jachthaven Medemblik.