New season, new boat, new challenges for TEAM NED 007
by Mischa Heemskerk & Bastiaan Tentij, TEAM NED 007 11 May 2009 11:05 BST
Same team, more ambition and great support
The season started again last weekend with the first Dutch F18 class event and point regatta in Muiderzand. Everybody is really looking forward to the next season we could tell because there were an amazing 52 boats on the start. And not all the boats were Dutch but even the British, Swedish and Belgian were sailing in the beautifull Dutch weather that we had last weekend.
We were preparing for the season for quite some time now so we were happy the season finally started. After our weekly winter training in sometimes horrible circumstances on the Tiger we went to the Hobie factory in France to help the team in the factory with building our black Hobie Wild Cat. After a week of hard labour and long days we could take the boat back to Holland to start racing with our new Hobie Wild Cat.
Before we entered the event last weekend we still had some wishes to finalize our boat to to our liking. It always takes more time to complete it just the way we like the boat to be! So after three more days of boat work our ship was completely finished on Friday evening late. Still we wanted to take it for a test run. At 8:30 at nigth we hit the water to check if everything was working properly as it was supose to do! The boat was sailing wonderfull and we could enjoy our well-deserved night!
The next morning the first day of the event we got early in Muiderzand to rig the boat and have briefing with our new coach. Remco Otten is going to coach us on the water on our way to the F18 Worlds in Belgium coming summer. He wil be supported on shore by our other coach Jacco Koops. We went early on the water to sail the boat and to get to know the weather for the day! We both could feel we worked hard the last weeks and we could not easily get into racing mode. But thanks to our coach we got back in focus, which made us sail beter over the day. The first feeling with the Wildcat was really good and every lap we started to know the boat beter and beter so every race we sailed faster and faster! So fast, that we won the last race of the day on Saturday.
After a good long night's sleep we were back at Muiderzand for day two. At 8:30 nobody on the boatpark nice and quit to rig the boat have a briefing and go on the water early. A good night of sleep had done us well because we both got into racing mode much easier. We sailed amazing races with strong and close compitition. At the end of the day we came out first! We are so happy with a promising start of the season, it did not came easy but it came well deserved. We worked hard prior to this event but it was all well worth it!
Two weeks ago there was no boat only liquid gelcoat, resin and rolls of glasfiber. All that turned into a beautifull boat! Wonderful feeling! Next weekend we will be in Muiderzand again to give a Hobie clinic on Saturday and race the last springcup races on Sunday which we are leading at the moment. After the springcup we will leave for Eurocats in Carnac, the first big event of the year with 150 Formula 18s expected to compete. Our expectations for this year are high, last year we won the long distance race and were second in the course racing…
For more details on the Hobie Wild Cat call the Hobie Cat Centre on 01202 671661 or take a look online at www.hobiecatcentre.co.uk