Nacra International Championship at Texel, Holland

On Wednesday June 16, the Nacra 2010 International Championship crowned its new champions. The final two races were sailed in wild conditions off the Texel beach in the Netherlands, which caused lots of capsizes and an exciting battle for the remaining competitors. Gunnar Larsen and Jeroen van Leeuwen pushed the accelerator once more and won the Infusion title with a nine points lead. Peter Vink and Pom Green showed the same supremacy in the Nacra carbon 20 class. Skotnicki and Kleijweg regained the first position and won convincingly with a gap of 11 points.

'We are very happy", said Gunnar Larsen back on the beach. They came in early, as they did not have to race anymore. The overall win was already in the pocket. 'It is a great feeling, knowing that four teams of the top ten at the 2009 F18 Worlds were here. It was a competitive fleet." Jeroen van Leeuwen continues: 'I think we had less pressure on the shoulders. This is an important step towards the 2010 F18 Worlds in France."

'Like a Game Boy'

This week, the Dutch duo performed strongly in the big breeze. Larsen: 'But that is not our specialty. We are pretty all-round. But of course we feel comfortable about the weather forecast for Saturday. The boat is like a Game Boy to us. You just have to press the right buttons."

Mixed feelings for De Koning/Visser

After a long de-briefing yesterday, Coen de Koning and Thijs Visser from the Netherlands started off freshly this morning. They took the first bullet with quite some distance to the overall winners Larsen/Van Leeuwen. 'That was very chill", said the twofold F18 World Champion. They were pushing hard in the second race as well, until they pitch poled. The trapeze wire broke, so they abandoned racing. De Koning: 'We have mixed feelings. At one side, we sailed much better than yesterday, but on the other hand we had to limp back to beach. That's a pity." They finished second overall.

Sach brothers hold on to bronze

Despite their lack of weight in the big breeze, the German Sach brothers managed to hold on to their third place. 'Especially in the morning its was hard. On the downwind, we dropped back from the first to the sixth position. It would have been good the have ten extra kilograms. But we did well in the heavy conditions." Although they have more chances in the light breeze, Helge and Christian Sach are looking forward to strong winds on Saturday for the Zwitserleven Round Texel Race. 'We haven't had those circumstances often this season, so that would be a good training for the F18 Worlds in France."

Vincent Huntelman and Herwin van der Kamp finished on equal points with the Germans. They missed out on the podium spot, because the Sach brothers scored one more third than the Dutchmen.

Event organizer Xander Pols (NED) was a happy man after a challenging series of Nacra races: 'The atmosphere was nice, the food was tasty and the competition was exciting. The race committee did a good job. It wasn't easy to lay a course in these conditions with a big swell, strong current and more than 20 knots of wind. So, a big thank you to our race officer Rob Hoogstra and his crew."

Overall Results:

Nacra Infusion (after 10 races and two discards)
1. NED, Larsen/Van Leeuwen, 11 points
2. NED, De Koning/Visser, 20 points
3. GER, Sach/Sach, 30 points
4. NED, Huntelman/Van der Kamp, 30 points
5. AUS, Guinea/Richardson, 40 points

Open class (after 10 races and two discards)
1. NED, Skotnicki/Kleijweg, 10 points
2. ISR, Leshed/Oded, 21 points
3. NED, Meermans/Brommer, 26 points

Nacra carbon 20:
1. NED, Vink/Green, 8 points
2. NED, Bouscholte/Bouscholte, 17 points
3. NED, Van der Plas/Pool, 35 points

In the afternoon, the Zwitserleven Sailing Week 2010 continued with the first races of the Open Dutch Championship Cat Sailing.

The Nacra 2010 Int. Championship was made possible by the following partners: Zwitserleven, Sapph, Nacra Sailing Int., Paal17.com, TNG Watches, Pega, GGN, LensExpress.nl, ultrasun, Boskalis, KS Tools, Maasstad Ziekenhuis, Schouwstra Transport BV, KZV Westerslag and the Royal Netherlands Sailing Association.