The 2024 Dutch Sailing National Championships kicked off today in Medemblik, featuring excellent sailing conditions and successfully completing all scheduled races.
Racing commenced at 12:55 as planned across both sailing courses, with initial wind speeds of 12-14 knots gradually tapering to 6 knots during the first set of races. However, the wind picked up again later in the afternoon, providing sailors with delightful conditions to wrap up the day.
In the ILCA 4 the leaders are Thomas Cantillon BEL and Amber Knape NED with 3 and 6 points respectively.
“It was OK, good conditions, nice wind, nice waves, yeah, was quite a good day. Waves were quite choppy and quite hard, it was a very technical day”, said Amber Knape.
Teije van Ede NED and Audrius Moliakov NED are tied for the lead in the ILCA 6 class, both with 9 points.
“I did pretty well. The conditions were very different than what we thought it would be, because when we went on the water there was a lot of wind but then the wind dropped down at the starts, so the most important thing of the day was the pressure. If you got the pressure then you won the race”, explained Audrius Moliakov.
In the ILCA 7 it’s Hidde Schraffordt NED who got the lead after the first two races, followed by Willem Wiersema NED, William Zielinski NED and Thomas van Ofwegen NED.
“It was really up and down in the beginning. We thought it’s gonna be hiking, and then it was sitting into the boat so, very patchy, difficult day, came out quite good for me”, said Hidde Schraffordt.
The Finn class is governed by Martijn van Meyden NED, followed by Nanno Schuttrups NED and Peter Peet NED.
“It was a lot of fun, with easterly winds, plenty of waves. At the beginning we had a lot of breeze ad then it died down quite a lot, so the first race was pretty difficult in the downwind, trying to stay with the waves. And in the second race there was a little more pressure, so easier to catch the waves, was more of my liking. So I had a good day on the water, six and one, so I’m happy”, declared Nanno Schuttrups.
The 49ers competition is led by the Hungarian team formed by Roni Oszkár Szabó and Oliver.
“It was a very nice day, it was a sunny weather. We had like between six and twelve knots. More in the first race. A bit dropping throughout the day. We were testing different settings and it worked quite well for us and we managed to had 4 bullets today, so we are very satisfied”, said Roni Oszkár Szabó.
Vera tea Horst and Jordan Hin NED are the leaders of the 49er FXs.
Folkert van Surksum and Jeroen Dieperink NED are first among the 29ers.
The Nacra 15 is headed by Hannelien and Sander Borghijs BEL from Belgium.
More races are coming tomorrow so stay tuned!
A total of 261 sailors from 8 different classes, representing 15 nations, will vie for medals until Sunday.
The event is organised by Royal Yacht Club Hollandia and kindly sponsored by Team Medemblik and Provincie Noord-Holland.
Report by Agustín Argüelles @aasailing | Photos by Thom Touw.
