Blade F16 takes 1st place in a 36 boats bouy race ? There is a story here ....
Martien and or Frank, please confirm for us whether the race results on this page are indeed correct : http:/
Anxious minds want to know. And if it is then we expect a full race report as well !
Last weekend the Round Pampus race was held with a day of bouy racing the next day.
The round itself was a disaster. Out of the 119 boats entered only 32 finished with the last boat reaching the finish after 6 hours. Due to very light and shifty winds.
Two Blade F16's crews (both sailing 2007 models) scored a DNF in that race.
Apparently the conditions during the whole weekend were very challenging as nearly all entered teams scored DNF's or even multiple DNF's in the bouy races as well. We are not going to cover them all.
But team Martien Kooijman/Frank van Marle had a moment of greatness !
In the 3rd race, out of a series of 1 distance race + 3 bouy races, they scored a first place ON ELAPSED time in their 36 boat fleet (=F18+F16). When combining all fleets (same start) they scored a second place ON ELASPED time in a fleet of 43 boats behind the
White Formula
boat of John de Vries and Bert de Boer. On handicap team Kooijman/Van Marle finised 1 second behind team De Vries/De Boer.
We must realize here that this combined fleet consisted only of boats that are larger and rated faster then the Blade F16, with as only exception a single Prindle 19 which is rated slightly slower.
The fleet make-up of the boats that finished this race were :
34 F18's
4 I-20's
1 Prindle 19
1 Hurricane 5.9 spi
1 Tornado
1 White Formula
and
1 Blade F16
So who were sailing the F18's, some dodo's ?
Remco Kenbeek (former NL F18 champion, top 5 on passed F18 worlds)
Gunnar Larsen (former NL F18 champion, top 5 on passed F18 worlds)
Sacha Larsen (former NL F18 champion, top 5 on passed F18 worlds)
Wouter Samama (former NL F18 champion, top 20 on passed F18 worlds)
Willem Geijssen (former NL F18 champion)
Coert van Dam (Never a champion but always a top finisher)
I guess a big
YAHOOO !
could be hear when team Kooijman/Van Marle sailed across the finish line, that is if the results are correct. It is hard to believe they are, but then again, they were very fast at the Global Challenge as well if they didn't tip their boat.
Wouter
There where 2 Blades at this event and I think it is extremely unlikely (to say the least) that the results are correct (in fact, I dont recall seeing them on the water that day, but then again, there where a lot of boats.
Pictures from event:http:/
There has been some discussion of the F16 rating here in the USA, some seem to think it is -too good- but after this past weekend's Wildcat regatta, featuring 4 F16's and 1 F18, I think the rating is about right.
There were 4 light air races, you would think the lighter F16's would keep up with the F18, if not pass, but I saw the F18 beat the F16's, boat for boat, in all 4 races. Of course, the F18 was being sailed by one of the best, the Alter Cup Champion John Casey and his new string boy, Web Nazi. BUT, one of the F16's was being sailed by Matt McDonald and his excellent crew wife. They were much lighter than the two guys on the F18. I think on corrected time, the F16 may have won a race or two, but not boat for boat, which surprised me.
The 3 other F16's were sailing Uni, no jib, no crew, but Matt and Gina were faster. It seemed to me that the little jib was acting as a turbo-charger in that light air, they seemed to have better speed than the uni boats, even though they were a little heavier crew wise.
One thing is certain in light air racing, luck has a lot to do with the results. You get a little puff of your own and it can make you look real good. And if you don't, well... <img src=
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There are 3 pictures with these blades in the background, so I guess they did sail. I checked the pics myself immediately, because I find it hard to believe as well.
pics are.
Blade F16 NED 015 (Martien/Frank) in the back ground :
http:/
Blade F16 USA 9 (Geert/Raymond) with the easily recognized Glaser Alter Cup mainsail.
http:/
http:/
Wouter
Or you US crews (except the Mac's) are still sailing too slow.
John Casey and Bob Curry are putting many many many more hours into their sailing then 100% of the US F16 sailors, even the Mac's only get in a weekend of sailing every 5 weeks. He said himself that he is so busy that he only sails at the events themselves. And then you guys still expect to be fighting for first please with these well practiced hotshots ?
That is simply not going to happen.
It is downright a miracle that the Mac's are doing so well despite having no training at all. One wonders how good Matt can be when he puts in a day of training every week.
So these race results are very much skewed and undependable, they are saying nothing about the boat and all about the difference in skill level between crews. Or do you really believe that you will beat Casey and Curry when you are on a F18 or nacra F17 yourself ?
Hell no !
These results are about as informative as having me race Bundock and Ashby.
The US rating is still boogus, always was and will probably remain so for a long time to come.
The real harm however is to yourselves. You are beginning to internalize that you are now getting the max out the platform as on corrected time you do reasonably well. As a result you are intentionally forgetting about the 5 min per hour that you can still get out of the platform if you look for it. Bob Curry wasn't handing out tips at Juana's for nothing. To him it was still easy to see what you guys could do better. If you were getting the max out of the platform then it wouldn't be easy for him to do this.
If you don't believe them look at the elapsed time result of the NAM-REM race again.
http:/
Wouter
They sure got a nice start in that second photo.....
I think you will find the resuts are wrong, I was there (2nd in the first race of the Sunday) and then broke the cnningham before the start of the second race but still ended up 9th. third race we had a swim and decided it was time to take the girls sailing like we promised.
The Blades were for sure at the regatta but they were no where near the pointy end of the fleet. I think we cme close to lapping one of them in the first race.
Great boat with a lot of potential though.
The crew in the
start-photo
is not Martien/Frank. The boat sailed by Martien/Frank is alot more difficult to spot as there are no Blade markings on their boat and they have a plain grey Landenberger Pentex suit of sails. I know their sail number is NED 015 and that is the only way I can find them. For the remainder they look just like a Capricorn F18.
Still, the result is indeed too good to be true. But what alot of fun if it turns out to be true anyway.
So come on Martien/Frank give us the final word in this matter
Wouter
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I didn't see much luck involved in your spin runs! Especially the 4th race. <img src=
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. . .after this past weekend's Wildcat regatta, featuring 4 F16's and 1 F18, I think the rating is about right.
Spotting Curry time just ain't right! <img src=
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