Fat Face team Styles and Crawford win Texel Dutch Open Championships
June 25, 2007 0 comments
Friday saw the conclusion of the Texel Dutch Open run over three days off the beach of the island of Texel North West of Amsterdam on the Dutch coast. Hugh Styles and Ryan Crawford sailing a Nacra Infusion won the regatta from fellow Nacra team mates Mischa Heemskerk and Sebastian Tentijl after three days of exciting and close racing.
Friday saw the conclusion of the Texel Dutch Open run over three days off the beach of the island of Texel North West of Amsterdam on the Dutch coast. Hugh Styles and Ryan Crawford sailing a Nacra Infusion won the regatta from fellow Nacra team mates Mischa Heemskerk and Sebastian Tentijl after three days of exciting and close racing.
The racing was divided into 2 fleets C1 (F18 and larger) And C2 (slower than F18). The series of races were sailed in a variety of conditions, with Wednesday the first day a windy wavy challenge with big rolling waves blowing in with the South Westerly wind. Hugh and Ryan started the first day well with two bullets with team mate Heemskerk in hot pursuit with two 2nd places finishes.
Thursday dawned far lighter and racing was postponed for a couple of hours as some rain fronts came over head through the morning. The wind swung through 360 degrees and eventually settled in a westerly direction. It was another close faught affair with Heemskerk winning the first race with Styles and Crawford third behind Wouter Samama second. The last race of the day was the toughest with a dying breeze and an increasing current. Sander Pols (M20) lead round the windward mark closely followed by Styles and Crawford, it was then a sail / drift back to the shore to get out of the foul tide with the wind dying to nothing, only seven boats finished the race with Styles and Crawford winning from the German Gosche father and son team, with Heemskerk in 5th.
Thus going into Friday it was between Styles and Heemskerk for overall line honours. Vincent Huntleman won the first race, and Styles and Heemskerk fighting tooth and nail with Heemskerk nipping into second with Styles third equal with Sander Pols (M20). Going into the last race it was tight in the overall standings, Koen De Koning (Nacra Infusion) lead the race by a good margin, a margin too much for Heemskerk to overhaul. Styles didn’t need to count the final result and secured the victory overall from Heemskerk, with Stuart Gummer from the UK finishing on a late charge in third overall.
The round Texel race on Saturday started with 500 or so boats and a 50 mile lap of the island of Texel to complete. With the wind in the South West at about 10 knots the fleet got away well with the top class F18 sailors leading the charge from the beach end of the starting line. Styles and Crawford were the leading British boat going round the first and second turning marks until disaster struck when they started to hit the bottom and Ryan went down to lift the centreboard. Just as he did that the boat hit harder stopping the boat in its tracks, Ryan’s momentum flung him forward and he hit his face on the front beam knocking out 2 of his teeth. The medics were hailed and he was rushed to the shore where he received emergency dental treatment. But in typical Ryan mode he was back to the beach later to help load the boats for the departure back to the UK that evening.
As the race unfolded the M20’s gained distance on the fleet, with Line honours going to Sander Pols (M20 GTI), 2nd Herbert Dercksen (M20), 3rd (Eagle 20).
In the overalls the top 3 finishers were:
1st Darren Bundock and Glen Ashby (Hobie Tiger)
2nd Mischa Heemskerk and Bastian Tentijl (Nacra Infusion)
3rd J C Mourniac and Franck Citeau (Hobie Tiger)
Team Styles and Crawford would like to thank the following supporters:
Nacra Europe
Fat Face
Mardon Marine
Gill
Marlow Ropes
Tacktick
Holt Performance Hardware
Sailing Networks
