Bolster Team Race 2013: Report & Images

Sent  by Mischa de Munck– Sailing as a spectator sport
Last Saturday the third Teamrace Knockout edition was held on Marina Muiderzand. The event presented some of the top F18 sailors in the world. Bright blue skies, gusting winds up to 20 knots and enthusiastic spectators, made the scenery just perfect. ‘The aim of the Teamrace Knockout is to make sailing a spectator sport. If we as a sport want to be competitive vice a vis other more media friendly sports we have to make it more understandable to watch, this does not mean changing the concept of our races, it means making smaller steps for non-sailors to come to understand sailing’ says organizer Mischa de Munck

Catamaran Limbodancing
In the preprogram the catamaran teams
held a limbo dance contest to warm up the crowd. Each team represented a charity organization. The winning team is the team able to have their mast as low as possible without flipping the boat over, this is being judged by the spectators. Therefore the teams also had to entertain the crowd while limbo dancing. The Italian team consisting of Carlo de Paoli and Lamberto Cesari received the highest grades from the crowd, and thus won € 250,- euro for their charity organization ‘Progetto Quid’ . Lamberto Cesari; ‘ we are particularly proud because the price will to Progetto Quid, a social cooperative made by 5 young people under 30 which try to approach the market through a project of ethical fashion.The aim of the project is to recover end of line t-shirts and revalue them through tailoring operations made by the work of disadvantaged women. These women have undergone several problems in their lives, ranging from disabilities to alcohol and prostitution. With the work ing possibilities they receive from the project they have been given the chance to rebuild their lives’.

Teamrace Knockout round one
Round one consisted of two start groups, of which two teams would follow to face each other in the final round. The objective is to make sure that one of the opponents boats, finishes last, this means that the team cannot finish if one of their teammates is in last place. The first team to win three races would pass on to the final, the other teams will be knocked out.

The first start group consisted of team orange and team blue. Team blue managed to win the first race easily. In race two team orange was disqualified after an uncompleted penalty round. The third and last race was won by team blue after a bad lay line to the finish on the part of team orange.

The second start group consisted of team green and team red. Silver F18 medalist Oscar Zeekant together with fellow red team members Carlo and Lamberto prevailed after a 2-0 victory, and a broken spinnaker pole on the side of team green forcing them to give up.

Teamrace Knockout final round
In the final round team blue had to fight team red. Team red won the first race, but lost two races against team blue. The score being 1-2 in favor of team blue, race three was match point for team blue. After a bad start red team Carlo and Lamberto could recover well as their fellow red team members Oscar and Maarten held team blue from the finish line. In doing so Oscar and Maarten suffered a protest and had to take a penalty which consists of a full turn, Carlo and Lamberto just in time to get a tidy grip on team blue Froukje and Sam, just meters from the finish line, so that Oscar and Maarten could make their turn. As Oscar and Maarten raced towards the finish line Carlo and Lamberto lost their grip and all four boats together raced towards the finish line. Team blue Froukje and Sam finished just inches ahead of Oscar and Maarten, resulting in team blue winning their third and thus final race.

The team race knockout showed once again great comebacks by the teams after bad starts and even after flipping the boat, the Digital N Course used is of great influence to this, giving the teams a lot of opportunities to fight each other and stall the opponent to the finish. The pre starts were in the windy area of the course, the public enjoyed some nice nosedivings as well as down winds without gennaker (there was no time to hoist).

Support
The Teamrace Knockout is hosted by Bolster and DUIN. The event is taking place on Europe’s biggest catamaran beach, part of Marina Muiderzand.

The Teams
Orange
Thomas Ekefalk & Jeroen van Leeuwen
Eelco Boers & Tjiddo Veenstra

Blue
Froukje Feenstra & Matthieu Marfaing
Thijs Visser & Sam Frank (replacing injured Mandy Mulder)

Green
Jorden Veenman & Frank de Waard
Willem Geijsen & Celine van Doorn

Red
Oscar Zeekant & Maarten Noordzij (replacing Sanne van Hek)
Carlo di Paoli & Lamberto Cesari

More info at facebook.com/BolsterTeamraceKnockout