Champagne.... :)

14 teams of 3, 8 boats, 16 races total, every team sailed 9 races in a double rotating system meaning you change boats and opponents every time..  the fairest way to race ....   start.. up..down..up..down.. up.. finish..

Daily Herald                                             

 Champagne...   Left Pieter, right Paul Soons..

 words.. explanation and of thanks to all of course 

 Final results

Amongst others ..  one thing I will not forget.. :
The second or third race we won with such a lead (everything we did that race was spot on..) that when we came back to the change over dock after the finish while the rest of the fleet was just rounding the last downward mark..  At arrival  we got applause from the 6 teams x3 + 10 others = 28 people..  I bowed ... nice..

The last race.......  for the win directly against Andrea,  was about the same like above in distance to the rest of the fleet, but now Andrea was fighting me all the way.
I had the A1 start at the pin, but Andrea on my tale around the first mark and downwind, upwind. downwind and then last beat upwind to the finish..  close battle,  and close to the finish he passed in front of me (inches) but this way he was not able to cover us..... and the race and the win was ours.... in the end just a few meter in it at the finish......

Had Andrea won we would have had same points, 16, and then both 3 bullets, then u count the 2nd places of which they had more, so i think Andrea would have won had he won the last race in front of me.. 

But until the actual price giving..... came to the 2nd price winner....  and that not being us... we were not 100% sure ......    Yeahhh

 Start of a race seen from the 'change over dock' and trimaran ...

 Bar

2nd..  Andrea, Ryan and Chris

 Preparation/moving the 'change over' dock with Frits and Robbie... passes under the new Causeway bridge and down wind.... It was anchored near the airport, next to the start/finish line with Andrea's trimaran mored next to it on one side...  8 teams were always sailing while the other 6 teams waited/relaxed on the dock/tri with refreshments..  Note.. Robbie is in underwear because he had to go swimming to get a line out of his propeller..



 ......................................................
Score after the first day:
 I was 1 point behind Andrea and 0.8 points behind Andy, and Robbie 1 point behind me but with one more race sailed... 
1st Andrea Scarabelli, Chris Marshall & Ryan Hope-Ross
2nd Andy Budgen, Ali Merridew & Pippa Kirchman
3rd Han de Bruyn Kops, Pieter Soons & Paul Soons
4th Robbie Ferron, Antonia Martinez & Ruud van Herewijk
5th Roel ten Hoopen, Travis McGarry & Dylan McGarry
6th Frits Bus, Rien Korteknie, Paul Henriquez
7th Carlos Beckmann, Karine Beckmann, Carlos Jr & Mateo Beckmann
8th Luc Knol, Leonardo Knol and Jimmy Drijgers
9th John Gifford, Jolyon Ferron & Rhone Findlay
10th Jan van den Eynde, Gijs Reulen & Ellie den Hartog
11th Matt Ward, Christina Ginger Price, Shane Reid & Lawson
12th Tom Robinson, John Macaulay & Robyn Phillip-Norton
13th Petro Jonker, Mario Jonker & Max Hern
14th David Donnelly, Joseph Dominic Vergani & Niklas Ivvarson.


Sunday 5 more races were sailed in perfect conditions...making every team sailed 9 races...

More info about the competition.. (as far as I know)

Two crews based on the Volvo 70 racing boat Monster Project participated in the race:

Andy Budgen   placed second in the world championships in the 49er class (1998) and was National Champion in the UK. He was also in the top three of the Skiff World Championships.

Tom Robinson   recently won class at the Dartmouth Week and the Hamble Winter Series.

SXM based... :

Andrea Scarabelli..  Extensive experience in racing large sailing yachts and current captain of the Budget Marine Gill team..skippered on big boats on big races, also around the world, now sails for Budget Marine for years winning many races in  LSR, Melges 24 etcetc..   North Sails..

Robbie Ferron..  Mr Budget Marine and Mr Heineken Regatta, trying to win (t)his race for years..  always in the top though, and owner and facilitator of the LSR's (Jeanneau Sun Fast 20)

Frits Bus..  Family doctor who uses all his spare time to sport/sail..  With Island Water World on his shirt, boat and sails..  he manage to sail also everywhere around the world in Lasers up to winning in  (Luxury) Perini Navi 49.80m Silencio (ex Perseus) and in between like LSR;s and Melges 24, also winning his share..

Roel ten Hoopen..  Crew member of Frits and IWW, also sailing his share himself, good boat and race handeling, mainly found in front part of the fleet..


Carlos Beckmann, also mainly in front part of  LSR races with his crew..  his wife and 2 kids 6 and 5 yrs old...

John Gifford..  Heineken Regatta's Chairman Steering Committee

 Budget Marine report..   http://www.budgetmarine.com/EventsItem.aspx?id=3518

Andrew's boat found...

Andrew just got a call from the Barbados embassy, the Venezuelan coast guard found his boat and towed it into an island way south and  west of Caracas near Maricaibo peninsula. They found his card in the boat and called him. Boat is on a dock now...

(old picture)

 His boat traveled 550nm in 17 days = 32nm a day, more or less sailing  on a South Western  course, sort of between half and down wind..   I think we have been looking at exactly the right place last week and must have been very close to it..

Fack, nice day of Laser racing in Orient Bay .. only 150meters for me when rudder mount on borrowed hull gives up.... OK, I swam from beach to starting vessel/dinghy and helped out Laury-Ann providing 7 starts/races for 15 Lasers, including 4 participants who came from St Barth in 40HP dinghy....

Benoit Meesemaecker wins, Olivier 2nd, Frits Bus 3rd, Roel ten Hoopen 4rth, Jolyon Ferron 5th..
Bart van Vliet wins Radial


http://picasaweb.google.nl/HandeBruynKops

https://plus.google.com/photos/102533999824489682977/albums/5973396881571638129

Feeding franzy we passed 17/1/2014

  Search vessel Condor..  a Standfast 40fter  http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standfast_40..  Came free of ist moring in St Barth 3 or 4 days ago and is adrift ..  We go after it. because coastguard has spotted it, position and picture..
After a Quick cleaning of Condor's bottom we take of...

The next day we pas a lot of Ocra's killing something..

 Feeding franzy of a lot of Orca's and other whales eating of a big whales carcass we think

https://www.facebook.com/handebruynkops/videos/10203925221664143/  video..

 puting on the Solent sail..

 Dinner, we took 5 Pork Tenderloins..

 Daily desert..  1 or 2 Irish coffies..

Lost at sea.. by Andrew W Connell

Andrew wrote: "If your wondering what happened? Here it is
My sailboat broke loose on the evening of the twelfth, from Gustavia, Saint Barthélemy.
Corcovado, a 40ft Standfast 

I was delivering a sailboat, at the time from the Bahamas to St.Barts a thousand mile upwind slog.
When we got news of my boat missing from St.Barts, we were off Puerto Rico, and my phone came to life. Keep in mind the days are still clicking by.
When our delivery ended in St.Martin, 24 hours later,it had been three days afloat, or drifting fast to the south and west.
The wheel being locked centerline, also I believe, is the reason it moved south so quickly. If the wheel were locked with a little angle to it, it would have done circles, meaning drift in the current/ wind much slower. I think the boat was sailing 35 miles a day. JUST IN WHICH DIRECTION?
My phone rang on that saturday I believe? It was the coast guard from France who had info for me, from a Dutch Curacao dash 8 aircraft. The coast guard had pictures of my boat, and knew about the alert of an abandon sailing vessel.

 

picture made by RCC Coastguard plane based on Curacao..15/1/2014

They gave me a position, or coordinates, for an attempt of a rescue,,
130 or so miles South West of Guadeloupe, near the Venezuelan islands of Los Aves.
Over 200 miles from us at the time.
I instantly found a sailboat, and a good friend with a sat phone,who would go on a mission, knowing the dash 8 aircraft out of Curacao, which was still sitting on the tarmac in St.Maarten, was heading back to Curacao.
Perfect, the chances of retrieving my boat are looking, okay!
The next morning the dash 8 did not find my boat. damn
We left with the feeling that the aircraft would fly again in a few days.
Okay, We provisioned this 38 foot German sailboat for 7 days, with two people on board.
We took off towards Los Aves, directly south 100 miles or so first.
The next day we called the pilots and heard the grim news of no sightings and that the aircraft, which is payed for by the Dutch Government, will be on the ground in Curacao till Wednesday.
SHIT
We had 5 or 6 days to go before we had a possible, aircraft sighting.
The second or third night out in rough weather at around 2 in the morning, Hans went forward of the mast, to take the inner forestay off to enable a better tack, with the headsail.
We rolled hard to weather, and he was gone.
Instantly I turned into the wind and pinned the headsail on the opposite side of the boat and hoved too.
The next thing was a halyard over the side and Han De Bruyn Kops was dragging in twenty knots of wind and bigs seas behind my stern, doing 4 or so knots.
It was not easy to get him on the boat!
Our goal was to create a sort of goal line between Curacao and Puerto Rico, where the boat would eventually drift.
Hans and I sailed back and forth from North to South for days, looking 300 miles away from St.Barths, down wind and to leeward of the Lesser Antilles.
My anchor light was on when I left, so I thought it would be easy at night, to find her.

After countless hours of, strong sun rays and tedious hours at the helm with no auto pilot, twenty plus knots of wind and north swells, we were exhausted and thoroughly disappointed.
None the less Hans was eager to carry on looking for my lost 40 footer.
Eventually it was time to think about our safe and long upwind passage, from 245 mile's north of Curacao back to St.Maarten.
We made it back with very little to eat or drink. It took three or four days of upwind slow sailing.
The trip was exciting, dangerous fun and horrible at the same time.
If the coast guard had flow another day, we would have been close to my boat.
I believe were were close to my boat. I took into consideration current charts which Hans had on board, and the waves and wind, at 35 miles a day.
We plotted a sort of projected corse, considering the 120 miles the boat moved in 4 days.
It is a huge body of water.
The two of us made it back to Simpson Bay St.Maarten, last night.
Im in St.Barts now, wiped out sad and still in dis belief.
Huge effort, no luck.
I believe it is still out there and someone will find her.
Thanks for everyones support, peace out"

Course de l'Alliance

2nd..  Nix  http://regattaguru.com/cdla/minisite?series_id=100044#Results;class_id=100580 
   http://www.coursedelalliance.com/us_welcome.php

 

the cources of the 3 days...

Condor sails again..

Gone visit Sandy Beach in Anguilla for a few days..  only a few hours sailing..