Prologue-day

After being five days at Dunkerque it was finally time to go out on the water. Not for the points yet, but a so-called prologue day. During this day there will be practice starts on a short course and one prologue over full race distance. During this race the team earned an 11th place.

After a good breakfast with a nice fruit salad, made by our chef Bas, it was half past eight and time to go out. Because of the bridges and the lock it takes more than an hour to get to the race course. On the track the practice starts started almost immediately. During three starts both the speed and the position of the boat at the line so they could get in the top of the fleet. With two other starts there was a deliberate choice to make it as difficult as possible as a practice. By doing this Rikst, as a tactician, had to make the best tactical choices to get back in the front. And this happened, with a very good boat speed, they managed to finish one of the short races in second place.

For the prologue there was a track similar to the rest of the inshore races. Despite the good practice starts, there was a bad one in this race. But again the boat speed was perfect and got in top 10 at the first mark. Halfway the race the Ile the France team hit the mark and made their turn just in front of us, in the process taking our wind. We lost one more place and finished in 11th place.

Overall the team can be satisfied with today, the boat speed and the new sails give a lot of confidence. The team can't wait till tomorrow when the real races will start! For now there will be some small things fixed on the boat so that is ready for the races. This evening Bouwe Bekking will arrive at Dunkerque, during our first inshore courses he will take Thijs his place as a helmsman.

Several pictures from today can be found here.