Three men in their boats

This week end saw the first event of the Belgian - Dutch Moth season take place in Spakenburg. The greyish sky and fickle breeze were not totally encouraging but the organic mint tea boys turned out in full. Saturday was entirely calm so we did odds and ends of boat work but nothing involving exotic resins, custom made unis or vacuum pumps. Very low key, no glam, no bling. As Eelco explained to me Spakenburg is one of the last Calvinist enclaves in the Netherlands and pleasure seeking would have been entirely out of place and possibly sanctionable with pillorying in the village square. Meantime Constantijn instructed us on the different types of traditional Dutch fishing vessels and how they could be distinguished by the different styles of leeboards and presence or absence of shrouds. It was a lot of culture to take in just one week end... Sunday we got three races off in marginal conditions and I employed the strategy of tacking or jybing back to the rhumb line in pressure to stay foiling longer than the others with positive effects on the scoreline.

Galgenweel Instinct

The Galgenweel is an over sized skating rink in winter and an undersized regatta venue in summer. It is the home of Belgian dinghy sailing. Sitting at the bar overlooking the lake, you can see all the random and short lived cat's paws making their way accross the lake. Even from this privileged vantage point it is not always clear which boats on the race course will get the pressure or lift that takes them out in front. The sailors who have put in the most time here develop a rare quality: instinct.