The 2011 Formula 18 World Championships Lake Balaton Hungary were a another great success again for us.

So straight from Texel we got our new trailer put stickers on and on our way to the factory to final preparation on the boat. Than straight to Hungary to start preparing for the Worlds.

The lake has a reputation of being difficult and tricky which was all true. After day 1 of qualifiers we were in second position 1 point out of the gold. We were happy going into the finals as second boat. The finals got sailed on the last day with four races of extraordinary conditions which by the local only happens three times per year.

It was really fun that we had the big man behind Cirrus on the water as well as our sponsor Sail Ras Al Khamah cheering us on. After the third race without the discard we were leading the ranking going into the last race of the day. We had a great fight the whole championship and are very pleased with our Silver and a few days of racing.

Bastiaan is full on finishing his master degree in civil engineering and will be done the first of September. Mischa is training on the A cat refining his skills in this light weapon of a boat cause he is going to compete in the A cat Worlds in Denmark.

Next focus is going to be the Formula 18 European championships in Gran Canaria.

The Zwitserleven sailing week was sailed at the island of

Texel with a total of 441 boats. This is the biggest catrace in the world and this year was made up out of three separate events during the week: the Texel Dutch Open (Wedn-Fri) , the TNG short track races Friday afternoon and the biggest race of the year on Saturday, the “Round Texel”

We had a lot on to get to the race on time  . . . we have had some busy schedules . . . but we managed to make it to the starting area 1 minute before the start of the first race with all of the boat preparations done. The preparation for the actual racing was far from perfect at the beginning. With a total of 90 boats in our class we managed to pull it together and kept imp roving and for the second time in a row we became the Dutch Champions of the Rating Cat Sailing.

For the official Round Texel we arrived on the beach early. The breeze was nice and there was just a bit of rain. Everybody was “heads down” preparing for the big race. Something then crazy happened . . . one of the catamarans was ready to go and it launched itself into the surf and sailed out onto the water without any crew on board. It flipped over after several minutes and the Dutch Marines (assisting in the rescue) picked it up after. This was an indicative moment for the day . . . just about all sorts of chaos would happen.

The waves and the wind were roaring and we were getting ready to go onto the water with 450 other boats!! To stay out of harm’s way and not get cold we waited on the beach for as long as possible until 30 minutes before the start. When the horn for the 30 minute signal sounded we headed out onto the water. We sailed a little upwind to get a feel for the boat and for some reason this time we didn’t check the spinnaker. On the start we wanted to hoist the spinnaker but a wave had gotten into the bag and washed it out of the bag so we couldn’t get it up. While Bastiaan was trying to get the spi back into the bag Mischa was sailing around all the capsizing boats trying not to hit one of them. Always check your preparation!!!!

When we finally got the kite up we were super focused trying to get back to the front of the fleet! We pushed the boat hard downwind to get as much speed as possible. It worked out all fine because when we got to the lighthouse we were the 2nd formula 18 again.

We ran up to 23 knots in the protected water and as we were looking at the next mark we saw all the faster boats capsizing and pulling their daggerboards up. The filling tide hadn’t completely fill up the shallow parts and everybody was getting stopped.. We raised everything hoping we would not get stuck. But it didn’t take much longer for us to also hit the bottom. This caused some damage on the rudder that needed to be fixed. While Mischa was trying to fix the rudders, Bastiaan was trying to keep the boat going in the right direction. After the fix we started to attack on Coen and Thijs because they had passed us.

When we got to Oudeschild we realized there were a lot of people waiting on the wall and also at the lighthouse on the other side of the island to cheer to the boat going by! It was raining and it was cold and they were all standing there, it gave us a good feeling to see all those people.

When we got back onto the see side of the island the waves started to pick up and it was going to be a big reach to the finish. The waves were that big that they sometimes picked you up and tried to throw you out of the boat. When we finished Mischa didn’t realize that we’d just won the biggest catrace in the world, and was trying to find out the time we sailed by looking to the watches.

Besides the Round of Texel race we were also fight another battle, the battle against cancer. During the days before the race we sold stickers and bracelets to those who wanted to join us in the fight against cancer. Over 300 boats sailed in the fight against cancer and more than 700 bracelets were sold. With the 300 boats sailing against cancer we had the biggest fleet in the world sailing against cancer at the same time. All the funds that were raised were donated to the Fight Cancer foundation. We’d like to thank everybody for the kind donations and the fight against cancer. For more information about the Fight visit the Facebookpage ‘Love Sailing. Fight Cancer.

Bastiaan giving his appreciation to the biggest sailing fleet against cancer. We raised € 3650 for the foundation. Thank you all.

SB3 Worlds Torbay England

People always ask . . . what makes a good sailor? I believe a strong point is when you can race different boats in different venues and you are able to adapt your skills to the new environment. The SB3 was a completely new boat for Carrie, Hugh, Sammie and I which made each day exciting. The bay of Torbay was a very nice sailing venue with beautiful scenery and a wonderfully organized event with 120 boats.

In the second qualifying day we all had a new highlight in our sailing career. We scored three BFD’s (Black flag Disqualifier) which means that we crossed the starting line before the gun (or so the Race Committee thought). Two of the races we were clearly not across the line too early . . . but oh well. The best one was the second race because they called us out so while we were waiting we sailed to Exeter harbour to get some drinks and food in the pub. Racing for fun, ha ha. This black day made us sail the Silverfleet where we started with huge points behind but were able to climb back to second in the silver fleet. What a fun fleet!

Coaching Tjiddo, Dave and Maaike

Right after the SB3 worlds I did a clinic day with this group on their brand new Nacra Infusion. Maaike steered in breeze for the first time and she was completely natural. Tjiddo improved on his downwind “Yehaa” feel and pushed it hard to learn the boundaries again. Dave made better jibes and trimming. With the motorboat next to us we made nice footage of the day. At the end the breeze started piping so hard that we had to take the main down to sail back.

Istanbul Xtreme 40

Back in the big intense race machines in Turkey. I was asked by World Match Race Champion Ian Williams to join Team GAC Pindar to bring cat experience (and speed) to the team. Man . . . it was so much fun to race these boats again. It is hard teamwork, difficult racing and best to describe as playing a chess game while full sprinting in a small cage. We made a big step with team GAC Pindar from last boat in the fleet in previous events to a real competitor and winning races. Also supporting the team was a good American friend Mark Ivey. We sailed in the city center of Istanbul in a stadium setting so we constantly referred to ourselves as “gladiators”. Humor helps in the difficult racing and long days including corporate sailing. In the end we had raced 43 races in 5 days and finished 9^th.

Extreme Sailing is not without Risk. Lucky nobody got really injured.

Racing with Team GAC - Pindar. No holding back

Coaching Bosau Germany

After a week of English speaking now back to German. In the car I listened to the German radio to get back into the swing of it. I had twelve boats for two days of intense training. It was on lake Pion . . . a dream location in the woods. Together with my great assistant motorboat driver we drilled them hard. Very rewarding to see big improvement for every team after the two days.

Kustzeil evenement

Friday evening after training in Bosau I drove 7hours back to Holland to sail in Hoek van Holland. Bastiaan and I had not been sailing on our Cirrus R since winning Carnar. We both had been sailing different boats, Bastiaan on yachts and RS 500. It was great to race our Cirrus again against 30 boats for two great days of sailing. We had all firsts and one second. They were all good fights . . . racing Formula 18 in the Netherlands nothing comes easy. What a great fleet we have !!!

A Cat

The Dutch brand “DNA” cat is worldwide known as the best production A cat available at the moment. The Worlds best sailors are using them for their racing. This winter I spoke with them to start racing the A cat as a combination with the F18 racing. An A cat ready to sail weighs 75kg and is full carbon. I sailed a Wednesday evening race in Muiderzand on Arno Terra’s boat in big breeze and I was hooked. This night showed me that I for sure need some training to get handy with the boat. They are not necessary difficult or much different . . just all boats need a lot of practice.

North Sea Regatta

Friday racing started with a practice event called the Houtrust races. Good practice and with one counting race we got second which resulted in a glass vase for future flowers. Weather in the first morning got affected by storm clouds and rain, which made the wind turn 180 degrees. Two hours later the weather had settled and made enjoyable sailing. This weekend we had a strong fleet of 58 boats and our big opponent Darren & Jeroen were on fire this weekend. As they were untouchable we were more sailing against ourselves. We could not find our rhythm and form . . . and that is a crucial point. On a positive note . . . even though we felt out of it we still scored a solid second place overall with some wins and many second places. Another positive item was that we were able to sail forward in the fleet after not the best first mark roundings.

Next on the list is the Texel Dutch Open and the Round of Texel were we will sail as Team Zwitserleven together with wingmast Captain Herbert Dercksen. We are looking forward to another week of good atmosphere and hardcore sailing. Straight after Round of Texel we drive to Hungary for the World Championships Formula 18 at lake Balaton.

Training in Carnac with the whole team on wednesday and thursday was the foundation for this succes.

Racing on friday started with a nice breeze in sunshine and ended in no wind after 3 races while race four got canceled. Bundy, Olivier and us got in the tow behind Sail Innovation support boat to win the beach race. The brand new Phantom was leading after day 1 with consistent scores. Bundy and us both scored a BFD and without a discard that ment that we  were deep in the score list. Saturday was the long distance race nice wind to start with 400 boats on the line. We were 8th at the first mark and were in the leading group all day. I enjoyed the sight of the nice white sandy beach at Ile de Houat surrounded with blue water and cliff's.
The breeze played tricks on the fleet at the end of the race we were to conservative which brought us to 4th place.
Sunday started with rain and good wind, hard racing and tough battles with our closed opponent Darren and Jeroen. They made an unfortunate error, another BFD which made them drop dramatically in the scoring. For us, they were the guys to beat!

Winning Carnac 2011 on the brand new Cirrus R.

Next event will be the F18 Gaastra CUP in Knokke on the 28th and 29th.

Hello all, were have we been. Mischa has been building a stand, developed a new safety bar for Magic Marine, build a store, did Europeans Iceboating in Sweden. Bastiaan has been finishing his university as a civil engineer and signed for a super job with flexible hours. In between we have been well focused on sailing. This winter preparing the new Cirrus R. We were testing and developing the last details on the boat in France and the Netherlands.

Sailed the Knock Out Team Racing with our Teammate Thijs & Matthieu. This event was live on the internet with on board camera’s, two motorboats filming, a multicopter and a drone airplane. Live commentary during the races and four hunderd spectators on the shore it was a great success to have two on two teamracing with catamarans.

After a few wonderful days of rest and peace we arrived in Bray-Dunes, France Friday evening for the Eurocoup event together with a four other Dutch teams. Three days of racing our new Formula 18 the Cirrus R. To promote the event all the top teams of the last F18 Worlds were invited. A good training event for us with the Cirrus R just before Eurocat in Carnac.

The weather forecast for day 1 was not very promising with almost no breeze forecasted we waited for a thermal build. It turned out to be a super day on the beach were we finalized every rope length. The organizers were very motivated to get us on the water. The race committee was on the water all day scouting the wind. Unfortunately the first day the breeze was turned off the whole day and couldn’t get any races in. The last two days the breeze picked up perfectly and we got a good 8 races in. Sunday night there was a party organized for all the competitors with live music and great food!

After racing and prize giving we went for dinner with the whole Cirrus R team to celebrate the nice results of the team with a 1st place for us and a 3^rd place for our teammate Gurvan and Hubert. Emmanuel and Anne Boulogne and the whole team in the factory have been working hard and long days to make sure the boat are being built in great precision and quality. It was nice to see him sail and enjoy his creation this weekend.

We planned driving to Carnac right after the prize giving but we decided to stay for another night in Bray-Dunes to go and help Manu in the factory in Gravelines and drive to Carnac tomorrow to start training with the Cirrus team and Team Phantom of Sail Innovation on Wednesday!

“We have a new goal, employer and racing boat,” Mischa Heemskerk said after final meetings with Emmanuel Boulogne this past week. This F18 catamaran sailor has sailed both the new Hobie Cat and Nacra designs as well as his own designs and boats in his career. The last three seasons Heemskerk sailed successfully together with crew Bastiaan Tentij on the Hobie Wildcat.

The Cirrus R prototype first launched at the St. Barth Catacup last November. The design and ideas originated from Boulogne Conception Marine as the next level Cirrus. Boulogne became a World Champion himself, together with his brother on the Cirrus Formula 18 in 2003. “Manu approached me on the beach in St. Barths to talk about a partnership with his new designed F18.” After a test sail in St. Barths, the ball began to roll . . .
Heemskerk was clear; “ I waited for answers from Hobie and sponsors, but when I knew that Hobie didn’t have a reasonable offer . . . I knew what I wanted to do.” The 3-year contract with Bulthaup kitchens and Hobie Cat had ended so Heemskerk had to plan his next goals.

Challange
The development of the F18 has been rapidly progressing. The box rule has kept all designs competitive but the progress has been thought to be positive for all sailors and businesses. The launch of the Capricorn in 2004 brought the first of the new “wave piercing” technologies from the old traditional hull shape. This revolutionary change has now transformed the idea of bouncing over the waves to cutting through the waves. The various brands launched their new ideas for developments of the F18. Heemskerk has been involved in a few of the new boat design launches and these projects are intriguing to him.

“There are many designers out there with new ideas. The boats need to be tested, explored and proven.  There are positives and negatives of all the boat designs and I enjoy learning about the benefits of the changes and optimizing the performance with each design.” Heemskerk said about his career.

Boulogne looked from the outside to the developments around him and took his time to come with an answer. Heemskerk: " I was involved in the final phase of the Cirrus-R project, which was a nice challange". The five time Dutch Champion F18 has high expectations of the new cat:" I got to sail it in St Barth for an hour with 28knots of breeze. I was impressed with the performance and the construction of the boat. Later I had sailed an afternoon with Bastiaan in France with light conditions. That also felt good. We have not been able to measure against the other brands. But we are convinced the Cirrus-R will be just fine in the F18 racing scene."

Season 2011

The Dutch duo is one of four factory teams racing for Cirrus this year. Two from France, one from England and last one from Netherlands. Of course Boulogne is part of the team. Heemskerk:"We will compete in all the big events. This month we use to get up to speed, so we will be competitive at Eurocat in Carnac. That will be our real kick-off for 2011."
Mischa Heemskerk and Bastiaan Tentij signed in principal for four years. Later more about this new F18.

Below is the Poster for my next event, the St. Barth Cata-Cup. . . .  and it is a good one (maybe my favorite!!!). Eduard and I are looking forward to some nice days in the sun and to defend our title. Eduard, the Bugaboo man, is flying tomorrow and I am flying Wednesday because I need to stay back for the first day of the METS fair for some meetings. Everyone always asks what I do besides sailing. Well, today I was busy building a cool stand at the METS for Magic Marine but tomorrow members of Team Magic Marine (Erik van Vuuren, Bouwe Bekking and myself) will be at the introduction of the Magic Marine MX2 Ocean Collection in Amsterdam.

The Magic Marine Team has been testing the Ocean gear in many different events. The latest event was the Rolex Middle Sea Race where Erik van Vuuren, Bastiaan Tentij and myself sailed on the new KER 53 design Dralion. We raced non stop for four days and twelve hours. The gear was my safe haven in the thunderstorms with more than forty knots of wind. Its great testing with constant wear and tear when thrown around over the boat managing sails and waves.

This was Bastiaan's and my first real distance offshore race and we definitely enjoyed it. Working in two hours shifts, sleeping on wet sails in your full gear ready to jump up and assist on deck was for sure an adventure. Its amazingly difficult to try to stay positive while sitting stationary in no wind in front of the active volcano Stromboli at the coast of Sicily. Another fun one was when we blew out the A3 while sailing twenty six knots in thirty eight knots of breeze. 660 miles of raw fun with a great team. I slept well while off watch, because I for sure had good companions to keep the boat going fast and safe.

Next week, Follow us on this link!! There should be some great photos again!!