Here the next installment of the DCC reports.

Of course due to weather considerations we diverted from the orginal schedule on sunday and during monday the weather improved. We decided however to stay at Zandvoort during Monday and only to start sailing North on tuesday. This pretty much used up our slack in the schedule already and we were only 3 days into the event. A real pity but then again, considering that absolutely awfull weather we Dutchies had during june and the weeks right before the DCC we were lucky to have the bad juju satisfy themselfs with only the sunday and some of monday. We used the day to fine tune the various boats and Daniel was a great help in all of this. I think several of us walked over to his boat to see what we could simplify or improve on out own boats. The day derailed eventually in an orgy or (re)drilling and adjusting fittings, control lines and straightening crocked tillers and other parts. The weather during midday and the afternoon was actually quite good and sunny but then suddenly at the end of the afternoon the sky above the sea turned grey and dark and quickly a grey cloud of of streaming rain necessitated us to crash pack all out tools and gear lying around and bring them to safety. The weather approach so quickly that we just weren't quick enough and my electrical drill got a decent shower as well as some of my other tools. The boats however were all still sitting there in the middle of the beach harbour and had to be moved and also tied down as we didn't know what to expect in the way of wind and guts. Typically drenching rain like that is accompanied by severe guts. Strangely enough the wind never really kicked in. It was a weird phenomenon, one that I hadn;t encountered before in my 8 years on this coast line. I had weather run me down like that but not with such unrealistic mild winds.

Anyways, in the rain we first tried to get the boats on their parking and ground ankers quickly but in 60 seconds most of us were soaked and after that we just didn't care anymore. I know that I was happy we stayed at Zandvort that day as I would not have liked to have that weather on us during touring stage not did I care much for put up a tent and sleep in it completely soaked. Like I quoted a participant in my earlier report; during sunday and the later on Monday; the Dutch high summer was worse than the Australian high winter.

Luckily for us the juju's took pitty on us and rewarded us with a record breaking heatwave in the next 10 days. Several records concerning the highest minimum temps during the whole where recording in this stretch. Mostly the temperature never got lower than 21 degrees Celsius during any part of the day or night after that. With the humidity is was reall sweaty weather. Talking about going from extreme to extreme right ? We were wearing winter coats on sunday and sweating our T-shirts off on Tuesday and beyond.

Both Phill and myself gave my Typhoon F16 a good run during these days in some significant chop and swell. And I may CHOP and SWELL, afterall after the weather on sunday the seastate had build up a bit.

I think both Phill and myself were a little anxious when hoisting the spinnaker; being new to eachother and the boat being new to such testing conditions. Now I can honestly say that both this day and the next proved that my one-off is all that we hoped her to be.

We did have a problem with the rudders though and later found that the axle holes in the rudder stocks had been drilled in the wrong spot. This meant that we were sailing the boat WITHOUT balanced rudders as the rudders could not be kicked under past the line of rotation going through the pintles. It took us sever tries at reraking the mast and several days to find that the error in drilling the holes were the culprit. We later filled the holes and redrilled them to correct for the mistake. Then it turned out that the initial mast rake had been the right one and after the correction we had no serious weatherhelm at all under spinnaker. Just a slight amount of weatherhelm of the intended kind. Afterall I really like to have a equal amount of leehelm under spi as weatherhelm when going upwind. And I don't run much weatherhelm upwind.

Anyways, during the sail with the still unbalanced rudders we did put up the kite will rolling down the swell. The two us at the back of the boat slowing heating it up till some good speeds. She really did sail quite well despite the unbalanced rudders. However the unbalanced rudders and our "soon-to-be-improved" skills did hamper bearing off quickly enough and did make a few very nice dives. Now personally ; I have always looked the Taipan bows and figured that they pop up easily after a dive but that they also can sink in very deep during a violant dive as their is not that much volume in them. They are really fine bows that give a gorgeous bowwave but I had never sailed a Taipan in chop and swell like this before. Now I knew how Frank was really impressed by the Taipan during his sunday test sail in even worse conditions but I really wanted to experience it for myself.

Well. I got my wish on monday !

The second dive was a right proper one. With the beam hitting the water surface over its full length and the mast step at the surface, the bows fully submerged in the wave that we were trying to overtake and a complete standstill from a some considerable speed in about ahhhwll 1 or 2 seconds. Both Phill and I had our feet hooked under the extra 1 foot long toe straps I had put on my trampoline like a ladder at the back of the boat and we pulled out of of the eyes. I hit the sidestay and wrapped my upper body around it while Phill hung on to something else. There was no time to adjust the spi so that one pulled all the way through the dive. Stern felt like the were about 2 feet out of the water and we were both sure that the whole game was over. Then she stopped rotating forward and the now started working their way to the surface; before we knew it she was level on the waterline with the spi flogging and ready to go. I still remember vividly how I turned around and looked at Phill who had an "ehhh" look on his face for just 1 or 2 seconds before we pulled in the sheets and continued sailing.

We had a few more tense moments after that dive but never to the same magnitude. I think we got better at anticipating the waves and guts as well. Surprisingly enough we, at 85 + 85 = 170 kg's weren't taken much chop on the mainbeam. Of course my mainbeam is about 30 mm higher on the hull than with a standard Taipan and I was personally really impressed by how she didn't take chop on the mainbeam. I expected more of it. Later during the next, tuesday, when Phill and I sailed together again we finally concluded that the raised beam was really just right. More about that later.

It was a good sail although it was a pitty about the unbalanced rudders. One other thing was the screaming of the rudders. Some sailors in the past had expressed to my that rudders I had bought would scream and howl like nobodies business. Understandably I was very concerned about that as I love silent boats and hate slapping or howling noices. Actually some other sailors with the same make rudders on their boats had comments how other sailor could hear them coming from 100's of meters awhile. I remember a particular unlucky nacra 6.0 with the same characteristic and then I though it even felt/sounded draggy.

We really were to busy to reall notice the screaming on this monday afternoon but people familiar with the 70's airwolf action series know exactly what kind of screaming it was. I should have named my boat airwolf instead of typhoon. It really does sound like some tortured monster from the deep almost to the extend of becoming cool.

Luckily the screaming was not to loud and rather mild in volume actually. It is defiantely a howling but at a very acceptable noice level ; it was definately low enough so that another wouldn't hear it unless he was right next to the Typhoon. Both Phill and I commented to eachoher that is didn't feel or sound draggy, it was to soft for that, nor was their any vibration in the platform as a result. Strangly enough I I began to appreciate the howling later on in the week. Not because I like the sound of it but because I started to use the pitch of the sound as a speedgauge. Just like competitive glider planes have an sound instrument that changes the pitch of a whisle proportionally to their vertical speed. They use this to recognise thermals that lift them and the optimize on glide angles. Later on in the week I started using this rudder sound as a means of keeping the boat in the optimal speed groove with looking at the bow or at the path ahead to negociate the ways and the gusts. I felt like my eyes were freed up from their normal task of trying to estimate the boatspeed and steer to maximize that. Especially under spinnaker I found it helpful as then the crew is fully occupied by the luff of the spi and the skipper has to recognise his own guts and tricky waves. I found myself adjusting the traveller continiously (improved spi handling learn in later days) to the feel of heel, adjusting my heading to the pitch of the sound coming of the rudders (speed !) and looking at waves the bow and scanning for the occasional guts. The combination of these three senses working together on different (important) tasks proved to be a comfortable and effective one.

Now I'm not to sure wether I will try to silence my rudders anymore. There is no sound in the light conditions, only at the upper middle and high winds range and the sound is already rather mild.

Funny really ! How an attitude can change.

Anyways this only concluded the monday and I still have to type up the tuesday !

Tuesday, the day we set out on our distance sailing leg going North.

Bard Louis, a new Stealth F16 owner here in the Netherlands, was unlucky to not have his boat ready to sail in time and volunteered to help us out as ground crew.

The day started hot, sunny and with perfect sailing conditions. Windforce high 3 low 4 (about 10-14 knots) From the south west maining spi sailing along the coats in long legs. We were a little late putting the boats in the water; I think we left at 1:30 pm. There was hardly any surf and to be sure we had agreed among ourselfs that we would first sail a circle to see if all sheets and stuff had been fitted right. So we did. Pulled the kite and put in a gibe after making sure everthing was alright we bore of to due North while keeping the spinnaker hoisted. What can I say 10-14 knots of wind flat water and sunsine with 25-30 degrees air temp. Just perfect sailing and perfect spinnaker conditions. Of course we immediately were comparing ourselfs to the others and found that we were pretty equal in every respect. A thing that would hold during the rest of the day. The difference between my optimized Typhoon F16 with a large mainsail and a smaller jib and the standard Taipan 4.9 with the sligtly smaller main and the larger jib was impossible to measure that day. Arguable my boat still needs alot of fine tuning and the rudders were still unbalanced but I really felt that the boats were very much equal in every respect BUT one. The only time were I felt that one of us had an advantage was when we sailed on a spinnaker course with out the kites up; here the standard Taipan with its larger jib gained on my and a mild but steady fashion. Arguably my selftacker and probably the cut of the jib were hampering me on this course that would normally see the spinnaker flying. Although at the time we were using a line to pull the traveller car in a bit. We never released this line to let the car run out more to open up the slot betweent he jib and main. Something later in the week we found to improve speed a bit. Like I said my boat still needs a season of fine tuning and trimming to get her just right. But it is also fair to say that during the week the other boats were fine-tuned further as well and we all increased out handling and speeds.

About 30 minutes into the leg one of my ratchet blocks exploded into little pieces. It was one of the 15 year old Riley ratchett blocks that were given to me by Phill Brander to have 4 ratchets on my boat. The block was damaged when I got it but we thought that we could risk it afterall it had stayed in one piece in the years before. Apparently the crack and the degrading of the plastic was enough to make it decide to call it quits at that moment. We tried to motor on with just one ratchet but considering the expected time on the boat we eventually decided to move one of the windward
blocks to the leeward side to ease up on the loads. We were expecting the sail on a port tack all the way anyway.

BTW : I can advice every spi sailor to use 4 AUTO ratchets on his or her boat. Two on each side where on ratchets goes on the side stay chainplate and one on the beam. This system works great and lowers the sheetloads to a level where I could hold the spi sheet between 1 finger and my thumb in 20 knots of wind. When the wind drops or the kite is retrieved the AUTO ratchets automatically disengaged and makes snuffing much lighter. I didn't beleive it myself till I tried it and now I never want to sail without. Even Daniels crew : Anna-Liese Byrne (about 5 foot 5 height and I guess some 50 kg's in weight) could handle the F16 spi with the 4 ratchets. This system really works ! It doesn't reduce the force required to pull the kite in but does almost completely negate the strength required to holding the sheet. What happens is that you muster your strength to pull in the kite and then relax completely while slowing letting the spi out gethering new strength and letting your muscles rest for a few seconds then you pull the spi back in again and start all over. This series of pulls intermittend with pauses is much much less tiring than the continious pull you need to keep up with just one ratchet it also allows less strong persons to effectively work the kite as it is much easier for a small person to work up a series of strength explosions than it is to build up muscle to continiously hold the spi.

Anyways, we had to drop the spi to reposition the ratchet block. That time we put away the kite in no unmistakable terms. It was in the snuffer alright. Although we soon got to regret that after we were done adjusting the blocks. The spi never wanted to leave the snuffer bag again. No matter what we did. Eventually I jumped over board and swam under the boat and trampoline to find out what was wrong. And than I saw it. We had pulled a knot either in the line or pulled a knot in the halyard through the beat in the spi and this knot was also pulled trhough the terminating eye at the rear of the bag. I tried but there was no way I could undo the knot or push it back through while swimming under the baot. and believe me I tried. I could undo one of the other knots of the retrieval line but then we would never be able to rerun the retrieval line throught the spi out there on the water.

So we signaled the others that we had to go to the shore to fix the problem. It was then that we sailed deep without a kite where I found my boat to lacking a bit in speed when compared to a standard Taipan. On the shore the problem was fixed quickly enough although we did loose some time on the sail towards the shore and the beach. We landed just North of the North Sea Channel. The waterway going to the Amsterdam docks and the waterway towards the large foundery at its mouth. Despite the kite hanging up we had no problems crossing the channel with the large ocean going ships coming in and going out. It was actually kind of quiet out there.

We finally pushed out again and were ready for some more blasting under the spinnaker. Of course venting my frustrations of the detour I was in a state of mind to let her rip !

And I did. From the trapeze with a nice full mainsail as the result of some mild sheet tension. Tony was working the kite and bloody thing felt powered-up with only the unbalanced rudders making steering a bit awkward. If only we had found the true cause of the rudder problem earlier; than the ride would have been special. Although my spi skills could then do with some improvement as well. Anyways so we are happily covering some distance when Phill and Geert to the rear of us start making all kinds of emergency noises and start waving their arms and hands. At least that is what they did without us noticing it at first. Then drop their kite and head up into the wind while still yelling at us. They park the boat; the agreed signal that something is wrong and that all others have to stop what they're doing and converge on the parked boat. So we drop the kite as well and start sailing back wondering what broke on their boat. When approaching them they start telling how lucky we are and how unbelievable close we came to some serious mishap. Then they explain, still high on exitement: Did you see your mast, did you see your mast. I replied "no not really" Tony said nothing but he was beyond a doubt busy looking at the luff of the kite. "You were so lucky you didn;t break your mast" They tell us. "The bloody thing bend of to leeward to somewhere 30 degrees if not more, we were sure it was going to break with each gust ! You are SOOO lucky !" Apparently I had been sailing with not enough sheet tension or enough mast rotation. To big no-no's when sailing with a spinnaker in those conditions. We quickly losened up the rotation and increases the mainsheet tension and the mast was absolutely fine after that. I did anxiously check up on my mast the first chance I got and by some divine grace it is still straight and still in one piece.

So now we know how far you can push things with an AHPC superwing mast, pretty darn far but I would advice everybody to make sure they sail with enough rotation or mainsheet tension FOR THE CONDITIONS. Later I regulary checked the top of my mast and you can clearly see when you need more of both. Often only a bit more of both would bring back the mast and stabilize it completely.

We then continued North to Egmong aan Zee and landed at the catamaran club there. A quick phone call to Bard told us that he had just arrive there as well and was coming over with out lunch. And some lunch it was, Thank you Bard. There was a bit of everything. Bard even had found the time to get on to the internet and get the latest weather forcast for us. It showed that they wind would die during the late afternoon and evening and that we would have to make haste to get back in time. Afterall it had taken 3 hours to get to Egmond aan Zee, including the delays. The weather for the next days predicted light to no winds for the next day and slowly increasing winds after that. We decided to not linger around to much and try to get back to Zandvoort making the most of the dying winds and make sure that the boats were back at zandvoort for thursday when we would all participate in a clinic held by Daniel van Kerckhof. We weren't looking forward to spending the wednesday driving up to get the boats and bring them back to Zandvoort.

So after an hour of having lunch and in my case speaking to some locals who wanted to know about how we crossed the North Sea Channel and wether it was easy enough to do for them as well relating to the upcoming REM race at Zandvoort, we suited up and put the boats back into the drink.

The winds had already weakened off but we knew that we would have the tide current helping us to south. The trip back developped into a challenge to make the most of the dying winds. Luckily for us the dying off took quite some time so we still had some decent winds for most of the way altough it was wildthing all the way nevertheless. Again the speeds proved to be very comparable and only sailor related mistakes lead to one of us getting a huge lead over the other. This being no fun in the light conditions the one ahead sailed back and the race back to Zandvoort commenced again. We had some chilling moments even though the wind had died off almost completely. We were now sailing in some wind force 1 (2-4 knots) Lying in front of the platform digging the bows in getting the sterns out of the water, sailing with alot of twist in the sails and working hard to filling the spinnakers. The wind had changed direction as well you see.

It was 8:00 pm when we got back after some 3 hours of sailing. exactly the same time we spend on the first part. But best of all was that we were racing to get the beach first all the way through the miniscule surf. We touched down within seconds of eachother after 3 hours of sailing. It was a good evening and we had all conditions during the day except big very big winds. The sea was rather calm during the whole day. It was a good leg and a good trip and the next day (wednesday) I was off sourcing a replacement ratchet block.

But we were back in time and before the wind died completely on us. From my memory Wednesday was exactly as it was predicted ; hot, sweaty and without any good wind. But I'm getting ahead on the next report.

The story continious !

Wouter