These photo's are reminiscent of when the "Omnipotent Wouter" shot his mouth off and foot,at the expense of the 2001 Worrell teams.The waves look half as high as they were in Jensen Beach that year.I do feel for most of the competitors as the anxiety of making oneself ready all year for the event turns into kaos at the shorebreak ."GAMEOVER".

I too was thinking that the waves didn't look that monstrous - but if you look at the frequency of the waves, it looks like they are coming pretty quick. A short frequency between waves can be just as devestating which will kill your forward momentum...still, it's not quite the Jensen beach disaster.

I bet the lighter boats had more difficulty getting through the surf.

I searched and searched and searched the photos online, and for the life of me, I couldn't identify ONE F16 punching out through the surf. A whole bunch of H16's and a P16, but I didn't see one F16 trying to play in that mess.

I think what made for more carnage was apparently that the wind was blowing directly onshore, forcing the boats to take the surf at an angle instead of being able to punch right through it. Are they allowed to bring a paddle for the texel? I'd almost use that to steer into the waves, then use the paddle to help bear off and accelerate again between sets.

We were one of the boats that did go out, and it indeed looks like the surf was smaller compared to the pictures from the worrell, however, the wind was 5bf straight onshore, and waves were coming in every couple of seconds, so there was no time at all to pick up any speed between being hit by the first wave and being put back on the beach by the next one (and breaking your rudders or mast).
Luckily our good old nacra 6.0 is not the lightest boat around and we were able to punch through with relatively few hits and managed to keep going, but we saw many lightweight f18, inter 18, tigers and so on being thrown over.
btw, the next day was even harder getting through, just slightly smaller surf, but no wind at all...

oh and for the speed interested among us:
round texel is about 60nm, new record time is 2.11hrs, that's an average of almost 27.7nm/hr! (that's fast! am I mistaking the distance?)

I'm sorry sander but the distance is +/-35NM, still was fast though. I estimate they averaged around 17kts.

Sander, did you go out sunday morning around 11:00? If so I saw you go out, it looked like the current was pushing you back ;-)

In short,

Halve the Worrell teams that year compounded on the bad conditions by doing stupid things while sailing through the surf.

A quarter of the crews at Texel can be seen to perform similar no-no's. The other quarter got through the surf okay and had the skills for it. The other halve was smart and knew when to throw in the towel. I was one of the guys who knew when to admit that conditions where above me and my crew, albeit 100 km to the south.

The worst sailor is not a beginner but the guy that doesn't know when to hold back.

Remarkable how easy it is to become omnipotent in the judgement of some.

Happy ?

Wouter

Still pondering that Wouter, not sure wether you just called Mitch and Herbie newbies or above themself

Yeah, what IS the right answer to that question ?

They tried twice and the first time they got knocked over, the second time they heard a really unfriendly noise and they decided to turn back. At least that is what the reports tell us.

Now you decide whether they were defeated by the surf or whether they balanced the boat+crew to the conditions and decided that prudence was the better side of valour.

Anybody calling Mitch and Herbert newbies is just plain stupid, nor do I think that I even hinted at such a thing. I also do not recall that anybody (including) myself called Mitch and Herbert above themselfs.

It is funny how easily rumours are started.

Say, did your wife recover okay from the beating you gave her, Rolf ?

With respect to F16's in the pictures. Well all the Hobie 17's, Hobie 18's, Hobie FX-ones, Hobie 20's, Hobie 14's and Hobie foxes (F20 versions) that we see in the pictures (NOT !) were blocking them from the view.

Wouter

Fair enough

I'm not the one thats comparing them to F18's and Inter20's (which, as I noticed, were out playing in the "stuff")



And I'm going to have to deal out some advice on this one. As someone had told me back in the day, "put up or shutup".

Go put on a clinic Wouter. Show us how its done. Teach some of those "stupid" Worrell sailors how to launch through Jensen waves.

I'm calling you out. I don't think you can.

Hey guys,

I really wanted to sail the Round Texel, but the conditions made me reconsider. It was not only the wind and surf conditions but also the amount of sailors trying to sail and not having any experience with this kind of surf.
Also there were a lot of sailors that just came to Texel on friday to only sail the RoT-race. A lot of them felt obliged to sail on saturday. I already had a fantastic week with sailing the Dutch Open, so there was no need for risking my boat and health.

An evading action due to an crashed cat also caused Mitch en Herbert their efforts on their Hobie Fox Extreme for this years RoT. I think they also went too late from the beach. They were not the only experienced sailors to crash in the surf.
The crash caused their mainsail-battens to break, after repairing them the went a second time through the surf, with success. On the sea the encountered serious problems with one of the carbon hulls.

Well, from 570 enlisted boats only 270 boats started the race. At the lighthouse-gate already 140 boars were DSQ-ed for missing the gate........

Must say this years RoT was memorable, especially the speed of the topteams on the Waddensea !

I am quite sure you noticed the smiley behind that question, so I must have hit a nerve
(It was a to obvious comment to let it pass Wouter, wasn't meaning to start any rumours tough!)

Beating my wife? I would not dare to, I want to live and sail some more before I have my kneecaps "eliminated" by the infamous baseball bat. But the correct answer to that question is always "no" (thats logical), unless of course you do beat your wife (in which case, it might still be no).
Besides, you should meet my wife sometime. We will have to see what we can arrange..


What would you say are the similarities and differences between the Fox and the Blade (altought the Blade is 16 and 18 foot). The bow is a dead giveaway, but how about the other parameters?

A last comment on the 'Super' Fox. If they where building a 20 foot all carbon (is that confirmed, what about beams and mast?) record breaker. Why did they not raise the crossbeams as well, to avoid slapping into wavetops?

So they don't have to make new molds.

And replying on the previous posts. It is silly to compare the Jensen-waves to the RoT-waves. So why make it an issue ?
Does a bigger wave make the event more interesting ? Does a bigger crash-rate tell us something about the actual value of an event ?

Don't think so.

I dont agree to that Maughan. If they spent all that money on carbon and a custom layup, it doesnt make sense to not spend one day extra at the workshop to raise the beams. Does it?

The Hobie Fox Extreme is still experimental (or should I say : was). Bigger mast is fully carbon. They didn't have time enough to do something with the beams : aluminium.
The boats weight fully equipped : 140 kilo........

Ehh sorry but I will have to set a few things straight here. With all due respect :





Man, I think there were about a 100 times more F18's and F20's at Texel than F16's. Probably 40 % of the Texel fleet is made up of these. Little wonder that they show up in the pictures and not the boats of which only a handful are entered.

Please explain to me how showing up in the pictures in THIS situation (or not) says anything about the comparison between these 3 classes.

I didn't see a Spitfire in the pics either, still it won the open class. The only M20 I saw in the pics was the one that lay upside down in the surf being beaten to pieces. Still a M20 was second in the open class. I saw alot of pics of broken (F18) boats or (F18) boat that were about to be broken. According to your reasoning this "proofs" something.

Surely you can't be serious about what you said above.





No your not, you are just using a common debating trick. It is impossible to know for the readers wether I have been instructing how to negociate the local surf overhere for years or not (I have). And Yes, I gave a full explanation why I called certain worrell sailor stupid back then. Together with high res photo's of crews doing these very stupid things. Don't ask me to "make like a broken record" and repeat myself over and over again. Be a nice fellow and look up the posts yourself, before mouthing off. And ohh I'll be happy to teach those sailors that we ARE talking about (= NOT all worrell sailors of that year) how to do a surf if they care to fly over to my place. Afterall how I can teach them in an area where such a surf is uncommon ?

You know what why don't you come over with your boat and I'll show you how it is done personally.

Now I may be a mediocre racer but I sure as hell got a few years and bad-butt surfs under my belt by now. And yes, I'm not foolish enough to say that I can handle any surf. There is always a point were even the most experienced sailor need to say to himself : "Going out now is just stupid". Actually that was they way I started all my cat sailing instructions. "Know you limits !" and in sailing most of the "bad luck" is just an excuse for "bad seamanship".

And don't twist my words, thank you very much.

Wouter

Wouter

Hey Rolf, there was a smiley at the end of my question as well, did you see it ? You still felt the need to correct the accussation right ?

Now you got my point. Rumours start to easily this way.



I can make that comparison but I'm not going to do on this forum now. It will only end in endless bickering.

Also it will require alot of type that I don't really fancy at this time. If you really want to know my opinion than you will just have to give me a phone call one night.

Sorry,

Wouter

Boomer,

Cna you tell me where you got that info from ? The 140 kg quote ?

I'm really interested in finding out where this comes from.

Wouter

Talked to Mitch on friday in the Pitlane.
Nice geezer. Hope he does better in the Tornado Worlds in La Rochelle.

C Ya at the F18 worlds.

Wouter: Sure, I'll call you an evening, please send me your number(I am not to familiar with the diverse dutch telephone directories). Be warned tough, norwegian is a fast-spoken language, and my accent is probably.. exotic?

Of course I noticed the smiley, otherwise I would not have bothered to answer. I would not have made the comment either if I wasn't pretty sure you could handle it. (But honestly, I think you had it coming, as categorical as you were in the original post).


As our australian friends say, no worries?