Yngling – “This feels good” On Sunday September 19th, the two olympisch Yngling-teams had a hard fight in a field of 27. Team Thies won race one and took the overall lead by two points. Both crews had a bad second start. Annelies Thies: “Janneke Hin tacked, but we could not. A minute after the signal, the wind shifted to the right and we were completely wrong at the left side.” They finished in twelfth and team Hin in second position, so the title was for the girls that missed the qualification for Athens by one point. Klaartje Zuiderbaan: “Despite a broken forstay on Saturday, we are still Dutch champions”! Hanne Buis: “This feels good. We beat them at the worlds, after which we have not been able to measure our strength against them. And we sailed our last meters with this boat.” A Janneke Hin: “We really wanted to win. The whole event went well, so this was the moment to succeed.” The third place was for De Jong/Van der Broek/Dijk, all men.

Tornado – Extra race
The Tornado class had her first official Dutch Championship since ten years. Most sailors stay at their club and compete in open events, but the class organization put effort into it and succeeded with a fleet of ten catamarans. Only one race was scheduled for the last day, but the competitors disagreed. Hans Bouscholte: “Since the conditions were beautiful, we decided as a group before the first start that we wanted to do a second one”. They proposed their plan to the race committee who agreed, but all teams had to give their permission individually. Although the top three was already definite, the competition was still strong on Sunday. Mischa Heemskerk and Pieter van Ruytenburg beat the leaders Remco Kenbeek with Herbert Dercksen, who concluded the championship with a victory. Hans Bouscholte and Ruurd van Wieren got a third place overall. Europe-sailor Carolijn Brouwer competed with her Belgian boyfriend and Finn-sailor Sebbe Godegroid on an old Tornado. They got a sixth position overall.

Laser, Finn and Europe– Unchanged positions Despite a second and first finish on Sunday, Marc de Haas was two points short of winning again the title. But Pieter-Jan Postma had to fight for his victory: “It is never easy in the Laser. There is little speed difference, so it is all about tactics.” Matias del Solar from Chili, twenty-third in Athens, won bronze. Jaap Zielhuis concluded with two first places and was the best in the Finn, followed by Sander Willems and Martijn van Muyden. Seventeen year old Marie-Amandine van de Ghinste from Belgium, was supreme in the Europe class. She won without any competition, followed by Marieke Jongens (NED) and Marie van Laer (BEL).

49er: Champions Race
The 49ers introduced the Champions Race as the event’s closing. Top five teams were allowed to compete in these spectaculair knock-out competition of five races. Matts Hellman and Pim Nieuwenhuis won all of them and became the Dutch champions 2004 in a convincing way. The Schutte brothers were second, followed by Ferdinand van West and Serge de Prie.

The Coster brothers, sixth in Athens, had hardly any competition in the 470 and won easily the title. The same for Mistral-surfer Joeri van Dijk. The 2004 Delta Lloyd Open Dutch Sailing Championships for olympic classes were sailed from Friday September 17th until Sunday September 19th 2004. Regatta Center Medemblik hosted the event. Due to the Paralympic Games and lack of entrees, the paralympic classes and the Star did not have a championship. About 150 teams, representing eleven countries, competed for the national title.

The Delta Lloyd Open Dutch Championships Olympic Sailing 2004 were sponsored by: Delta Lloyd, Armada, Versatel, TNG, Gaastra and Heineken.

Source: Diana Bogaards