Press release day 2 Sailing Grand Slam Almere: ‘don’t mention the weather’ when all is going well
From the moment the sailors arrived on the beach of Almere, the sailing weather was beautiful. With such a great start to the day, a vital piece of advice is: don’t mention the weather, so as not to jinx the weather gods. Following the stormy scenes of the opening day, the top sailors wisely kept quiet about the weather forecast today. And with success: Almere put on a smile with some sunshine and a steady breeze of around 22 knots. The Netherlands immediately proved itself once again as a wonderful sailing nation with challenging racecourses.
Getting a grip on the ‘chop’
Today’s biggest challenge lay in the specific characteristics of the Almere waters. Without yesterday’s heavy downpours, it was a pure lesson in technique and physical endurance. The racecourse at Almere is known for its short, steep waves (chop) that can significantly slow the boat down. Willem Wiersema focused today on maintaining constant pressure to avoid stalling in these waves.
‘I am very pleased that I took another step forward in that regard today and managed to find extra boat speed,’ Willem Wiersema says. ‘Especially in the final race, during a great tactical battle with my Swiss training partner Gautier, I was challenged to the maximum both physically and strategically. These are exactly the specific learning moments we came to Almere for this week.’
The wind continued to shift significantly throughout the day. The Swiss sailor Gautier Verhulst, who topped the leaderboard yesterday, emphasized how challenging it was to constantly sail ‘in phase’ with the wind. The tactical puzzle of repeatedly choosing the fastest route to the next mark proved to be an excellent test of decision-making under intense physical pressure.
Gautier Verhulst his respond: ‘Willem played it just a bit smarter tactically than I did, but it was a fantastic fight. My start in the first race could have been better, forcing me to play catch-up, but those kinds of moments are exactly what makes this week such great training. We are really pushing each other here.’
Battle for the startline dictates the play on the IJmeer
The startline proved to be the strategic breaking point of the day. With the increased wind and shorter courses, a razor-sharp start was the only way to stay in control. Whoever won the start dictated the plan; whoever was left chasing the pack got literally and figuratively tangled up in dirty wind and fleet traffic.
The Belgian duo Yannick Lefèbvre and Jules Cock look back on the day with satisfaction: ‘At the start, it determines whether you can choose which plan you want to execute. If you have a good start, you are basically the first one with the choice of what to do. You are always one step ahead of the rest,’ Cock says. ‘If those starts continue to go well over the coming days, the duo looks forward to a successful week in Almere.’
Smart sailing
According to the leaderboard leaders, Keanu Prettner and Jakob Flachberger from Austria, the key today did not lie in blindly choosing one side of the course, but in smart sailing, positioning themselves in the middle, and immediately reacting to the major windshifts. Although they did not have those wind shifts perfectly under control in the first race, they got the hang of the dynamics better and better as the afternoon progressed.
Radical swap as a learning experience
Now that the pressure of the Olympic season has eased a bit after the recent World Championships, the door has opened for a unique experiment. The Dutch world-class sailors Bart Lambriex van Aanholt and Floris van de Werken chose a radical role swap yesterday —where the helm became the crew and vice versa. The leaderboard is secondary to the main goal this week: through the swap, they want to understand each other’s positions inside out. Due to the strong winds and sailing ‘on the edge of capsizing’, the Dutch duo started today in their familiar positions. Bart helmed the first two races, after which Floris took over the rudder for the third race. At the windward mark, they switched back to their standard positions out of safety considerations to prevent crashes and injuries. Although the boat ultimately capsized in the final race anyway (‘I wasn’t helming then,’ Floris joked), the duo looks back positively.
‘It went surprisingly well at many moments and we looked promising right from the start, but during the handling at the marks, you simply notice that you’re not in your trusted position,’ Van de Werken explained with a smile afterwards yesterday. ‘By literally standing in each other’s shoes, you immediately experience the specific difficulties of that role. Those insights will help us support each other even better in the future.’
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