Category: Press Release

Qingdao / China, August 9 2008 - Despite the commotion about the new ‘code zero’, Dutch Tornado sailors Mitch Booth and Pim Nieuwenhuis stick to their strategy. They plan to use the upwind gennaker, especially designed for the predominant sailing conditions in Qingdao. The final decision is a weather depending call. Their measurement is scheduled on Sunday August 10th, so they have one more day to monitor the weather forecast.

As revealed earlier, the upwind gennaker will give an advantage in speed up to 11 knots. However, on the downwind legs there will be a disadvantage with a significant smaller sail area. Booth: “But the advantage upwind makes up for the disadvantage downwind.” For every Olympic Games the designing process of the best possible equipment starts all over again. Booth explains how they decided to work on the smaller and flat gennaker: “In Qingdao the current has a big effect on the race course. We already know quite accurately what the current will be. And with the predominant wind from the south east, it means that in terms of percentage the upwind leg will take a lot longer than on a normal course without current. The lighter the wind gets, the bigger the change in percentage upwind/downwind will be.” If this is the weather forecast, the Dutchmen will defenitely use the code zero. Booth: “But if the wind comes from the opposite direction then the numbers will reverse and we might reconsider our strategy.”

Pim Nieuwenhuis expresses the fact that they did not use a loophole in the rules: “We just designed a different gennaker that complies with the required measures.” According to Booth, they don’t have any doubt concerning the legibility of the sail: “Two coaches and three professional teams worked on it for a year. We all know the rules very well and we asked ourselves every possible question. In case there was only a small doubt, we would not have wasted a year of testing and developing. I have no fear that it doesn’t come through the measurement.”

(QINGDAO, August 4) -- The Olympic Sailing start-off ceremony will take place in the Qingdao Olympic sailing center park starting at 7:00 p.m. on August 9. Officials in charge of planning the event promise that it will be, "the largest, most organized, most artistic, most exciting and most beautiful ceremony ever," as reported by the Qingdao Morning News.

The ceremony is will be made up of three parts: an enactment of "Raising the Sails in Qingdao", a performance of "Love in the Seas" and a brilliant firework display at 10 p.m. to end the ceremony. Some 2,000 actors will participate in the ceremony, along with 20 Qingdao singers.

Last week, Dutch Team Zwitserleven Booth/Nieuwenhuis revealed its revolutionary sail for the Olympic competition in China. Because of the expected light winds in Qingdao, the Tornado duo focused on developing a special gennaker. It is a lot flatter and smaller then the regular gennakers used on the Tornado. That allows the team to use this sail upwind in anything under 12 knots, something which is impossible with the traditional gennaker. Mitch Booth and Pim Nieuwenhuis believe that this will give them a big edge over the other competitors in the predominant light breezes of Qingdao.

”This afternoon, we were able to show its potential for the first time”, said helmsman Mitch Booth on Monday evening. After several days of unusual strong winds, today the conditions were perfect for the new sail, 5-10 knots with plenty of chop and current. These are the normal conditions for Qingdao and Mitch Booth commented: “We sailed laps around the other five boats that joined us on the water and I think they will be scratching their heads tonight. We are fully stretched on the wire in 5-7 knots of breeze, while the other crews are still sitting on the hull.” For months Booth and Nieuwenhuis kept their sail secret while developing it with designer Jay Glaser (USA) and sailmaker Ullman Sails Italy. They worked together with the teams from the USA and Puerto Rico to test and develop. No other competitors where allowed near the training facilities to keep the sail secret as long as possible.

Hugh Styles and Ryan Crawford (UK) scored two bullets on the first day of the Texel Dutch Open 2007 in the Netherlands. The British sailors shined at boat speed with their Nacra Infusion and ‘simple sailing’, as they called it. Mischa Heemskerk and Bastiaan Tentij, also on a Nacra Infusion, finished second twice in a fleet of 46 competitors. The British Spitfire team Chris Sproat and Georgina Burke are in third position overall. Last year’s runner up of the Zwitserleven Round Texel, Hans Primowees on a 27-year old Prindle 15, is leading the nine small cats in the Open Class II. After a few hours of postponement, the conditions were close to perfect with a southwester force 4, waves and clear skies.

A week prior to the start of the 30th Zwitserleven Round Texel Race, the organization has received 482 pre-entries. Among them the overall winners of 2006, Remco Kenbeek and Paul Brouwer with their F18 Capricorn (NED). The Swedish M20 duo Marström/Persson that took last year’s line honours after an exciting battle, will be back as well. The golden fleet is at full strength with over two hundred top teams from the Netherlands, Australia, France, Belgium, Germany and the UK. On Saturday June 23rd 2007 at 12:30 hours pm local time, hundreds of catamarans will start their race against the clock. From Wednesday June 20 until Friday June 22, golden fleet competitors have the opportunity to warm up by participating in the Texel Dutch Open, the official Dutch Championship Catamarans Sailing. 98 Teams have registrated so far.

A strong representation of home country the Netherlands will line up for world’s biggest catrace. Double former winner Mischa Heemskerk and his new crew Bastiaan Tentij are at full speed this season. Earlier this year, the Yamaha and Boskalis sponsored duo won Eurocat in Carnac (FRA) and the North Sea Regatta in Scheveningen (NED). They are part of the first one season Nacra Master Class ever, in which the 19-year old Tentij is supposed to learn as much as possible from his master Heemskerk. Tentij’s actual skipper Stefan Dubbeldam (19) will be coached and trained by Gunnar Larsen, who won the Round Texel Race in 1999. Team Zwitserleven Booth/Nieuwenhuis will be hard to beat in heavier conditions. At the F18 Worlds in Queensland (AUS) in February 2007, the Dutchmen showed their strength by winning silver with only one point deficit to Gold. Booth won the Zwitserleven Round Texel Race 2004 with crew Herbert Dercksen. Almost a year after their split, the two former mates will compete against each other, but this time both as skipper.

Prototype Volvo Extreme 20

Herbert Dercksen takes the helm of the prototype Volvo Extreme 20, with Aaron Mcintosh (NZL) crewing for him. Dercksen about his latest project, enabled by Zwitserleven: “This carbon cat is based on the M20, but has a different sail plan. You can consider it as a possible successor of the Tornado. Is carries a Tornado mast, the jib is smaller and the main a bit bigger. The VX 20 weighs 125 kilograms, which is 45kg less than the Tornado. I have learned a lot over the past years, so it is very exciting to helm by myself now. I look forward to the race.” At the moment, Dercksen is skippering the Extreme 40 in the Swiss Bol d’Or on Lake Geneva.