On the second day of the Texel Dutch Open, Darren Bundock and Glenn Ashby (AUS) were unbeatable. The Hobie Tiger-duo took three bullets. The weather conditions were fine with a north-eastern wind, force four and a considerable wash of waves. In total 43 teams started this morning. Mischa Heemskerk and Sander de Boer (NED) finished three times behind the Australians, with their Nacra F18 Infusion. Koen de Koning and Sacha Larsen (NED), also sailing with the new Nacra, are in third position after today.

June 14, Leg One Results:Team Cuba Libre Wins First Leg Of the 2006 Great Texas Catamaran Race on a Hobie Tiger, "Read More" to see full results.

June 14, 7:00pmTeam Wild Wild West is the only boat out. Winds are 15 and steady. Team San Diego had a heck of a run with making up huge amounts of time after having to return to replace a rudder and came in the second group of boats.

Team Chums II had a mishap after the boat coming in behind them crashed into them right on the water line. The boat only got a dimple and all the crew was not injured. Now we are just waiting on the last team to arrive.

June 14, 4:30pm A couple of teams have reported in from the water and most of the ground crew has arrived. Blowing 10-15 here on the beach on Mustang Island with nice formed white caps on the water. The last team to leave the beach Wild Wild West, after repairs this morning, left at noon. We are looking for the first 5 teams to finish before dark.

Reports indicate that the race started off at a slow 5 knots from South Padre and have been building since. The head group of tearms, as of the last report, was R3, Team Chums I, McBok, TPR, Yost and Nautigear. Not in order. All but one team were hugging the coast.

Excellent conditions here and lets hope for a good finish before dark. Photos will follow tonight, late, so check back soon.

June 14, 10:00am There off! 14 boats off with 4 left on the beach. 1 broken rudder cam and 2 with various other problems. As of 10:47 CT, one boat was still on the beach redrilling/mending their rudder cams.

Surf, 2-4ft, winds 8-10. Weather system coming in fast. More soon, gotta hit the road, 109 miles to cover for us ground crew.

See you in Mustang Island.

June 14, 9:00am Some talk last night of pushing back the start but the race is going on as scheduled at 10 am

<img src="albums2/album265/Kearns_Burns.thumb.jpg" alt="Simon Kearns and Ben Burns" width"150" hspace="5" vspace="5" border="2" align="left" />On Wednesday, 14 June 2006, the 64 entered teams did not leave the beach to sail the first races of the Texel Dutch Open 2006. An approaching rain cloud with heavy gusts of wind made the racing committee decide to keep the competitors ashore. Eventually, it turned out to be not that bad and the dreary weather stayed on. The Open Dutch Catamaran Sailing Championships, which are officially acknowledged by the Royal Dutch Sailing Federation will last until Friday. On Saturday the 29th the Round of Texel is expected to kick off with 450 competitors.

Pre-Race Practice Day, June 13, 2006 Today winds were out of the East, which is not typically for this area, and blowing 5-8. The beach here in South Padre Island is quite shallow for a distance out and produces a nice series of breaking waves which teams must navigate through to launch.

Today started off very hot, humid and slow, but the pace picked up as crews prepared for the safety inspections and some managed to get some sleep and still hit the beach. There is a great turnout of the F-18 class and a few are running the new F-18 European style chutes.

Four teams attempted to launch through the surf today; only three were successful. It made for some great photos. Tomorrow will be interesting as the tropical storm that is crossing Florida is changing the typical local weather patterns.

The teams look pretty prepared as of this evening and are now attending a mandatory meeting and team check in followed by a dinner and meeting later tonight

More to follow...

--Connie Brown
Photographer, Great Texas Race

June 13, 2006- Great festival of speed
The Bol d'Or Rolex has always attracted the most extreme boats, each attempting to make the best of the typically light, but fickle conditions found on Lake Geneva.

The 40 or so multihulls competing in this year's Bol d'Or Rolex, are mainly catamarans. The Décision 35s (or D35s) are now universally admired for their state of the art design and high tech carbon fibre construction. They are the fastest boats on the lake and with owners such as Ernesto Bertarelli, the man behind Switzerland's successful challenge on the last America's Cup and famous skippers such as Alain Gautier and Loïck Peyron, they are also the most high profile. Winner of last weekend's Genève-Rolle-Genève'race, Peyron is returning to try to defend Bol d'Or Rolex title after his victory last year on Nicholas Grange's Okalys. For the D35s, the Bol d'Or Rolex also forms part of their championship for the Julius Baer Cup.

Another smaller class of high speed one design catamaran really booming in Switzerland is the M2. This class originates from the former F class multihull, the rule being reworked, adapted and simplified to make boats that are attractive, fast and spectacular, while remaining within a tight budget. This formula seems to be highly successful: on the start line of the Bol d'Or Rolex last year were 20 examples and of these eight were new. This year 29 M2s are entered. Of these 19 are the latest breed of Ventilo M2.