The Spidertech™ team would like to congratulate Nico Brabers and his team Lenco on their overall victory in class ORC2 of the North Sea Regatta. The sails for their Salona 37 was designed by UK Halsey/De Vries and the skins constructed with Spidertech™ technology.

The sails were tested in all conditions as the North Sea Regatta consists of two offshore races and 9 inshore races and performed vey well.

Team Lenco also came second in the very first Lenco Regatta in April this year at Flevo Marina Lelystad in Class ORC2

Vuurschepenrace

The first offshore race is from Scheveningen in Holland to Woolverstone in the UK. The race is approximately 110 nautical miles. The second offshore race is back from the UK to Scheveningen. This race at 200 nautical miles is significantly longer as the course is routed to the north, direction Lowestoft, and then to the east in the direction of Ijmuiden before returning south towards Scheveningen.

Tuesday 19 th of May

Crew: Pieter Muus, Jeroen and Nico Brabers, Dennis de Ruiter, Jeroen Werkhoven, Ad Kamsma, Naut Biegel, and Balthasar Heesters .

Team Lenco had a very good start and rounded the windwardmark in first position. They lost some time during the night as they had some difficulty trimming the sails at night. In spite of this they were 2nd over the line in class after about 20 hours at sea.

Team Lenco ended in 3d position on handicap, Redan was 2nd and Elenoire that arrived 1.5 hours later was in 1st.

Not a bad start to the campaign and time to rest before the next race.

Friday 22 nd of May.

Once again an excellent start and Team Lenco was 5th around the mark, breathing down the necks of the other boats. Around the mark they hoisted the spinnaker and started gaining ground. Afterwards back on the wind and due to excellent tactics also using the tide they rounded the next mark in 1st place.

Now Team Lenco were really in the groove and not only were they increasing their lead to the rest of their class, but they were starting to catch some of the boats in ORC1 and IRC1 that started 10 minutes before them! Their excellent preparation of the boat and the sail wardrobe, meant they could concentrate 100% on the sailing without dealing with any problems.

Until the early evening Team Lenco were steaming away, but then mother nature stepped in. Around 21:00 the wind died and Team Lenco started drifting slowly towards the Smith Knol, a mark they had to round after about a further 20 miles. Slowly other boats behind them came into sight again and close to Smith Knol the pack were all together again.

Moshulu lay directly behind and rounded the mark a few seconds behind Team Lenco. The race practically had a new start and Team Lenco had lost their hard won advantage. The wind started fillng again and once again Team Lenco started increasing their lead, but they couldn’t shake off Moshulu although they were becoming “smaller” in the distance.

A few hours later and once again the wind died and Team Lenco were drifting on the tide in the direction of Ijmuiden. They had to resign themselves to drifting for a while with Moshulu in sight once again.

Team Lenco felt a slight gust and a windshift and decided to gamble and hoist their Spinnaker. The gamble paid off and they were the first to get going again. As they looked behind them they could see Spinnakers being hoisted on all the other boats.

Team Lenco won line honours in ORC2 at 23:00 after 35 hours at sea. Moshulu arrived 15 minutes afterwards, winning on handicap, with Team Lenco 2nd on handicap.

Overall Team Lenco now lay in 1st position due to their consistent performance in both races. Not a bad position to be in before the inshore races of the next weekend.

North Sea Regatta INSHORE RACES

Crew: Nico and Jeroen Brabers, Naut Biegel, Pieter Dibbits, Pieter Muus, Balthasar Heesters, Ad Kamsma, Jeroen Werkhoven and Jelle de Wit

The North Sea Regatta was blessed with fantastic weather, sun and wind for all of the races. The first three days consisted of short upwind and downwind legs. So that meant hardwork for the teams with a lot of spinnaker hoists, drops and all of that on the North Sea with variable tides, so quite a complicated affair. Team Lenco was competing in a very competitive field of around 36 boats.

Day 1: HOUTRUST CUP

Race 1: Line honours for Team Lenco, but as it was a very tightly fought race, on handicap only 7th
Race 2: Once again line honours for Team Lenco, but this time a much beter 2nd on handicap.

Overall Team Lenco came 3d and on the podium for the Houtrust Cup.

Day 2 & 3: YEOMAN CUP

Race 1: Line honours for Team Lenco, but again only 7th on handicap.
Race 2: A terrible start, a penalty round for touching a mark, but thanks to good boatspeed, still a 9th place finish.
Race 3: A good recovery and a 3d place finish.

The next day:

Race 1: An average start, once again line honours, but thanks to the handicap only 7th place.
Race 2: A very bad start, starting in the 2nd row, at the very last place. Time for some serious boatspeed and in the end a hard fought 9th place!
Race 3: Perfect start, off the line in first place, but choosing the coastal side proved a mistake and the boats going on the seaward side proved to have a significant advantage. The seaward boats came to the windward mark far ahead of Team Lenco. On top of this a mishap with the spinnaker resulted in a dissapointing 14th place

Overall Team Lenco finished in 5th place for the Yeoman Cup

Day 4: FJELLSTO CUP

Day 4 saw a much longer race and Team Lenco decided not to take any risks and to sail a defensive race marking the competition. After a perfect start Team Lenco was at the head of the field and stayed there which resulted in a satisfying 2nd place.

Thanks to the excellent offshore performance of Team Lenco they won the North Sea regatta overall in class ORC2 and the team can look back on a hard fought campaign with a lot of pride in their performance.

Team Lenco have had quite a season so far. They came second in the inaugral Lenco regatta in ORC2 in a competiitve field of 11 boats in their class.

Lenco Regatta:
http://www.lenco.eu/regatta/
For more news on Team Lenco visit their website at:
http://www.lenco-sailingteam.com/