Great sailing day at Ouddorp. I haven't been there for years but it was worthwhile getting back. I could see the big boys flying and take note of the fact I am slowly but steadily getting older haha....no, actually I am pretty fit and easily sailed the distance but in order to be truly fast everything needs to be in synch.

All went great and relatively early I already set a peak speed over 80 and a nice run. At that time it was simply fast. When the wind turned on and shifted towards a more favourable direction I had messed up my fin on a stone. I ignored the sign (a white pole on the stone dam) and had to pay for it. My sym 21 got properly fucked up and the 23 was simply way to large to be quick. No excuse as I would have never gotten close to Jacques, Hans and Sander but nearly sure I would have ended around 76/77km. Time will tell if I am dreaming or not as I will be coming back here for sure, if only to see the masters at work.

Weight and length definitely is a "big" thing while sailing along a bank but it will be fun to make a mission of overcoming the hurdle, at least partially. Still it's to easy to blame only weight and length as Jacques and Hans visibly are attacking the conditions. They are true animals and it was super nice to meet up again. That alone made the trip worthwhile. Nonetheless...a speedsailor remains a speedsailor so I will keep looking for ways to improve speeds also behind a bank. I get the feeling on a free course my old self is coming alive again. Now the other part of me needs to play ball as well...oh..and port tack asy fins please Peter :-)...The sym is working like a dream on open water but behind a bank an asy simply pushes back and adds speed the more you push. With a symmetrical you have to sail light on your feet and only in the bearing off phase it truly comes alive which makes to basisc speed too low to get up to higher speeds.