David Staley, Sunday, 21 June 2015
After two days of sun, wind, rain and exciting racing, the Open Dutch Hansa Class Championships 2015 were already declared a great success. Sunday was the last day of scheduled racing but the wind was extremely light and variable, so racing was unfortunately abandoned.
There were 26 entries in this Inaugural National Championships held in Zeewolde, with international sailors from Switzerland, Belgium, France and Australia helping to make up a very competitive field.
Current World Champions in the Hansa 303 two-person class, Tish & Michael Leydon of Australia, sailed a near perfect series dropping their 9th place in the final race to win with a comfortable margin. It was down to a tie-break for the other podium places as Jean-Yves Letrain & Mike Dequecker (FRA) finished on equal points with Wendy Horemans & Christophe Sloor (NED). A win in the final race for the French team saw them come away with second place.
Swiss sailor Willi Lutz had three straight wins to finish his regatta, giving him the Hansa 303 single-person championship by one point from Gerhard Beens (NED). Just one more point in arrears, Claudia Schmid (SUI) claimed third overall.
In the all Dutch Liberty division, Hanneke Deenen dropped her second place in the first race and scored firsts for the remainder of the regatta to win by three points from Wilma van den Broek. Bastiaan Hof claimed third overall.
Liberty sailor Deenen also claimed the overall Dutch championship title with the combined fleet also scored on performance handicap. The Australians Tish & Michael Leydon sailing the 303 two-person were second, with Wendy Horemans & Christophe Sloor (NED) third overall.
Results
More photos from Wedstrijdcommissie WVZeewolde
International Hansa Class Association 