The Brouwse Classics Regatta

A saturday early morning mid-june Vie, Floris and myself sailed Lona over to beautiful Brouwershaven. A long and nice trip involving two locks. Just the last 2-hour stretch on the shallow Grevelingen were right against the wind and were partly done on the engine. Sunday Karen joined us and we had a fine trial sail to discover the typically challenging water of the upcoming Brouwse Classics Regatta.

I stayed over in Brouwershaven for some more probing for the (tiny) opportunities outside the buoys.

Vie and Babs came sailing the first of the three regatta days... and then regrettably the first day was cancelled because of too much wind for the safety of the smaller boats.

Saturday and Sunday the races happened but were shortened because of lack of wind (!), Lona ran in the separate OGA start group alongside some 15 other OGA gaff boats, ranging from some lovely small and lightweight trailerable cat boats to the impressive Colin Archer types with twice Lona's bulk.

The races are run under a handicap rule that tries levelling this playing field.

(Picture: Lona, Hope of Mylor and Gwylan, two Falmouth working boats - see also our movie.)

Lona ended her two races respectively as first over the finish line and second over the line. But on corrected time we finished overall in the fourth position. Two of the smallest boats were ahead of us, and the different Falmouth boats were very nearby - proving the effectiveness of the handicap formula.

Lona earned a special price from the organization for being the oldest participating yacht, with her 111 years.