20220904

Published in Dinghy Cruising Journal 257

Raid Extreme 2022 Report

Friday 2 september

Twenty-three boats from France, Germany, UK and the Netherlands made it to the 2022 Raid Extreme.
Emmanuel Conrath and Marco Dessardo brought a Silmaril XL and Viola canoe from France. It was to be the maiden trip for the brand new Silmaril XL which completed only hours before the drive to the Netherlands.
Julian and friends from Germany launched their newly built Jewelbox Jr for the first time. The green-white Michalak design looked a bit like a houseboat with a sail but proved surprisingly seaworthy.
Another new boat was Josien Kapma's Liteboat XP which she singlehandedly sailed to her hometown after taking delivery at the factory in Grenoble in the French Alps.
The grand old man of the fleet was undoubtedly the rowing/sailing gig 'Peter'. It was originally built for racing in Berlin in 1911. Ralf-Peter and Raban Stumme restored the slender hull in 2021 and used 'Peter' for occasional outings on the river before attempting the much bigger Lauwersmeer.

With the Covid restrictions out of the way, Keith, Mark and John from the UK finally made it to Oostmahorn. Mark sailed his Solway Dory canoe Lauren-Lou and Keith and Ann brought their Old Town Canoe 'Black Penny'.
Newcomer John brought a Hobie trimaran. Since Sebastiaan brought his two-seater there was now a Hobie trimaran fleet.
The other multihulls were 4 cats from the Omaho club, including a vintage Hobie 16 rescued by Jouke and Daniel. The biggest cat by far was Mike Kerszemaker's impressive home-built Evergreen 6.0 catamaran with sleeping berths in the hulls.

At the briefing, Koos discussed the weather forecast of strong NE winds on Saturday and emphasized that the event was not a race. There would be no rescue boats and everybody would be responsible for their own safety. Keith perfectly characterized the event as 'comparative cruising'. After the briefing all sailors had dinner at the 'Raadsel van de Wadden' overlooking the marina and Lauwersmeer.

Saturday 4 september

The following morning everybody started early to prepare their boats. At 6.49 Hubert sent the fleet off with a trombone solo.
With the wind blowing onshore, many crews found it hard to get away from the beach. Mike Kerszemaker had trouble to get his big Evergreen cat safely out of the marina: too many waves, not enough speed. His stepson saved the day by jumping overboard and towing the dual-rigged cat off the leeshore. Onno, Anneke and Klarie struggled to steer Gjoa out of the marina as well. Bert Schilder and daughter were pushed back to the beach with their Nacra 6.0 catamaran. With the steering bar broken it was game over for them. After fixing his boat, Bert made a new start with Jelmer and completed all 6 checkpoints in under four and a half hours.

Compared with the ideal conditions of the previous year, the 2022 edition was challenging with gusty winds.
Hubert and Rene sailed Hatseflats (outside competition) with two reefs and still managed 7 knots while reaching.
Once you were used to the conditions the sailing was very enjoyable. Michiel and father Hans on Higgs shaved nearly two hours off their 2021 results. As they finished an hour before the Liteboat XP they were the fastest monohull.
Marco in his Viola and Emmanuel sailing his brand new Silmaril XL handled the conditions well and thoroughly enjoyed the event.

The canoeists found it hard going. Mark got swamped a couple of times going upwind and returned to the beach. Arij cruised around for a bit and then returned as well. Koos made a late start and completed all checkpoints.
Keith and Ann short-tacked the channel all the way to Zoutkamp, watched with interest by the highlanders on the river banks.

The windy weather caused some more breakages during the day. Sebastiaan broke the steering system on his Hobie trimaran and Frits broke the dagger board of his Mirror dinghy. To our relief, everybody had safely returned by 1700 hours.
After careful analysis of the result forms, Koos and Hubert started the prize giving ceremony in front of the Omaho club house.

The prize for fastest boat went to Gerben and Geke Talsma who completed all 6 GPS checkpoints in a record 4 hours and 17 minutes. They also won the Dutch Cow Award being first to Zoutkamp.

The 'Most Desillusioned Sailor' award went to Bert Schilder for breaking his steering bar. Having made an impressive comeback with Jelmer, Bert proudly wore his prize, a horseshoe buoy bought for a whopping EUR 4,50 at the charity shop in Dokkum.
The Concours d'Elegance was won by Julian Hielscher's Jewelbox Jr which impressed everybody on its maiden trip with 4 German lads in testing conditions.
Keith and Ann were the fastest canoe, and John Bennett ended up the fastest trimaran.
There were many other prizes and trophies, such as the Helping Hand for Onno, epoxy for Sebastiaan, and a special prize for Julian's team for being number 9 on the results list.
Afterwards, Koos and Hubert fired up their barbecues for everybody to use. Michiel, Hans and Margreet handed out freshly baked Flammkuchen as a little extra.
Newcomers Marco and Emmanuel said they felt very welcome by the friendly and relaxed atmosphere.

Sunday 5 september

As Sunday brought sunshine and less wind, quite a number of boats made it to the water again. Among them, Julian's Jewelbox Jr once again impressed everybody cruising happily around.
With 23 boats this year's edition was the biggest Raid Extreme to date. The highly informal format requiring everybody to take responsibility for themselves worked very well even in challenging conditions.
Hubert and Koos are planning to stick with the 'bring your own' format even if this means limiting the event to 25 boats.