Havn Cup

Antwerp, Belgium, Jun e 10, 2024. Report by Katia Royer

At the famous lake Galgenweel in Antwerp we sailed a wonderful Havn Cup. The centre of Europe has been terrorized by liters of rain for the past months. Summer is nowhere to find. But today we enjoyed (almost) champaign sailing weather. Dry (finally), nice wind (average 3, gusts 4) and from time to time the sun was peeking through the clouds. 

As always, sailing at lake Galgenweel is a challenge. Wind is not very stable. Shifty and varying strengths between 6 and 14 knots, requiring full concentration of the sailors. Another difficulty item was added today. One could say, it was especially for the Havn Cup, a tasty gin “dill – smoked birch – SEAWEED”. To define the fastest route to sail the course, one had to find the route in between the jungles of seaweed which would give you a much better chance at winning a race than sailing according to the wind shifts. Lifting the centreboard during the downwind to get rid of the seaweed was fine, but during the upwind, it resulted in the boat drifting leeward for a few meters each time. And it was to be repeated every two minutes… The crews really did their fitness! Getting rid of the seaweed around the rudder was even more difficult. The one with the longest arms could remove the most. 

As so much concentration was required from the sailors, counting the loops was the difficulty item too much. The second race resulted in a discussion, whether the first four boats had performed 4 loops instead of 3. Maybe the 5^th tot the 15^th boat only performed 2 loops instead of 3? No one of the jury could tell… This shook up a little bit the results, since no discard was provided. 

After the race we enjoyed the very tasty Havn gin and PomTom of our sponsors. Finding in our glass……SEAWEED (dill). The sun started shining again and we almost felt like it was summer.

We had a beautiful day on the water, thanks to the organizing committee. Thank you.

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