Royal Spring Cup

Scharendijke, Netherlands, April, 21, 2024.

The first regatta on big water of the Belgian season, organized by the RYCB on the Grevelingen lake in the Netherlands, could only tempt a small crowd of 6 Snipes after a long, dark and wet winter. It included Floriane, who drove all the way from Brittany in France (900 km). Some people are more keen than others. The forecast also wasn’t promising: 20+ knots from the North and temperatures between 5 and 10°C.

On Saturday the committee managed to find a weather window and 2 races were sailed in tough but in the end exhilarating conditions. The fleet was sent back to port just in time to avoid gusts exceeding 30 knots later in the afternoon.

Sunday started sunny but also a bit too windy. After some postponement the committee called it a day. Hopefully we’ve now seen the end of an extended winter and can finally start to look forward to some more enjoyable sailing conditions. Next event on open water is the legendary Copper Snipe Cup on 18-20 May off Ostend on the North Sea. It used to be a big feature on the international Snipe calendar and was revived 2 years ago. Hope to see you there.