Vuurschepen and North Sea Race, 22 - 27 May 2001
005 Hard Work on Deck I 006 Hard Work on Deck II 007 Philippe 009 Frans Wide awake 010 NJ sailing at night 011a Tristan at night
012 Tristan 013 NJ sleeps 014 Pien sleeps 015 Weight balanced well 015a Weight balanced well 016 Sleeping in the sail
017 Spi Holland 018 Frans Grooming 019 Carsten I 020 Arend I 021Arend II 022 Arend III
023 Carsten II 024 James 025 NJ Sleeps 026 Pien sleeps 027 NJ sleeps 028 Deck
031 Deck II 033 James_s Antics I 034 James_s Antics II 035 James_s Antics III 036 James_s Antics IV 037 NJ on deck
038 Pien and Carsten 039 NJ steers 040 Pien looking complacent 042 NJ and cap 043 Arend and Philippe resting on deck I 044 Arend and Philippe resting on deck II
046 Philippe caught in the act

No wind for Zwerver in North Sea race 2001
After Zwerver's good results in the Vuurschepenrace we had high hopes for the race from Harwich to Scheveningen, the North Sea Race, that started Friday, June 25 at Harwich.

This is one of the races where crewmembers can qualify for the Fastnet race, so we did have some pretty cool racers on board.

No joy. Right from the start the wind was so little that Zwerver just could not compete. We were outsailed by faster, younger, lighter ships. All Friday we did as best as we could. Late at night, however, the tide started to take us backwards, so we had to present an anchor.

Wonderful experience, being at anchor some fourty miles off the coast of Brittain. It is just that the better part of the crew did not really seem to enjoy it. We had the impression that we were used as the rounding buoy by the ferries in their little competition. Finally, when the nortgoing tide came, we were once again able to drift with the tide in the direction we wanted.

Attention sagged: James had a lot of trouble getting folks out of the cockpit. ("OUT Please! We want weight in the center of the ship, NOT at the back". Funny thing, though: one way or another, everyone drifted back to the cockpit during the next half hour.)

Only during the next night did we get some wind, and some speed.

The finish was good for a lot of adrenalin: the wind had really picked up now, and there was an early's morning mist. It was the GPS that brought us to the line, and into Scheveningen.

Well, we have not done too badly, after all: sixth in the RORC IRC 1 class (out of twelve competitors), fourth in the IMS 3 class (out of eight). See http://www.rorc.org/raceresults/default.html