Nederlandse Speed team op snelheid

Dutch Speed Team really hitting the straps. (text Ian Fox)

Starboard's Dutch team riders have really been making the most of new found performance with the arrival of their new Severne Reflex sails,.
Within the last month they have scored 3 riders into the GPS Top10 rankings, each with averages all over 43kts and peak speeds over 45kts,- and many new PB results - all on standard production equipment.

Caption : Peter van Dijk opens the throttle in ideal La Franqui conditions)

For Peter van Dijk, an original member of the Starboard/Severne Team in Netherlands, it has been a long time waiting to score that "special day"...
But after taking the long road trip south (1300kms and some 12+ hours driving each way) to La Franqui coast on the Mediterranean Sea (Gruissan region in South of France) Peter and team mate Jurjen van der Noord finally got to unleash the full potential of their iSonic Speed Special W44's in some excellent speed conditions. With the famous offshore Tramontana winds blowing at 30 kts and gusting 45 kts, Peter chose to tune his W44 with a brand new untested Reflex 5.6 sail and 25cm fin, while Jurjen opted for the 6.2 Reflex and 23cm fin, both riders using a lot of downhaul on their new sails to help find that perfect shape for top speeds.

Peter was justifiably pleased with his results " YeeHAAA!! Happy that I'm (hopefully) the fastest Dutch Starboard/Severne teamrider now. I'm coming to this spot for 12 years and with GPS around 7 years now. I didn't expect, I could do these speeds at this place. But the Reflex on the iSonic Speedspecial helped me to get these speeds. For sure this was not my speed limit..."


Jurjen @ Karpathos 2009

Jurjen however rates his "best" speedsailing session as not his fastest, but rather a special session back home in the Dutch Waddensea " My best day this year wasn't my fastest so far. It was my best day because everything came together. Using my iSonicW53 and Reflex 7.0m, I did speeds up to 41.5 knots and reached an 5x10 sec. average of 40.55kts. I was very pleased with this speeds. It was a personal best for me with this big kit. It shows that serious speeds can be achieved even with a big(ger) speedboard and a large slalomsail."

And whilst not making the La Franqui mission, back home at "da Curve" (Den Helder, Netherlands) new team member Erik Loots wasn't about to miss his chance either, tasting his first real small speedboard experience . "Definitely the fastest gear I have ever sailed!!! Should have bought a mini speedboard WAY earlier, this W44 has such a smooth ride. Both the W44 and Reflex 5.6 were never used before, or customized. Just out of the bag performance !! 45.9kn TOPSPEED!! 43kn+ AVERAGE, broke all my records!!! The session was great, I am stoked, the new equipment rocks. I was sooo afraid not being able to perform the first attempt on a good level, new sails and boards together are always hard to get tuned up."


Erik Loots

And the Dutch action doesn't stop there ; Starboard is also the board choice of well known GPSSS founder Dylan de Jong, while Telstar Boardsports rider Sander van Huizen has also locked onto the new Reflex sails for 2010.

With the year more than half over, it seems the speedwinds have finally started to return and the global competition for the coveted GPSSS rankings is really starting to hot up. Watch the season unfold and check all the session details over at
www.gps-speedsurfing.com

Big thanks to Martijn and Thewes at FoxSports for active support of our Dutch riders

www.star-board.com

www.severnesails.com