I had a very good time in Namibia. Everything turned out great for me. It was the first time I competed at a really windy world cup, and I finished a few times among the first 10! My worst position was 15th place, and overall I managed to be 12th, so I think I can say that it
was really good.

All the time Phillip and I played with each other. One heat he was in front of me and the other heat, he was behind me, and so on.

In fact, I also broke the Belgian Record that was set on 40.15 knots and I did 40.18 knots. But the race directors said it was not enough to call it a new Belgian Record, because there had to be a difference of 0.02 seconds and it was only 0.015 seconds !!!

If I had been 0.005 seconds faster, I should have broken the record, I was really pissed off! Bad luck, but it's not the end of the world and then I already have my goal for next year.

After the race, they planned a Record Attempt for the Nautical Mile for three days. But, as usual at such a moment, there wasn't enough wind. A few days later the wind came and was really strong. In the beginning I sailed with the TR-3 7.0m² and after three runs I changed to a TR-3 5.9 m². In the evening when I was putting my runs from the GPS to the PC I saw that I had a very good Nautical Mile .

It was a 39.1 knots, and you know what ? I did that with the TR-3 7.0m² !!!!!!! Nobody could believe I was this fast with a 7.0! This put me in the 3rd place on the gps ranking of the WORLD.

I was so happy, after the 500 m in Tarifa, it was my second time in the GPS top 10 and this all in my first year with Maui Sails. Now I'm officially the fastest Belgian person on the water ever. I think I have done my best as a rookie for Maui Sails.

Best Regards, Patrick Vanhoof B-52
www.Masterteam.be