Organisation/Information/Subscription
Discover bv, Edwin Lodder
Aluin 3
2719 TS Zoetermeer 
The Netherlands
Tel/Fax +31 (0)79 3429868
Mobile : +31 (6)51134452
E-mail: info@arubaregatta.nl

www.arubaregatta.com

The 12 races will be held right in front of Palm Beach and the hotel. Throughout the week, up-wind/down-wind courses, triangular courses and (semi) long distance courses will be sailed alternately. The generally calm sea and stable off-shore trade winds (average NE 4-5 BF) ensure that both experienced and inexperienced sailors will enjoy a wonderful sailing week.

The safety of the contestants is of the utmost importance. This year, once again, the contestants will be escorted during the races on the water by the rescue boats of the Aruba Watersports Center. Thanks to serviceteams from Nacra Europe and Hobie Cat Holland material damages can be solved very fast.


What started as a joke turned out to be a fantastic sailing experience!

By Meriam Winterink and Vladimir Voute.


In 2006 we bought our boat, a Nacra inter18, and this was our first own catamaran. Within our marina in Muiderzand, we saw the tempting brochure about the Aruba Heineken regatta race. Jokingly we said we should go there. However, both not being experienced cat sailors, we didn't really consider this regatta as a serious racing option for ourselves. Although, Aruba sounded like a fantastic sailing destination -  an experience where we could learn a lot for sure. Fortunately, one of our partners truly enjoyed the idea of a lovely week at the beach in Aruba and before we knew it, we subscribed for this exciting adventure.   Next question of course was how to prepare and what to bring. The information evening was very useful for obtaining answers to these kinds of questions. Hence, we arrived well prepared at the harbor in Rotterdam to embark our boat in one of the containers. Funny idea to know that our boat would be out on the ocean for a month!   Next step was to ensemble the boat in Aruba. Yakkie, suddenly such a cat consists out of many different parts. And we had no idea as to which part belongs where. This cause the co-owner had always assembled the cat before, I had never done it myself.  The atmosphere among all the sailors was fantastic. We noticed that many people knew each other already and soon we got in contact with all kinds of friendly and helpful sailors. Some of them were wondering  why we left to our hotel room on a regular basis while assembling the boat. The secret was that we had many self made pictures on our laptop which explained to us what to do with all these different parts and which line to connect where. Where most sailors fixed their boats within half a day, it took us about two days ;-)…but hey, we learnt a lot, got in touch with many people, integrated and laughed a lot. We were happy that we arrived one week before the races. This also gave us a good opportunity to explore the island, do a bit of diving and just relax at the beach.   We also realized immediately that we belonged to the inexperienced sailors and that it would require a lot of effort and energy to stick to the other cats during the races. Hence, we decided, in good agreement with the organization committee, to enter the slower catamaran class, by sailing without our spi.   During the sailing itself, we also had many fantastic experiences…..during the first race, we sailed one lap too many. As a consequence of that, some funny guys put a counting frame on our cat the next morning. Very handy! We capsized twice, lost the helm woman in the water and we got hit by another cat. This fortunately was not our fault. Once during the race we got hit by another cat, which was our fault this time. And we experienced many other great events not to be forgotten.   During the first races, we obviously belonged to the last finishers within the slower class. Hence, we took the opportunity to get some ''free'' professional advice from Menno Vercouteren during the day off. We spent one hour on trimming the boat. Apparently, our  sailbattens and rig  were too lose and had to be tightened.  The second hour was related to getting some hints and tips during the boat handling on the water. Although not too many new things were mentioned, it helped tremendously to feel more confident. As a result, we  finished2nd place in all the races after this training day. We never realized that a good boat trim is this important and makes such a difference.   Besides the great sailing, we should also mention the many activities at shore. Each day, a delicious lunch was waiting. And the evenings were filled with great parties, fantastic dinners and all kind of other things you normally believe only exist within brochures.   All together we can conclude that it has been a superb experience for us which we truly can recommend to all other (inexperienced) sailors.   For sure we will participate in the Heineken Regatta 2008 again. And this time you will find us in the faster class!!