it all started in twothousandthirteen

With two great winners in the first three editions we are looking forward to racing in 2017. After winning back-to-back in the 2014 and 2015 edition, Frank Strelow (GER) had to hand the victory over to Dirk Dame (GER) in 2016. So before we will race in the summer to find out who the next edition will be, have a look at all the previous editions and find out how the idea of the Eastersee Regatta took shape...

2016 | tight racing and a new winner

The third edition of the Eastersee Regatta had the best weather possible. What a great national championship in the Netherlands on the 27th and 28th of August. We had 42 sailors from 4 countries competing and after 20 years we finally have a new champion 'OK dinghy' in the Netherlands. After a real battle between five Germans the title of Dutch OK class Champion and Eastersee Regatta winner, went to Dirk Dame from Germany. Dirk sailed a very consistent regatta and could scrap an 11th place, which brought him the title with only 11 points. A trophee and a ribbon for this fantastic champion and ambassador of the OK dinghy. Right behind him Frank Strelow and Joerg Rademacher, also from Germany, battled for second and third with the both of them scoring 13 points. On the first day the circumstances were splendid (temperature 26 degrees, sunny, breeze 3 to 4) and four races were sailed. In the evening the sailors could enjoy a sailing trip on the lake on the hundred years old skûtsje Frisia. After BBQ and beers there was everything to look out for into day two...

The second day started with thunderstorms and the start was delayed till 12.00 o'clock. Rod Andrew played music and everyone waited for the weather to clear. Then in the afternoon two races were sailed in a building breeze (4+) to complete the series of six races before the fleet returned form the water to be home on time. The organising authority WSV Zevenwolden and race officer Age van der Bles did a great job putting the lanes in perfectly. After tight racing Dirk Dame took the end win Behind the five top Germans, sailors form Belgium, Luxemburg, Germany and the Netherlands were racing eachother. Ronny Poelman (BEL) took sixth place overall right before best Dutchman Stephan Veldman who beat his brother with just 3 points. There were great battles throughout the fleet. More information, pictures, stories and movies will appear here in the coming days.

2016 Archive

For more information, pictures and movies from the 2016 edition, please visit our 2016 archive.

2015 | a big and spectacular second edition

The second edition of the Eastersee Regatta was a big succes. First of all there were thirty-seven OK dinghies that went on the lake Tjeukemeer. Sailors came form Belgium, Germany, Luxemburg and the Netherlands. We allmost had sailor form Denmark entering the regatta, but unfortunately he had some car problems. Perhaps next year.

day one

The first day was sunny and had a very nice breeze. There was a really nice big course for three races and we saw some great racing and sportsmanship. There were sailors on top of the leaderboard with 11 points after the first day. Dirk Dame, Frank Strelow and Stefan Rassau. In race two we saw a historic Dutch win by Sybren Hornstra inthe SOTA OK dinghy with sailnumber NED 6. Best female after day one was Susanne Mackmann on place 11, while Kor-Marten Lok led the aluminum mast fleet and Rod Andrew as ever was the best sailor with a wooden mast.

On saturday afternoon Willem Stoker steered his drone over lake Tjeukemeer and the entire OK dinghy fleet for some pictures and movies. In the afternoon a tour on the lake on the 'skûtsje' Frisia. Frisia is a cargo sailing ship from 1902 and has a length of 20.56 meter. Skûtsjes are famous in Fryslan and the Netherlands and each year these sailing ships race eachother in weekends and big summer regatta's. With a BBQ and some beers everybody was looking forward to day two!

day two

After sailing an almost perfect second day Frank Strelow, the 2014 edition winner, won the Eastersee Regatta 2015. With three race wins on sunday Frank ended up on top of the leaderboard. A great winner we have in him. Second place was for Thorsten Schmidt and third place went to Stefan Rassau, all from Germany. We think with the weather and the racing, everybody is a winner. Two days with good breeze and lot's of sunshine. After the three races on saturday the race officer was able to put 4 races in on sunday.

Racing was close to the shore so the spectators could follow the races and their favourites. The special prizes went to Susanne Mackmann (1st female sailor, on place 16 overall), Rod Andrew (first wooden mast) and Koen Schelling (first aluminum mast). The encouragement award went to Bart van der Haar. All prizes were handed out by Twan Trommelen from the local municipality of Oosterzee.

2015 Archive

For more information, pictures and movies from the 2015 edition, please visit our 2014 & 2015 archive.

2014 | a great first edition

During the last weekend of August 2014, nineteen OK dinghy sailors from the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium brought their boats to Oosterzee (NED) for the first Eastersee Regatta in history. Dutch enthousiastic OK dinghy sailors organized this event in the northern part of the Netherlands called Fryslan to promote the class in their own land and to have another great international OK dinghy class event next to the spring cup, after becoming a full member of OKDIA again. Sponsored by the companies Rabobank, Diversion, Pi-groep, leukebootjes.nl and Scaldis Sails, the event took shape and promotion began by creating a website. Soon sailors started to pre-register so the fleet increased as the weekend approached. On Friday evening the first sailors started to arrive at the campsite near the center of the town, right next to the small harbour and the twnty square kilometer lake. All sorts of boats entered. A SOTA dinghy, O'Donnell, Hein, Dutch wooden boats, Henriksen and masts of wood, aluminum and carbon. Erwin Veldman (NED, former World Champion Splash) arrived for his first time sailing an OK, together with his brother Stephan (NED, former European Champion Splash). Together with senior OK sailor Peter van der Schaaf (NED) they had to battle aces Dirk Dame (GER), Ronny Poelman (BEL) and Frank Strelow (GER).

day one

On Saturday morning race-officer Lex Vogelenzang arrived at the event. Soon to find out the NED 652 of Jan Siebe de Vries, who sadly couldn't race because of work overseas, was the boat he build over thirty years ago in the barn of his family-in-law. The flags waved with a nice 11 knots that increased during the day to around 14 knots. The Olympic course was set and the first starting signal sounded. Three 45 minute races were scheduled. Racing was thight at the front and back of the fleet. Dirk Dame (GER) won the first race battling with Ronny Poelman (BEL), Stephan Veldman (NED), Peter van der Schaaf (NED) and Frank Strelow (GER). Frank took second and third race to lead the first day with his SOTA OK. Still very close together, the heat was on for day two. At the back the older boats sailed competitively on this first day. In the wooden rig competition Sybren Hornstra (NED) battled with Bart ter Haar (NED), Rod Andrew (BEL) and his wife Johanna Andrew (BEL), Teus Baars (NED) and Francois Podevyn (BEL) with his nice varnished wooden hull. Rod and Sybren battled for the first wooden rig on the overall leaderboard. On Saturday evening the BBQ arrived. Lots of talking, getting acquainted, laughs, free beer and looking forward to day two.

day two

Sunday started with breakfast. Warm eggs, Frisian sugarbread and other small bread from the local bakery. The skies that looked so nice when everybody woke up, turned grey when thunderclouds started to roll in. Fortunately the organization tents were big so everybody could enjoy breakfast sitting dry. After the rain, wind was gone… slowly it came back and the knots increased gradually. Lex his wife and his son Sander had arrived. Sander was going to sail the NED 652 his father build more than thirty years ago. At 10.30 sailing started in 7 knots of wind. four 30 minutes races were scheduled. The Olympic course was situated close to the shore so spectators had a very good view of the racing. It was very nice to see people who (build and) sailed the OK dinghy in the Netherlands in the past showed up to relive their past by visting the event. After the first race wind had increased to 11 knots and building. Frank started where he left off the first day, taking the fourth race for Ronny and Peter with Rod taking the fourth place with great sailmanship with his, BEL 1, all wooden boat and rig. In race five it was Ronny who took his first win with Sander sailing to a nice seventh place in the NED 652. Then Dirk took the sixth race for Ronny and Peter, while Frank sailing his worth race ending up only fourth. The seventh race he showed he was fastest in this regatta taking his fourth win in seven races with Ronny taking second and Stephan taking third. Erwin sailed a good second day with two six and two eight places. He enjoyed the OK dinghy and together with his brother Stephan they will be back for the podium next year! Philippe Cowez (BEL), Joost Rommelaere (BEL), Gem Brekeveld (NED) and Harm de Vries (NED) sailed in the mid fleet, doing some nice battling. Unfortunatley Sybren could only sail on day one, so Rod was way In front on the wooden rig leaderboard. Great to see these wooden and aged OK dinghies giving competition on the water. Johannes van der Pal from local authority was there to hand over the prizes. There were three special prizes. Johanna Andrew (BEL) received prize for first female. Husband Rod Andrew received prize for first wooden rig. Local sailor Harm de Vries received prize for being the first boat build prior to 1980. Ronny Poelman (BEL) took third place overall, just before Dutchman Peter van der Schaaf. Dirk Dame (GER) took second and Frank Strelow became the first Easterseeregatta champion. Besides the winners trophy he received an exchange trophy, so the organization encouraged him to return in 2o15 to defend his title. Frank thanked the event organizers. The organization thanked the sponsors, volunteers and sailors and asked them to spread the word about the event.

2014 Archive

For more information, pictures and movies from the 2015 edition, please visit our 2014 & 2015 archive.

2013 | the idea was tested

In a small town in Fryslan in the north part of the Netherlands there was an idea to organise a sailing event for OK dinghies. A small racing sailboat that dissapeared from the Dutch lakes two decades ago, but had interested a small group of enthousiastic young and elderly sailors once again. Ronny Poelman form Belgium really liked the idea and brought his boat to Oosterzee to sail the large lake Tjeukemeer and loved it raight away. six or seven sailors had a great day of sailing and the idea for a real weekend regatta in Oosterzee was born.