twothousandnineteen and edition six !

With four great winners in the first five editions we are looking forward to racing in 2019. 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 winning the Dutch National title! In 2017 due to lack of wind and few races no new national champion but we did have a new regatta winner, Joerg Rademacher (GER). Then in 2019 Andreas Pich took the Dutch National title so he's the champion to beat! Please have a look at all the previous editions and find out how the idea of the Eastersee Regatta took shape...

Winners Eastersee Regatta

2018		Andreas Pich (Dutch National Champion)
2017		Jörg Rademacher
2016		Dirk Dame (Dutch National Champion)
2015		Frank Strelow
2014		Frank Strelow

2018 | Great conditions for excellent racing

Saturday

Thirty-seven sailors from Belgium, France, the Netherlands and Germany came to Oosterzee for the 2018 edition. The prospect of wind, sun and a some small rainshowers promised a good sailing day. At eleven o'clock the fleet went on the water birthing their boats from the beach. At 11.30 the first start was expected and when we got the first start underway with most of the fleet crossing the line too early. So a general recall. Luckily for those who didn't make it on time to the starting line. The second time around everyone was clear and the championship was underway. By the end of race 2 we had 22 knots on the water, so really challenging conditions. For some sailors a little to much and they called it a day.

When race 4 started the wind was building up again and at the first mark, Thorsten Schmidt lead the fleet. At the second mark he took a swim while gybing his OK dinghy. Jochen Lollert, in second place, didn't take any chances and made a chicken gybe that cost him the lead, because he was overtaken by his rival in third who managed to get the gybe in. Andreas Pich, president of the German OK association, managed to get his second win. Wolfgang Höfener took a second place, which kept him in the lead halfway the championship. Jochen Lollert took a third place. By the time the fleet, of now only 22 boats left, had passed the finish, the wind had increased to 26 knots. Everybody went ashore to get the pressure of of both legs and arms.

On the shore it wasn't like we left it in the morning. The large tent of the organisation had taken flight at the time the fleet was finishing race two. And with a crash on top of the parked car Harm and Ingrid the tent was torn all apart. The shore team had cleaned up everything and the inventory was taken to the café where the regatta office was reinstalled. Some good improvisation that showed the flexibility of everyone involved ! The evening BBQ at the café and the beers that go with the food was welcomed by the tired sailors, of whom some had taken a nap already to recover from all the effort they had done on the water. Rod Andrew took his guitar and played his songs and the evening was sociable and cozy. Everyone turned to bed a little earlier than they normally do on the Saturday regatta evening, but on the other hand most sailors got what they came for.

Sunday

In the morning there was just a little wind and the race committee went on the lake to get the lanes in. By the time the races started we had 8 to 9 knots of wind and slowly increasing. Stephan Veldman had a bright start together with the top two of the general ranking Wolfgang and Andreas. The three sailors stayed close together during the entire race, but Stephan managed to get the win in just in the last upwind beating. A Dutchman winning a race in the Dutch nationals, sounds like victory.

Race 6 of the championship was won by Andreas. Wolfgang only managed to get in in eight place, his worst score of the series. But it made the fight for the title very close, with both sailors just one point apart with two races to go. Second in race 6 was Jorg Rademacher, winner of the regatta in 2017. And Dirk took third, and managed a good overall score with six finishes in the top five. In race 7 Wolfgang sailed to six, while Andreas sailed to ten. With discarding the worst races, there was everything to sail for with only one point in between in favour of Andreas. The final race of the day. Who would take the title. Both Wolfgang and Andreas weren't in front of the pack in the beginning of the race. Wolfgang was somewhere in the middle of the fleet with Andreas more a little more forward. In the end Andreas took a fourth spot, and Wolfgang sailed to shore early, perhaps because he knew the title was out of reach. Nevertheless what a tight battle between both sailors during this weekend. A new Dutch Champion and a new Eastersee Regatta winner in Andreas Pich. A great runner up in Wolfgang Höfener and in third, the man who never missed a Eastersee Regatta, won the Dutch championship in 2016 and is always constant, Dirk Dame. What a podium. And for the Dutch, Stephan Veldman was the best Dutchman with a sixth place overall, being the best non German sailor in the overall ranking. Sybren sailed to 15, Hessel Hoekstra just behind him on 16. Mark Wildenberg, Solo dinghy sailor and for the first time in an OK, sailed to 19. He had a great time in the boat. We hope to see him more often in the OK dinghy class. Thanks to Rob Ligtenberg for inviting him and thanks to Harm the Vries for letting Mark charter his boat. Johan Geenen sailed to 19, Rob Ligtenberg to 22, just before Sjouke Bus on 23. Bart ter Haar sailed to 25, Dick van der Zee to 30. Dutch OK association president Robert Jan Bancken sailed to 32 and Peter van der Schaaf, who unfortunately couldn't sail the entire event due to illness, was found on place 34.

2018 Archive

For more information, pictures and movies from the 2017 edition, please visit our 2018 archive.

2017 | lack of wind

Fourty-six OK sailors from seven nations (France, Great Brittain, Poland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxemburg and Germany) brought their dinghies to Oosterzee to race for the Open Dutch Championship 2017 that was combined with this years Eastersee Regatta. Saturday morning started sunny, warm and with a good breakfast, but unfortunately the wind forecast was not so great. The racing committee decided we would go on the water and hope the small breeze would grow to a steady wind. But all that happened was the temperature went up. And while the sun baked the sailors on their OK's, the wind didn't build up. To boost morale, the organisation handed out a 'broodje kroket' on the water. A Dutch traditional meat snack on bread. Half an hour after that, racing was postponed untill further notice and the fleet came to shore along with the racing committee. Then at half past four some breeze came in and the fleet went out for one race close to shore. At least we were racing, but still the wind was hard to find sometimes. Claus Stockhardt (GER) took the win for Jörg Rademacher (GER) and Ralf Mackmann (GER). Stephan Veldman (NED) came in fourth which is really well in this fleet. Another surprise was that Rob Ligtenberg (NED) rounded the first mark in place six but he had a very hard time to stay up front. Nevertheless great sailing from him with his aluminium masted OK. Susanne Mackmann did great in the fleet and managed to take fifth place and be the best female sailor of the day.

Sunday started again with breakfast and looking out the tent directly on the waterfront. Wind, not much but wind... The race officer and his crew ordered racing to start at 10.00 hours and they immediately started to put the course in. One race, very hard because of the windshifts and winddroppings. A race with boats out of the finishing time limit. The start was tight and hard. Christian Heinze (GER) managed to finish seventh despite his double start. As always the best sailors are more in the front of the fleet. Both Polish sailors Tomasz Gaj and Marek Bernat found the best wind and finished first and second. Third was 'mister consistency' Ralf Mackmann (GER). After that the wind stayed shifty, so again postponement and back to the shore. At one o clock after phoning the meteorologist, the signal came there wasn't going to be any more racing this weekend. Very unfortunate but the wind is about the only thing we couldn't control this weekend.

The final ranking based on both races was made and Jörg Rademacher took the win with a 2 and a 4. Just beating Ralf Mackmann with a 3 and 3. Third was Claus Stockhardt with 9 points. Best female sailor was Susanne Mackmann ranked 11th in the final ranking. Best Dutch sailor, like last year, Stephan Veldman ranking 6th. And some special prices. Best sailor with a wooden mast, not for the first time, Rod Andrew. And best sailor with an aluminum mast, Rob Ligtenberg. Two special prices (small frisian windbags to use in their home country), to thank them for their multiple hours long drive, went to Marek Bernat and Tomasz Gaj from Poland and to Tony Woods from Great Britain. We had a good time, with nice weather, meeting friends that share a love for the OK dinghy.

2017 Archive

For more information, pictures and movies from the 2017 edition, please visit our 2017 archive.

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.