Aqua at the Nestor Winterseries match

On the 21th of December aqua went with a team of eight to Rotterdam for the Nestor Winterseries. This was the first out of three races where we sailed against other student sailing associations. This time we battled during teamraces on J22’s against Histos, Broach and Rszv. It was a stunning sunny day with perfect wind which made it a fun experience!

So Teamsailing? What does that mean? Well, I am not an expert but in Niek’s words, our biggest goal was that none of us ended last. We were sailing with four boats at a time, divided into two teams, in our case aqua and some other association. It was a very fun way of sailing as you are constantly trying to hinder the other teams and trying to claim the right of way. If you or the other team fails to give right of way, the umpires (referees) would tell you to do a penalty round. This was also the case if one team would be significantly ahead of the others, which strangely was never a problem for us.

What did the day look like? We all went to the station separately, either by train or by car. Luckily Niek was able to drive by the station to pick up all public transporters and we arrived right on time for the briefing, which started at 11.30. Coffee/tea was provided and they explained to everyone how team sailing works and how the course would look like. Then the first teams went and made their boats ready, we however were scheduled late and played some games together.

Then we did our first races, which we all, well, lost, but I’d like to say we were definitely improving after every one! It was sunny and there was a nice breeze. The wind was so that you could sail nicely but could still be silly. After a couple of races against all other associations we had a quick break with hot chocolate and ‘broodjes knakworst’ before going back again for one more round against every association. Whilst we didn’t improve our results, we did improve again and almost didn’t finish last on the final round!

Afterwards we had a little briefing with an opportunity to ask any questions you might have after the race. Then the boats were taken out of the water (where we supported greatly from inside with hot chocolate) and afterwards we said our goodbyes. We headed into the city to eat pizza with our aqua team before heading home again.

All in all it was such a fun day. It was a nice way to get to know people from other associations and exciting to sail even in wintertime! If this sounds fun to you feel free to join the upcoming races on the 17th of January or the 28th of February. We are still looking for some people to join the 17th so if you are interested, you can join the groupchat (Nestor winterserie) by sending a message to one of the board members (even if you are not sure whether you can make it or not). It is only €15, lunch is provided and everything is finished before dark.

Special thanks to Yves and cameraman Koen who made our group of six a complete team of eight.

~Elena