 |
| The XP 33 on the hunt on the final run of the last race |
The XP 33 won the Warsash Spring Series in IRC class 2 with a convincing lead of 9 points. Skipper Jochem Visser praised his team and crew and explained the final weekend performance:
"On the Saturday we scored a 2,2,2,3 were we narrowly missed the 1st place by a few seconds. We did well but struggled to keep clear lanes on the 4 very short races which were challenged by short venomous shifts. The bigger 40' feet boats La Response and Premier Flair gained points on us. But on Sunday the XP 33 showed her pedigree and all roundness winning both races." Jochem recalls the last race in particular: “The final race was very short and lasted less than 30 minutes. In those short races the big boats can easily sail you back and put some time on you but……..in this case the rolls were nearly reversed as the XP 33 arrived literally bow to bow with them at the top mark”. On the final run the XP 33 excelled and trailed them close on their stern to secure victory in the last race as well.
When we asked Jochem how the XP 33 compared to his X-99, in which he won 2 World titles in the 90’s, he looked up at us like an exited teenager; “The X-99 has been very special to me as I won my 1st ever World title in her, but she wasn’t an easy boat to sail and needed a lot of skills and a very dedicated crew to sail her fast. The XP 33 has really impressed me, I love to have a tiller again with finger tip control and I really like her clean simple set up and more importantly she sails and performs at a high level really easy. If I think back about my X-99 days and how much we improved season upon season I’m convinced there is much more my team can do with the XP 33. To put it simply; I've fallen in love with the XP 33 and I think she is a weapon”
