Last summer was probably the best summer I’ve ever had. It was a vacation filled with fantastic weather, beautiful places and not to forget some excellent sailing on X-Yachts!

Who am I?
I am Nanno Schuttrups, a student Aerospace Engineering at the University of Delft. Working hard to earn my points but somehow always smiling. I am also the son of the Dutch dealer for X-Yachts. This said, it probably isn’t surprising to say I’ve done some great X-sailing this summer.

X-46 named “Flexible”
The story already started as soon as I had finished my last exam. Last winter my parents decided to get a yacht that was really going to be ‘our boat’. At first I was skeptical, as my father had said the same with seven previous boats (they were all sold on before I even caught a glimpse of them). But then I noticed how well he was equipping this boat, it was great fun in getting this X-46 prepared to all our wishes, later on naming her ‘Flexible’.

16.7 knots under gennaker
But up to the beginning of the summer we didn’t have any time to do some proper sailing, besides a few odd days. We decided to get a crew of some good friends togetherand participate in the Round Northern Holland 2004, a race with 250 entries! This means 110nm of sailing on the IJsselmeer lake, the Wadden Sea and the North Sea, virtually making a tour of the province of Northern Holland. The race began with little wind, which eventually died out to nothing at all. Later on in the day the wind picked up and settled to around 25 knots. This gave us the opportunity to do some serious sailing under gennaker; 16.7 knots. Eventually we had the line honors of 250 competing yachts.

A detour to Corsica on an X-332
After that some friends and I went to Cavalaire in the south of France where we could sail the X-332 ‘Virus’. We chose to sail to Corsica, where we enjoyed perfect cruising conditions. We had twelve days of good weather, swimming, going out and even some mountain biking. Corsica I can highly recommend.

On the X-46 heading for the Channel Islands
A week after coming home I was off again, but now with my parents on ‘Flexible’. The plan was to go to the Channel Islands, as we had never been there before. It took us only three full days of sailing to get to Alderney, the most northern of the Channel Islands. We also visited Guernsey and Sark, before returning back to Alderney. The Channel Islands are amazing! They are so ancient; it is like going back in time to the era of the old sailing ships. Every corner of the island is fortified. If it is not French or British it might just be German, dating from the Second World War. Navigating around the Channel Islands was great fun, as currents there can reach speeds of up to 7 knots and tides can rise and fall 8 meters.

From Alderney we went to Cowes, com-pleting the 65-mile passage from Alderney to the Needles in just six hours! From Cowes we went to Brighton and Dover, leaving ‘Flexible’ there for a day to visit London. We continued our trip up north to Ramsgate and Pin Mill before returning to Holland.

My best vacation
We have had two and a half weeks of vacation, in which we sailed over a thousand miles. We were fortunate to have good weather throughout (a rarity for this region) and strangely enough we always had to sail upwind! In that time we had our gennaker up for only 5 hours in total!

And that is where my summer holidays come to an end; I had to get back to my studies, as I had an exam in five days time! For me this was without doubt one of the best vacations I’ve ever had. I love sailing, and cruising an X in extraordinary places like Corsica, and the Channel Islands proved to be an absolute dream. I will always settle for another holiday on X!

Nanno Schuttrups