Dear FD Sailors,
I trust by now most of you have returned safe and well back to your homes in your respective countries and I hope you all had a great time during the NY400 Week with the FD Championships at the Statue of Liberty.
On behalf of all of you I want to use this opportunity to do something I had very much wanted to do during our Trophy Ceremony in Battery Park, but which the tight time table and pre-arranged script of the (televised) ceremony prevented me from doing at that time:


I want to send our very sincere gratitude to:

Our Government Sponsor, representing the people of the Netherlands: the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, for so generously providing free container transportation from the World Championships in the Netherlands to New York and back, for providing a professional Safety Boat and EMT, and many other key resources we needed to make the FD Championships to a resounding success, for The Netherlands, for the International Flying Dutchman Class, and for the NY400 Celebrations as a whole.


The Officers and Staff of the Consulate General of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in New York:
The Honorable Hugo Gajus Scheltema Consul General of the Netherlands in New York, for his vision and drive to getting the FD Championships approved and for his inspiration that kept me going to overcome several seemingly insurmountable obstacles, which together we conquered after all.
Arjan Braamskamp In his normal function, Arjan is the Consulate’s “Economic Officer”, which has nothing to do with water and Arjan didn’t know the first thing about sailing. Yet, he grew to the occasion and and became the Stage Master, not “only” for the FD Championships, but for all NY400 on the water events. A monumental and highly complex job, which he managed Masterfully. My sincere admiration for a job exceedingly well done, Arjan!!
Harry Verwey Executive Director NY400
Marjan Inbar Spokesperson NY400
Simone Kreutzer Consul for Press and Cultural Affairs

The US Authorities:
The US Coast Guard For granting the needed permits and for their on the water presence during the Championships.
US Sailing 1) For introducing us to our three truly outstanding Judges,
2) For helping us obtain the needed Third Party Liability Insurance
3) For offering to nominate Henry Hudson as “Sailor of the Week” during the NY400 Week


Our Corporate Sponsors:
ING 1) For allowing me to work countless hours, days, weeks, and months in bank time (in addition to all my free time at home in the last eight months, frequently deep into the nights) to organize every last detail of the FD Championships, 2) For providing the “ING Bow-numbers”, 3) the ING Duffel Bags for all the equipment on our 8 committee boats, 4) for the ING Backpacks, 5) ING hats for all the sailors, and 6) for John Boyles, ING’s CEO Americas, and Gil Kirkpatrick, Chief Representative of ING Bank N.V. in New York to keep encouraging me through all this time.
Pepsi 1) For providing financial aid to partially finance the materials I needed to buy to build the dinghy Launching Dock, and 2) For providing close to 1,000 Pepsi drinks for the sailors and the Race Committee Volunteers during our week of sailing
Liberty Landing Marina For their massive help in getting the shore facilities ready for our historic FD Regattas
Offshore Sailing School 1) For their providing us with the Coach Boat of the Sailing School with Rogier Intres to fill the key role of Pin Boat on the Race Committee, and 2) for their commitment to provide financial aid to run the championships
Marriott 1) For their so generously reducing their regular room rate of $399 per night to $199 per night for the FD Sailors. Given that our group of sailors were in the Marriott for a collective total of more than 360 nights, this saved the FD Sailors some $72,000; and 2) For Marriott’s financial aid toward the printing of the bow-logos.
Statue Cruises 1) For their so generously discounting their regular round trip fare on the Liberty Ferry from $14 to $5. Given that the FD sailors used some 600 round trips, this help saved them some $54,00; and 2) For Statue Cruises providing us one of their cruise ships free of charge to bring us from LLM to Battery Park and back for the Trophy Ceremony
The Dinghy Shop For lending us their invaluable Jim Koehler who provided precious help at Registration and Measurement, who helped the FD sailors US Coats Guard approved life jackets, who helped tow FDs out in the Opening Parade, and who provided precious help as Safety Boat #2, in righting capsized FDs
The American Red Cross For providing us with the needed Red Cross flags on our Safety Boats
Standard Horizon
and WIN-Tron Electronics For providing us with VHF radios at half the retail price and for allowing me to return any unsold VHFs to be returned for full refund
Subway A truly heartwarming story of Raj and Grishma Patel who took just superb care of our lunch needs, which they personally and very punctually delivered every day, right to the Lunch Boat at the fuel dock of LLM, every last detail taken care of, including a little knot in the bags so the content wouldn’t fly out as they flew through the air to the FDs and RC Officers.... Even individual stickers on the bags, so we could see if they were “Ham”, “Turkey”, or “BLT”. Well done Raj and Grishma. Sincere compliments to you for a job very well done!!

Our individual benefactors:
Pieter Taselaar Who so generously lent us his beautiful Grand Banks 38' to serve as our Signal Boat
Pieter Eenkema van Dijk Who provided us with the Eenkema’s 18’ Boston Whaler, to serve as our Patrol # 1 and Lunch Boat
Lee Morrison Lee Morrison very kindly lent us the Morrison’s 22’ Grady White, the ideal boat for our Judges during race days, and perfect for me when my engine broke down on Saturday, and I could lead the fleet from the Grady White on Sunday during the Sail-By and Salute to the Prince and Princess of the Netherlands on Sunday


And my biggest thanks of all to the individual members of our all volunteer Race Committee and support staff who all contributed tons of their time, and efforts, and talents, and resources to make these historic Championships the success they were:
Jan Karel Smeets Principal Race Officer, for his outstanding leadership
Daan Goedkoop Principal Safety Director, for his serving us way beyond expectations, including three times jumping into the water himself and coming to the rescue of FD sailors in need (Daan even had to cut one FD sailor free from being trapped under water in his trapeze harness).
Donna Hobbs Senior Judge, Chairperson of the Protest Committee
Christiaan Brakman Press Secretary
Cynthia Parthemos Race Officer on the Signal Boat
George Parthemos Race Officer on the Signal Boat
Tom Spelman Race Officer on the Signal Boat
Richard Phillips Race Officer on the Signal Boat
Allegra (Leggy) Torrey Race Officer on the Signal Boat
Anne Mieke Smeets Race Officer on the Signal Boat
Annette Morrill Principal Scoring Officer
Sascha Sandberg Scoring Officer
Rogier Intres Race Officer on the Pin Boat
Paul Lennon Race Officer on the Pin Boat
Doug Heckrotte Race Officer on the Marks Boat
Andrew Barnett Race Officer on the Marks Boat
Carina McCabe Race Officer on the Marks Boat
Wouter Goedkoop Patrol #1, Lunch Boat and Safety
Hanneke Goedkoop Patrol #1, Lunch Boat and Safety
Jim Koehler Safety # 2
Bob Hobbs Senior Judge, Member of the Protest Committee
Eric Johnson Senior Judge, Member of the Protest Committee
Heide Hemker Registration
Caroline Kramer Registration
Enno Kramer Registration
Paul Hemker Measurement and Safety Checks
Jonathan Clapp Measurement and Safety Checks
Tim Sayles IFDCAUS President; FD Display Trophy Ceremony
Lin Robson FD Display Trophy Ceremony
Ronald TenEyck Service Director Shore Facilities. Ron was particularly inspired to celebrate the 400th birthday of New Amsterdam, as one of the first settlers in Nieuw Amsterdam in early 1600 was a Ten Eyck, of whom Ron is a direct descendant.
Michelle Bogs Dock Master, Tow-boat Captain Opening Parade; Captain Marks Boat
Todd Frankhauser Director Shore Facilities, Tow-boat Captain Opening Parade
Dan Cordana Director Shore Facilities
Jeremiah Cole-Kelly Shore Facilities and provisioning
Miguel Sierra Foreman Shore Support, Hoists and Launching
Luis Matute Shore Support, Hoists and Launching
Fausto Miscang Shore Support, Hoists and Launching
Ottho Heldring Helped with the construction of the Dinghy Launching Dock
Francis Grevers Helped with the construction of the Dinghy Launching Dock


Photo Galleries: http://www.sailfd.org/USA/
http://thephotoboat.com/Flying%20Dutchman%20400%20Photos.html
http://www.theimagefile.com/?skin=1365850&ppwd=fdsailor&Action=_VC&id=38330850

Once again, my sincere thanks to all mentioned above,

Job