Round Texel - Dutch glory with a Caribbean touch

by Simon Keijzer on 1 Jul 2014 The 37th edition of the Round Texel, Saturday 28th June, was a day with bright sunshine, perfect sailing conditions, almost 300 boats and around 18.000 spectators spread out over the Dutch island. The overall winners of this challenging sailing spectacle: Nacra 17 sailors Visser and Van der Velden. The duo represents Aruba in the Olympic Nacra 17 class. This year they can add the title 'Round- Texel winner 2014' to their names.

The honour of 'first finisher' of the Round Texel last Saturday went to the team of Peter Vink and Mischa de Munck. On a Nacra 20 catamaran with modified daggers and rudders they 'flew' over the water. But the Round Texel is sailed in accordance with the so-called Texel Rating handicap system. That is a value used to calculate your adjusted time, so different types of cats can compete with each other. Bigger and smaller cats. Vink and De Munck sailed with a rating of 87, while the winner was expected to come from the smaller Formula 18 cats or the Olympic Nacra 17 class. And Visser and Van der Velden lived up to that expectation.

Last year, Visser and Van der Velden sailed all the way to Texel from Scheveningen, prior to the start of the Round Texel 2013. Thijs Visser was still a member of the Nacra 17 Dutch Olympic team and Van der Velden was hoping to become a member of the Talent-team. However, things worked out differently. Representing Aruba, they currently sail together in an Olympic Nacra 17. During the WC in Santander (September 2014) their goal is to qualify for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio.

Thijs Visser, shortly after arriving on the beach: 'We are really happy with how we have sailed. I've come second four times now and it would be so cool if we could win the Round this year. Many people are already congratulating us... but you're never really sure until it's confirmed by the Race Management!' said Visser.

The somewhat premature congratulations proved to be right. The Nacra 17 the expected winner, and Visser and Van der Velden extremely proud of their victory in one of the Netherlands' most challenging sailing Event website