Former Olympian finds winning Formula on the water

by 2B Sailing on 7 Sep 2010 C2 Formula 18.

Holland-based sailor Darren Bundock and new crewmate Jeroen van Leeuwen have extended their impressive winning run in Formula 18 racing with the pair racing off with their third successive victory on the cat in just three weeks.

Almost a decade after he won the first of his two Olympic silver medals at the Sydney 2000 Games, Bundock, a former Olympic class Tornado sailor and multiple world champion, has shown age has only made him better as he and van Leeuwen sailed to victory at the Dutch F18 championships.

'From the moment we first jumped into the C2 Formula 18 together we have just clicked,' the Australian said of his and van Leeuwen's on-water partnership.

'You can go all your life and not find someone who is the right fit with you on a catamaran but I've been lucky.

'Both of us get off the water, win, lose or draw, and we are smiling. I guess that says a lot.

'I've always said a happy crew is a winning crew.'

Part of the 2Bsailing team, the inform Bundock and van Leeuwen beat 2008 and 2009 F18 world champion Coen De Koning and Thijse Visser for the victory at the regatta with 2009 Dutch F18 champion Mischa Heemskerk and Bastiaan Tentij finishing third.

Dutch Olympian and former Olympic class world champion Carolijn Brouwer and crewmate Wouter Samama finished fourth.

Since teaming up in the C2 earlier this season, Bundock and van Leeuwen have claimed victory in the NAM REM Race, where they clean swept every race in the regatta, and the long-distance Euro Cats Cup in Belgian.

In their most recent outing the pair posted only one result outside the top four, a 12th they were able to discard, to claim their victory.

The next outing for the champion pairing is the Forts Race this weekend coming up in the United Kingdom.

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