Zwitserleven Round Texel Race postponed + Video

by Marjolein Brandt on 10 Jun 2012 The Zwitserleven Round Texel Race, for the first time in it's history, will be sailed on a Sunday. Due to the stormy conditions on Saturday the organisors decided to postpone the worlds biggest cat race for one day. Sunday morning, 10th June, at 9 am the briefing for the 35th edition of the race will start in the regatta office.

Immediately after the announcement from chairman Sidney van Zon there was a big applause. There is a very positive atmosphere at the beach at Paal 17. Everybody is happy that eventually the race will be sailed. Only a handful of sailors are forced to check out prematurely. Also Hans Bouscholte who is one of the favourites for the victory. 'This sucks big time, but I have to do an exam tomorrow', he explains disappointedly. 'This is very painful. With my brother Ronald I have trained very hard for this and we have a fast boat. We had a good change to win this race. That's why we sailed around the island twice this week and skipped the Texel Dutch Open. First to break the record of course, but also as training. It would have been the 23rd time for me. Maybe Ronald will sail the Round Texel Race with somebody else, but then you are not sailing for victory anymore. For that it is a too serious game that's about experience and training. We have posted a call for crew and immediately got fifty reactions from all over the world, even from the Olympians in Weymouth.'

Chairman Sidney van Zon: 'Thanks to many authorities and volunteers it is possible to sail the Zwitserleven Round of Texel on Sunday. Logistically it isn't easy to move a big race as this for just one day. Not only because of the sailing, but also to get everybody from this island in time again. We had to manage a lot of things, also for the safety of the sailors. But we did it and I'm proud of it. Tomorrow we are going to have a beautiful race.'

Margot Ribberink, weatherwoman for Dutch television, is present at the briefing and has an advantageous forecast for Sunday June 10th: 'Today we suffer from a low pressure area that moves towards Denmark. It will reach its climax at 8.00 PM with gusts up to 90km/ph. After that, the wind and waves will decrease fast. Tomorrow we have a very calm weather situation with a Southwest wind force 4. That will decrease until 2 or 3 Beaufort during the day, and shall turn to East/Northeast.

Tonight at 9.30pm the prize giving of the Texel Dutch Open and the World Championships Nacra Infusion will take place in the party tent. These championships were sailed on Wednesday June 6th and Thursday 7th. Before the prize giving, at 6.00pm, the football match between Holland - Denmark will be showed on a big screen. After that there will be several performances, with as a climax the show of the Dutch famous singer Jeroen van der Boom.

On Sunday June 10th at 9am will be the briefing of the 35th Zwitserleven Round Texel Race. More than two hundred sailors are participating in this unique catamaran race around the Waddeneiland Texel. Due to safety reasons only the sailors who were on the beach yesterday and have registered can participate. The start is between 11am and 12 noon and will be broadcast live on the website.

The Zwitserleven Sailing Week knows multiple championships and races. The whole event started Wednesday June 6th with the Open Dutch Championships Catamaran Sailing and the official Nacra Infusion World Championships 2012. The recreational sailors sailed the Horstocht on Thursday and would have sailed the Trip to the North on Friday, but this trip was cancelled due to the wind. On Sunday June 10th hundreds of catamarans will participate in the biggest cat race of the world, the Round Texel Race.