Team Childhood I on its way to Lithuania for The Ocean Race Europe prologue

Team Childhood sailing to the north in front of The Hague © Maarten Slooves

The VO65 of Team Childhood I, left The Hague on Friday, April 30th, with destination Klaipeda in Lithuania. Onboard no fewer than nine talents: seven Dutch, Swedish Julius Hallström, and the South African Matt Whitehead.

These talents try to secure their place on board for The Ocean Race Europe during the prologue. On this delivery trip to Lithuania and during the prologue the team will be led by Pieter-Jan Postma and skipper E.J. van Housselt.

Pieter-Jan Postma is looking forward to the delivery trip

Triple Olympian Postma (NED): "It's great that we are finally going to sail. In recent weeks and months, many of these talents have worked hard to get the boat back in top condition. They did an awesome job in preparing the boat. The logo of the World Childhood Foundation looks nice on it. With this logo, we raise awareness on child sexual abuse and what can be done to keep children safe. We are proud of our partners who make this possible: Slättö, Neptunia, Janssen de Jong Groep, New Horizon, and DutchSail."

"We use this delivery from The Hague to Klaipeda in Lithuania to train, develop and sharpen procedures. Next to that, it's a great opportunity to get used to each other and to life on board."

Team Childhood I leaving The Hague - photo © Irina Bom

Prologue used to select

The prologue will be used by Postma to select the talents that will participate in The Ocean Race Europe. The selected talents will race with Postma, and the previously announced Gerd Jan Poortman(NED), Peter van Niekerk (NED), and Wouter Verbraak(NED) under the leadership of skipper Simeon Tienpont(NED) in The Ocean Race Europe.

Postma: "In the prologue, we sail together with three other VO65 boats. In addition to our Team Childhood I, these are Sailing Poland; The Austrian Ocean Race Project, and Ambersail-2 (Lithuania). After the prologue, we return to the Netherlands for a few days. After a short stop in The Hague, we will leave for Lorient, France. Lorient will host the start of The Ocean Race Europe on May 29th.

First picture from onboard Team Childhood I - photo © Crew Team Childhood I

Crewlist delivery + prologue

1. Jelmer van Beek (NED)
2. Rutger Vos (NED)
3. Max Deckers (NED)
4. Laura van Veen (NED)
5. Arianne van Loosdrecht (NED)
6. Lars van Stekelenborg (NED)
7. Robin Jacobs (NED)
8. Julius Hallström (SWE)
9. Matt Whitehead (SA)
10. Pieter Jan Postma (NED)
11. E.J. van Housselt (NED)

More about the World Childhood Foundation: childhood.org