Kieler Woche: "Double adventure" with career and child - Rosalin Kuiper comes to Kiel

When the starting signal for the 2nd Ocean Race Europe after 2021 is given in the German "Sailing City" of Kiel on 10 August 2025, Rosalin Kuiper will lead Team Holcim - PRB as a skipper in the race. She will have been a mum for a good six months by then and, looking to the future, says: "It's a double adventure! My partner Coen and I are very happy and grateful. My sponsor is also super supportive. I played my cards close to my chest right from the start and told them about our desire to have children. It's not a given that a sponsor will react like that, even if I hope it will be the new normal one day."

I experienced the power of a diverse team in Team Malizia" (Rosalin Kuiper)

Team Holcim's plan from the outset was for Nico Lunven to compete in his first Vendée Globe. After the end of the solo circumnavigation, which Boris Herrmann is targeting for the second time with "Malizia - Seaexplorer", Rosalin Kuiper will take over the skipper role in Team Holcim - PRB. She will lead her own team in the Ocean Race Europe.

Rosalin Kuiper is already planning for the Ocean Race Europe

She can't name any names yet, but has a clear idea of her future crew: "I've experienced the power of a diverse team in Team Malizia. I want to form a diverse team. My aim is to have a healthy mix of men and women who bring different talents to the table. While working with Team Malizia, I learnt that it is also good when different countries, different cultures and different languages come together in teams. The resulting diversity can inspire teams. In the past, when I worked with teams of sailors from just one country, it was often associated with a less open approach."

If everything goes according to plan, I would also like to give new, not yet so well-known talents a chance to shine in the Imoca world" (Rosalin Kuiper)

Rosalin Kuiper continued in an interview with YACHT online: "If everything goes according to plan, I would also like to give new, not yet so well-known talents a chance to shine in the Imoca world. I see that as an important task in my role as skipper." The fact that Rosalin Kuiper and Nico Lunven form an alternating double lead in Team Holcim - PRB is a great opportunity for the Dutchwoman, but it also brings challenges: "While Nico and the team are currently fully focussed on the Vendée Globe, I'm supporting them in some areas, but I'm also preparing a lot for the Ocean Race Europe in the background. Timing is an important factor at the moment. We're managing that very well as a team. I will take over when Nico gets off the boat after the Vendée Globe."

Lunven and Kuiper: dual leadership for Holcim - PRB

It remains to be seen whether Nico Lunven will also be part of the team for the Ocean Race Europe. Rosalin Kuiper and Nico Lunven just completed a sailing session together off Les Sables-d'Olonne last week. "It was a short run that was fun and went very well. We foiled at 24 knots. Now the boat is being refitted." The team will also be working intensively on the bowsprit of "Holcim - PRB", which recently broke twice, first in the Transat CIC and then again in the New York Vendée.

"The fractures cost us two races. We don't yet have one hundred per cent clarity as to why this happened. An expert is currently investigating the matter. The boat will start the Vendée Globe with a new bowsprit," said Rosalin Kuiper. She is also watching her future Ocean Race Europe competition from afar. Next year, this will include Team Malizia, which has already registered as Team Holcim - PRB. Commenting on Boris Herrmann's "Malizia - Seaexplorer", which Rosalin Kuiper knows very well as a former co-skipper, she said: "You could learn so much from taking part in the Ocean Race around the world. That's why Boris has made so much progress."

Rosalin Kuiper is looking forward to her own "double adventure" as a professional sailor and future first female skipper in the Ocean Race Europe as a mum. "I have a great partner who is also ambitious with his own business, but who can accompany me in the coming year. I have a wonderful family, great friends and very supportive sponsors in sailing. There are also other women in our sport who have had or will have children. And there will be more races to come. I am quite sure that we will experience more than one Ocean Race Kindergarten together."

Rosalin Kuiper as a guest in Kiel

The Kieler Woche attracts Rosalin Kuiper to the north of Germany on Tuesday. After a flying visit to the Kiel-Schilksee Olympic Centre in the heart of sailing, she will be a guest speaker at the traditional Kiel Week regatta dinner in the evening.

In sporting terms, the 130th Kiel Week put its athletes to the test on the third of the nine regatta days on the fjord with light winds. The skiff classes were only sent out onto the course in the afternoon. The Kiel Cup was also able to start. Others, such as the Ilca-7 aces, did not get to race.

Click here to go to the YACHT portrait of Rosalin Kuiperwhich was created after the Ocean Race with Boris Herrmann's team Malizia.

The interview with Rosalin Kuiper was conducted by Ocean Race presenter Niall Myant-Best in the spring: