Main sponsor Brunel is also no stranger to the stage race around the world. The project management office was already involved in the 1997/98 and 2005/06 races. Another VOR veteran is Gerd Jan Poortman, who has two races in his mileage book and is already a permanent member of the team. Further crew members will be selected in the coming weeks.
The boat has already been completed in England. It will soon be travelling to Holland for christening and then on to the south. There, in Alicante, the participants in the race will set off on their 40,000-nautical-mile journey on 4 October 2014. The destination is Gothenburg in 2015.
An event steeped in history
"Racing is simply in our Dutch blood," Bekking is certain. He is probably right: Conny van Rienschoten's successes on the legendary yachts with the name "Flyer" are unforgettable. To date, Van Rienschoten is the only skipper to have won today's Volvo Ocean Race, which was once called the Whitbread Round the World Race, twice. No less famous are the campaigns of ABN Amro, the Dutch savings bank. One of the then two boats won the 2005 edition of the race under skipper Mike Sanderson from New Zealand.
Other participants
With the announcement of the Dutch team, four teams are now registered (SCA from Sweden, Abu Dhabi and Dongfeng from China). Another three are expected. Roy Heiner, another Dutch sailing star, is also working on a campaign. According to reports, he has already raised eight million euros. A further five to six would probably be required. Whether Heiner will be able to raise the money is questionable. However, the Dutch have obviously avoided the situation where two campaigns take sponsors away from each other and neither is viable in the end.
