Corona & Doldrum
With just under 1.5 years to go before the start of The Ocean Race 2021/22, our Team Childhood 1, like everybody else, is affected by the Covid-19 outbreak. We had a couple of very successful events during the winter months. The highlights being winning the line honours in the RORC Transatlantic and becoming the top contender of all the Volvo 65´s racing during the St. Martin Heineken regatta and then all of a sudden our campaign “stopped”.
Four scheduled racing events in the Caribbean were canceled and Team Childhood 1, based in St. Martin, was more or less stuck there. All flights to St. Martin were canceled by the two major European airlines, so now what? Fortunately, we still had our boat captain there, so he could do the daily maintenance and keep the boat in top condition. Being in the Caribbean doesn't sound bad at all, but hurricane season was about to start, so we wanted to get Childhood 1 out of there as soon as possible. After the arrival, Team Childhood 1 made a successful tour in Sweden and now she is located in the Netherlands for temporary maintenance.
We have a contract until the end of September 2020 to sail under the name Childhood1. Without putting all of our eggs in one basket, we'll keep looking at all the other opportunities out there to be at the starting line of The Ocean Race 2022/23. This means, among other things, that we are looking for partners / sponsors to join us. We know that there will be numerous challenges and hurdles to overcome the Covid19 crisis and that our sport is not the most important right now. But we are positive and love this race and we will do everything we can to get back to the starting line!
THE HELMSMEN ON SHORE...
Sailing Holland is a collaboration of professionals. The collaboration started in 2013 with Gideon Messink and Anita van Oeveren. In close collaboration with 8-fold participant in The Ocean Race Bouwe Bekking. Together they had a dream to participate in the Volvo Ocean Race 2014 -15 with a Dutch boat and an experienced team. Together they went looking for sponsors. Not a sponsor for the entire campaign, but different sponsors who can reinforce each other, work together as a team and go for the highest possible result.
TEAM BRUNEL IN THE VOLVO OCEAN RACE 2014-15
Team Brunel 2014-15 was a collaboration between BRUNEL, Schouten, Robeco and Moduleo. A successful formula. Bouwe Bekking gathered a good team around him and won second place in the race.
TEAM BRUNEL IN THE VOLVO OCEAN RACE 2017-18
After the success of 2014-15, Sailing Holland immediately started looking for new sponsors for the 2017-18 race. This was not easy due to various circumstances. The team was finally able to start at the end of July 2017. A late influx, but Bouwe managed to gather good people around him. Another approach: many young people with a lot of knowledge and ambition. From the middle of the race, the team was unstoppable and made up for the backlog that had arisen in the beginning, leaving the team headlong with the winning teams: DongFeng and Maphre. After a nerve-racking battle, Team Brunel had to settle for an honorable third place.
The most important goal of Sailing Holland now is to train young enthusiastic people who have the dream to sail an Ocean Race. Coached by Bouwe there is a group of talents who sail along as a crew on the VO65. The goal is talent development so that more Dutch sailors can participate in the Ocean Race.
In the summer of 2019 the boat sailed among other things AF Offshore (Gotland Runt). Team Brunel and skipper Bouwe Bekking, along with young talents and HIQ as a partner, won the speed record, line honors and the class. Then came Channel Race, Fastnet Race and and Pro-am races in Aarhus.
Team Brunel 2nd place Volvo Ocean Race 2014-15
Team Brunel 3th place Volvo Ocean Race 2017-18
TEAM CHILDHOOD1
In October 2019, Sailing Holland began a partnership with the World Childhood Foundation (founded by Queen Silvia of Sweden) to generate more brand awareness for this foundation, which is committed to protecting children from violence and sexual abuse worldwide. The boat name has been changed from Team Brunel to Childhood1. Everyone who comes on board contributes to the name recognition of the foundation and the new Swedish - Dutch campaign in the Ocean Race 2022-23, through a donation / contribution.
