Photo credit:

On June first 2007, it was my fourth anniversary as freelance journalist. Edwin Lodder gave me my first job ever, the Zwitserleven Round Texel Race. I had to take care of the event’s public relations, so this year was my fifth jubilee and the 30^th of world’s biggest cat race. In 2006, we had to deal with the Volvo Ocean Race and the Soccer Worlds, so the media attention was very little. It was my challenge to raise again interest among the journalists.

On Saturday June 23 2007, the Nissan Pro Team Bundock/Ashby won the 30th Zwitserleven Round Texel Race on handicap. The Aussies started with their F18 Hobie Tiger as the furthest boat on the right and grabbed immediately the lead on elapsed time. Fate hit Team ZwitserLeven Booth/Nieuwenhuis seconds after the start. While hoisting the spinnaker the halyard got jammed at the top of the mast. Booth: “Our only option was to capsize the boat, meaning that our Round Texel was finished after 30 seconds already.” Of course they continued and had passed 400 boats on their way to the light house. They finished thirteenth overall. The experimental Dutch M20’s of Pols/Veenstra and Dercksen/Mcintosh battled for the line honours. Thanks to the bigger sail plan of Performance Sails, Xander Pols and Tjiddo Veenstra had a speed advantage. They were streets ahead when they crossed the finish line after 3 hours, 16 minutes and 34 seconds. The jubilee edition was sailed in favourable conditions with a south-westerly force three and a calm sea. At 13:00 hours local time, the fleet put up a great show with a spinnaker start. It was unexpectedly sunny and thousands of visitors enjoyed the spectacle.

My press lobby worked out well this year, as we had articles in the national newspapers AD, NRC, de Telegraaf and De Dag, as well as a 7 minute item on the national sports channel NOS Studio Sport. NOS Lang de Lijn, a radio channel, broadcasted throughout the day from the beach. And of course, Radio Texel did a great job on live coverage. In addition to these national media, also regional and local newspapers and many websites paid attention to the 30^th Zwitserleven Round Texel Race.