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It is very obvious that I cannot keep up with my work schedule anymore. The lack of updates on my website is not because there is no news. It has been a different year since I came home from the Volvo Ocean Race. ‘What’s next’, was an inevitable question back in July 2009. I started working on my own online portal for sailing news in the Netherlands. Early March 2010, SailReport.nl was born.

Live photography

My colleague photographer Ronald Koelink had a fabulous idea; live photography at the Sail-In. He built a wireless network in his RIB, to which his camera was connected. All the images were sent directly to a Flickr file, published on SailReport.nl and at the same time I was using Twitter for short updates. We started early morning in Amsterdam, went all the way up to Ijmuiden, turned around and joined the armada back to Amsterdam. It was an amazing event. I have never seen so many people enjoying boats. It was definitely a new experience and so was our experiment. Except for a short hick-up in the network connection, it worked out well, so we decided to do it again at the massive finish of the Delta Lloyd 24 Hours Sailing Race in Medemblik.

Together with our semi-live updates in the Event Center of Geosports (tracing & tracking combined with twitter updates, images and a chat box for visitors), the 24 Hours Race broke all records so far. SailReport.nl attracted about 2.500 visitors in one weekend, who viewed over 30.000 pages. So, this is the way to go…

Diabo projects

Meanwhile, I had an extremely busy summer with my other company ‘Communicatie in Watersport’. My business has developed in a slightly different direction in comparison to 2008 prior to the Volvo Ocean Race. The magazines have smaller budgets for freelance editors, so I have been hired more and more by event organizations. This year, I worked as press officer for the Delta Lloyd North Sea Regatta, Delta Lloyd Regatta, Zwitserleven Zeilweek, International Nacra Championships, Kaagweek, Deltaweek, Delta Lloyd 470 Worlds, World & European Championships Sailing 2010 (Yngling, Splash and Flash) and the Delta Lloyd 24 Hours Sailing Race.

PR Growth

And there is another development, as some events are growing and the reporting can no longer be done by just one person. On Texel this year, my pr team grew with the assistance of five journalistic students, who did a fantastic job. They produced interesting video reports for the event website and helped with the daily newsletter. It was such a big success, that the Hogeschool voor Journalistiek in Utrecht (Higher Institute for Journalism) decided to add another event to their schedule of 2011; the Delta Lloyd North Sea Regatta. It is a pleasure to work with motivated, skilled and eager young professionals.

The Aruba Heineken Catamaran Regatta has been cancelled for this year, so no more events for Diabo in 2010.

More highlights

At the beginning of this year, I made a trip to Asia in order to collect as many articles for SailReport.nl, that needed to be updated before the official launch in March. I wrote about the Changi Sailing Club, Singapore Straits Regatta, the Dutch participants of the Clipper Round the World Race, the oldest cat sailor in the world and I wrote a preview on the first Olympic Youth Olympic Games.

After all the sailing events, I flew to my best friend in Kuala Lumpur. She works as Tiger Program Manager for WWF/Traffic. That means, she runs a program to prevent the tiger from dying out in Asia. There are only about 3.200 wild tigers left in this area, which is a big concern. Together we went to the jungle in northern Malaysia, where we joined a patrol of WWF and we visited an Orang Asli village (the original inhabitants of Malaysia). It was heart-breaking to hear about the serious issues, that they have to deal with. The problem solving is very complex, that’s for sure. I wrote an extensive article on my trip and experiences, illustrated with my own photography. It was published in the Esta, a life style magazine for women.

For now, I am working on a new winter program. To be announced soon.