Round Texel is the biggest catamaran race in the world with an annual average of 600 participants.
The Ronde om Texel (Round Texel) is a regatta for catamarans around the island of Texel in The Netherlands. Round Texel was first organized in 1978. In that year Sigi Lach (from Germany) won in a Hobie 14 in a field of 84 participants. Since then the race grown into the biggest catamaran race in the world with an annual average of 600 cats participating. The race has its start and finish near Paal 17 on the North Sea and is approximately 100 kilometers long. It is organized once a year on a Saturday in June. The race starts an hour before high tide to ensure that there is enough water to pass the high mud flats northeast of the island. This tidal prerequisite determines the date that is chosen each year for the event.
A regatta is a series of boat races. The term comes from the Venetian language regata meaning "contest" and typically describes racing events of rowed or sailed water craft, although some powerboat race series are also called regattas. A regatta often includes social and promotional activities which surround the racing event, and except in the case of boat type championships, is usually named for the town or venue where the event takes place.
A catamaran is a multi-hulled watercraft featuring two parallel hulls of equal size. It is a geometry-stabilized craft, deriving its stability from its wide beam, rather than from a ballasted keel as with a monohull sailboat. Catamaran is from a Tamil word, kattumaram, which means "logs tied together".
Texel is a municipality and an island with a population of 13,641 in the province of North Holland in the Netherlands. It is the largest and most populated island of the West Frisian Islands in the Wadden Sea. The island is situated north of Den Helder, northeast of Noorderhaaks, also known as "Razende Bol" and southwest of Vlieland.
Strong tidal currents and variable winds around the island make Round Texel a highly tactical race that has been won alternately by professional sportsmen and skilled outsiders. Notable winners have been Reginald White, the first multihull Olympic champion, who won Round Texel in 1994 at the age of 59. In 2003 the trophy went to Darren Bundock, world champion in several multihull classes in 2003, 2004 and 2005. The 30th anniversary race on June 23, 2007 was won by Darren Bundock and Glenn Ashby from Australia in a F18 Hobie Tiger. Line honours were won in 2007 and 2008 by Xander Pols and Tjiddo Veenstra. In 2009 they took a second place in the line honours ranking.
Reginald James White, usually Reg White, was an English boat builder, sailor, Olympic champion and world champion. He won a gold medal in the Tornado class with John Osborn at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal.
A multihull is a ship or boat with more than one hull, whereas a vessel with a single hull is a monohull.
Darren Bundock is an Australian sailor from Gosford, New South Wales. He won a silver medal in the Tornado class at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney. Bundock and current crewmate Glenn Ashby are the 2007 world champions in the Tornado class and ranked number one in the event going into the 2008 Summer Olympics. However, they were beaten by the Spanish crew and won silver. He was an Australian Institute of Sport scholarship holder.
The female helm Carolijn Brouwer and her crew Wouter Samama made history after finishing on June 10, 2012 in 3 hours, 10 mins and 35 seconds placing first overall and becoming the first female helmsman to win. Brouwer: 'We were already gone at the starting gun. Wouter checked the line well and said I just had to go. He told me not to look over the shoulders, but I did it secretly. That was an enjoyment."'In the gusts we got some height in order to stay out of the surf. Only after fifteen minutes, Xander Pols past us. We really haven't seen any other F18's around us. It was quite exciting at the VC-buoy, because we were double trapezing and sometimes you hit the ground there, so we put on the brakes a bit. However, later on at Oudeschild we really got stuck." When asked how this success feels, Brouwer says: 'This is amazing. We went for it, but this is better than expected. Finally a normal Round Texel Race, because last year we were already hit and broken before the start.'
