Round Texel - Line honours for Peter Vink and Jeroen van Leeuwen

by Simon Keijzer on 17 Jun 2013 On Sunday morning, half past 10, all competitors in the 36th Round Texel Race heard the redeeming words: 'the 36th Round Texel will be raced today!' Following the postponement of 15 June, due to the strong winds, 194 of the initial 288 registered catamarans appeared at the start for the postponned version of the Biggest Cat race of the World.

After 2 hours and 35 minutes Peter Vink and Jeroen van Leeuwen crossed the finish line in front of Paal 17 first. Vink and Van Leeuwen took the lead at the lighthouse and did not look back. Sailing on their brand new and ultra-bright Nacra F20 Carbon the duo skimmed the water thanks to the specially prepared foils on the rudders and reached top speeds.

In their wake followed Xander Pols with Stefan Dubbeldam, despite frantic efforts these two guys had to be content with second. Winners of last year, John de Vries and Diederik Pauli crossed the finish line in third position.

Peter Vink: 'The race was best described in one word: great! It was tough, but really it was not survival. It was really about sailing. Thje conditions were challenging and great.' Vink and Van Leeuwen knew no problems. 'Just before the lighthouse we caught Mischa (ed. Mischa Heemskerk), who had a very good start and then we have never lost the lead.'

Mischa Heemskerk could have taken his fourth title today but he did not succeed. Heemskerk: 'It was a pretty heavy race. Certainly the first leg reach under spinnaker was difficult. I'm really tired now.'

Gunnar Larsen and Olympic Champion Windsurfing Dorian van Rysselberge finished tenth on line-honours. Both came out of the water with a big smile. Gunnar Larsen: 'We started with the brakes on. We wanted that. The first bit was challenging with spinnakers on a tight reach. We did overtake many boats after the lighthouse. It was blowing hard in the beginning but it was a really nice race!'

Full results with handicap and overall winner follow soon. Round Texel website