Elapsed winner of Transatlantic Race

(December 4, 2019; Day 12) – Swedish VO65 Childhood 1, skippered by Bouwe Bekking, has taken Line Honours in the 2019 RORC Transatlantic Race, finishing tonight at 22 hours, 34 minutes and 49 seconds. The team completed the course in an elapsed time of 11 days 11 hours 34 mins 49 secs.

The rhumb line for the race course from Lanzarote in the Canary Islands to Grenada is approximately 2,900nm, but the route taken by Childhood 1 took the team far south, racking up nearly 4,000nm in the race. The majority of the crew were young sailors with ambition to take part in The Ocean Race 2021-22.

Childhood 1 crew: Bouwe Bekking, Antonio Cuervas Mons, Ysbrand Endt, Pablo Garcia Mujica, Julius Hallstrom, Edmond Hilhorst, Steven Melkman, Pelle Norberg, Simbad Quiroga, Aage Reerslev, Pieter Tack, Jelmer van Beek, Jorden van Rooijen and Laura van Veen.

Childhood 1 is a new project racing for children’s rights, raising awareness and funding for the Childhood Foundation. One of the project leaders Pelle Norberg was part of the crew for the RORC Transatlantic Race.

“We had two days of sailing together before the race with a completely new crew,” commented Bekking. “Safety was the first priority, but every day we have got better and better. People make mistakes and they are allowed to do that because it is the best way to get onto the right track. After that, you don’t make the same mistakes again – this is a big part of the learning curve.

“For me, it is always nice to start building up a team from scratch. The goal for this team is very far on the horizon, but this is the beginning and we can see really interesting crew members who have a lot in them. This was an easy race weather-wise so we have to see what those crew are like when it hits the fan, but I was pleasantly surprised with their performance. I told the crew that I did my first round the world race when I was 21 and had no idea, so these sailors are lucky that they have this sort of preparation.”

Event details – Entry list – Tracker

The 6th edition of the RORC Transatlantic Race got underway November 23 from outside Marina Lanzarote for the 3,000nm race across the Atlantic Ocean to Grenada in the West Indies.The largest yacht competing in the 2019 RORC Transatlantic Race is the Wally 100 Dark Shadow and the smallest yacht is the JPK 10.10 Jangada.

Source: RORC