The skipper of Van Uden, Gerd-Jan Poortman, was over the moon after winning the 2017 North Sea Race.
The Dutch Ker 46 won the IRC and the ORC. Poortman has good experience in sailing as he has competed in the last four seasons of the Volvo Ocean Race. He had a very young Dutch team for support and this was the first time that they took part in an offshore race.
The Line Honors for the race was won by Piet Vroon Ker 53. But after the time correction, it was placed in the third position. Daniel Hardy, who skippered Ker 46, Lady Mariposa, Finished the line 30 seconds ahead of Van Uden. After the time correction, it was pushed to the second position and this gave Van Uden the title.
The Royal Maas Yacht Club, Rotterdam is pretty happy with the performance put in by the young sailors who came out of Dinghies and took to keelboat offshore sailing. The team had an average age of just 22 and had sailed the boat together for just 10 days. This makes the win of the 2017 North Sea Race a very good achievement. The sailors had experience only in Cadets, but with no offshore sailing experience, they were able to pull off the race with Lady Mariposa.
The young sailors have been sailing from six years of age. They try their hand out during weekends or holidays. They have good sailing exposure, but did not have any race exposure. Despite all odds, they were able to compete with the best offshore sailors and do the club proud. Gerd-Jan said that the team does their job to perfection for 90% of the time and he only hinders when they are not doing it the right way.