| DEN BURG, TEXEL, THE NETHERLANDS-(17-6-2003) On Wednesday June 18th 2003, the Texel Dutch Open will start with the biggest fleet ever. At the moment, 140 catamarans entered for the third edition of the championship. The first race will start at one o’clock in the afternoon. By that time, two teams will be halfway the island. Team Larsen/Pols and Bouscholte/Kenbeek sr will take on an attempt on the Round Texel record in the morning.
As of Wednesday June 18th until Friday June 20th 2003, the Dutch Open will be organized offshore Paal 17. This event consists of short races. Many sailors consider the Dutch Open as an exercise for the ‘biggest cat race’ on Saturday. In addition, the Royal Dutch Sailing Federation officially recognized the event as an Open Dutch Championship. Team Karsenbarg/Heemskerk from the Netherlands, last year’s overall winners of the Round Texel and winners of the 2001 Texel Dutch Open, arrived early in the afternoon to prepare themselves for tomorrow. Their training mates Hugh Styles and Marcus Lynch from Great-Britain, already sailed their first miles on the Texel North Sea. Also the winners of the 2001 Round Texel, Cavin Colby and Cori Camenish, will compete in the Dutch championship. The Texel Dutch Open does not only have the biggest fleet ever, it also has a strong fleet.
Two teams from the Netherlands reported to the organization for an official record attempt on Wednesday June 18th. It concerns Gunnar Larsen and Xander Pols who will challenge the record on a M20. The second team consists of Hans Bouscholte and Donald Kenbeek who will sail a Tornado. Hans was supposed to take a record attempt with America’s Cup winner Piet van Nieuwenhuyzen, but he was called up for the Italian Match Race Championship with the Alinghi. The fastest Round Texel record dates from 1982, when Martin Warnaar and Wop Rienks rounded the island in 02:09:07 hours. Meanwhile, the area directly at the northeast of Texel has become a nature reserve. As a result, the fastest route can no longer be followed. Nowadays, sailors have to round the VC-mark and therefore the new record to break belongs to Ron van Teylingen and Paul Manuel. They steered their Tornado within 02:30:36 hours around the island Texel. Tomorrow’s record attempt will start at 10:45 hours. Gunnar Larsen: “With our new M20 we should be able to be a serious threat for the record. Even with normal wind conditions. We are curious.”
Besides Zwitersleven the event will be sponsored by Amstel, Holkema Group, Komatsu, de Kolonist, MagicMinds Media, Nissan, TNG Swiss Watches, Teso, VVV Texel and the Mondriaan Onderwijsgroep
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