Conny van Rietschoten
Encyclopedia
Cornelis van Rietschoten, round the world yachtsman – winner of the 1977/78 and 1981/82 Whitbread Round the World Race.
Born: 23rd March 1926, Rotterdam
, Netherlands
Cornelis (Conny) van Rietschoten is Holland’s most famous yachtsman - the Dutch equivalent of legendary sailors Francis Chichester
and Éric Tabarly
rolled into one. He is held in the same awe as Maarten Tromp
, the Dutch Admiral
who famously hoisted a broom to the masthead of his battleship back in 1652 to signify that he had swept the British from the seas after trouncing the English fleet in the Battle of Dungeness
.
Van Rietschoten achieved something akin to this in the 1981-82 Whitbread Round the World Race
when his 76ft sloop
rigged maxi yacht
Flyer designed by German Frers
, not only won line honours but left everyone trailing in her wake in the race for the all important handicap honours too.
The Dutchman was ‘unknown’ as a sailor even in his own waters before appearing four years earlier to compete in the 1977-78 Whitbread Round the World Race
. At 45, the Rotterdam based industrialist had retired from active business and was looking for a fresh challenge. He had read reports about the first Whitbread Race, saw it as the opportunity of a lifetime – and grabbed it with both hands. A circumnavigation was something his Father, Jan Jacob, had always wanted to do but never found the time. The younger Van Rietschoten had in fact been sailing since he was three, and had continued until tuberculosis interrupted both his sailing and business career in the early 1960s. He spent a year convalescing in a Swiss sanatorium
, and then threw all his energies into developing the family electrical engineering business, Van Rietschoten & Houwens.
What set Van Rietschoten ahead of the established sailing names like Sir Robin Knox-Johnston and Éric Tabarly
was a professional business approach to his campaigns. His eight-year tenure at the top of the sport spelt the end of amateur gung-ho ocean racing entries. He may well still see himself as an amateur
, but he set levels of professionalism within the sport that were not repeated until Peter Blake
also swept all before him with Steinlager 2 in the 1993–94 Whitbread Round the World Race.
Van Rietschoten was first to undertake extensive trialling and crew training before the race, and invested in research to improve crew clothing, rigs and weather forecasting
techniques.
For his first Whitbread yacht, Conny van Rietschoten turned to American designers Olin and Rod Stephens
to design a more modern version of the Swan 65
production yacht Sayula II, which had carried Mexican Ramon Carlin and his crew to victory in the first Whitbread race in 1973/74. The new Flyer, built in aluminium by Dutch boatbuilder Royal Huisman
Shipyard, was ketch rigged like Sayula II, but had a longer waterline and more sail area.
After winning the transatlantic race, the Flyer crew found that their greatest rival to be another Swan 65, the sloop rigged British yacht Kings Legend owned by Nick Ratcliffe and skippered by American Skip Novak. 1,000 miles from Cape Town
, the two crews found themselves within sight of each other, before Flyer pulled ahead to win the first leg of the race from Portsmouth by 2 hours 4 minutes.
On the second leg to Auckland
, New Zealand
, Kings Legend stole the upper hand, and soon had a 360mile lead over Flyer as the Whitbread fleet raced across the Southern Ocean
, but then suffered a leak, which slowed her progress. At the finish, Conny van Rietschoten’s crew had cut Kings Legend’s lead had been cut to 1 hour 15 minutes.
The third leg around Cape Horn
to Rio de Janeiro
proved something of an anti-climax as far as the race was concerned, when Kings Legend suffered a broach and water wiped out her radio. Without weather forecasts, Novak and his crew were at a distinct disadvantage and fell almost 60 hours behind Flyer.
On the final leg back to Portsmouth
, Van Rietschoten and his crew had only to shadow Kings Legend home which they did, finishing 2 hours behind the British yacht, to win the Whitbread Race on handicap.
The 1981/82 Whitbread Race saw Conny van Rietschoten’s maxi sloop Flyer matched against Peter Blake’s 68ft Bruce Farr
designed Ceramco New Zealand. Ceramco was dismasted during the first leg to give Flyer a run-away victory on the first leg to Cape Town, but there after, the two yachts raced neck-and-neck around the rest of the world.
It was at the height of this competition when Conny van Rietschoten showed a steely side to his character when he suffered a heart attack deep in the Southern Ocean. Van Rietschoten swore his crew to secrecy, and would not even allow the Flyer doctor to call a cardiologist aboard their rival yacht Ceramco for advice. “The nearest port was 10 days away and the critical period is always the first 24-36 hours,” he recalls. “Ceramco was already breathing down our necks. If they had known that I had a health problem, they would have pushed their boat even harder. When you die at sea, you are buried over the side. Perhaps those Ceramco crew might then have spotted me drifting by. I was determined that that would be the only thing they would see or hear from Flyer on the matter!”
Flyer pulled out a 9 hour lead by Auckland, but Ceramco won the leg on handicap. The race from there to Cape Horn was one of constantly swapping places. Half way across the Pacific, they were within sight of each other, and also rounded Cape Horn together. But while Flyer got to Mar del Plata
first, the Ceramco crew were rewarded with 2nd on handicap.
Conny van Rietschoten and his crew finished first again back at Portsmouth followed by Ceramco New Zealand to take line honours for the Race, and with the rest of the fleet becalmed near the Azores
, took handicap honours too – the first crew to win both honours in the history of the Race. Van Rietschoten and his crew also set two world records: The fastest Noon to Noon run of 327 miles, and the fastest circumnavigation of 120 days
1977-78 Flyer Crew
Conny van Rietschoten - Skipper
Gerry Dijkstra - Navigator / Watchleader
Aedgard Koekebakker - Watchleader
John Anderson
Bruce Ashwood
Bert Dykema - Doctor
Adrian Ford - Sailmaker
Billy Johnson
Marcel Laurin - Cook
Chris Moselen
Ari Steinberg
Rod White
Hugh Wilson - Shipwright
1981-82 Flyer Crew
Conny van Rietschoten - Skipper
Aedgard Koekebakker - Watchleader
Erle Williams - Watchleader / Shipwright
Daniel Wlochovski - Navigator / Electrician
Joey Allen
Patrick Antelme - Cook
Bill Biewenga
Warwick Buckley
Grant Dalton - Sailmaker
Lobo Fischer
Julian Fuller
Steve Harrison - Rigger
George Hendy
Roger Janes
Russell Pickthall - Sailmaker
Dirk Reidel
Michel Santander
Onne Van der Wal - Engineer / Photographer
John Vitali
In 1948 the Norwegian
King Haakon VII
named Van Rietschoten the best yachtsman in the world in the Dragon class
.
Since the 1980s the Conny van Rietschoten Trophy is awarded to the best Dutch competition sailor.
Born: 23rd March 1926, Rotterdam
Rotterdam
Rotterdam is the second-largest city in the Netherlands and one of the largest ports in the world. Starting as a dam on the Rotte river, Rotterdam has grown into a major international commercial centre...
, Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
Cornelis (Conny) van Rietschoten is Holland’s most famous yachtsman - the Dutch equivalent of legendary sailors Francis Chichester
Francis Chichester
Sir Francis Charles Chichester KBE , aviator and sailor, was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for becoming the first person to sail single-handed around the world by the clipper route, and the fastest circumnavigator, in nine months and one day overall.-Early life:Chichester was born in Barnstaple,...
and Éric Tabarly
Éric Tabarly
Éric Tabarly was a notable French yachtsman.A former officer in the French navy who is often considered the father of French yachting....
rolled into one. He is held in the same awe as Maarten Tromp
Maarten Tromp
Maarten Harpertszoon Tromp was an officer and later admiral in the Dutch navy. His first name is also spelled as Maerten.-Early life:...
, the Dutch Admiral
Admiral
Admiral is the rank, or part of the name of the ranks, of the highest naval officers. It is usually considered a full admiral and above vice admiral and below admiral of the fleet . It is usually abbreviated to "Adm" or "ADM"...
who famously hoisted a broom to the masthead of his battleship back in 1652 to signify that he had swept the British from the seas after trouncing the English fleet in the Battle of Dungeness
Battle of Dungeness
The naval Battle of Dungeness took place on 10 December 1652 during the First Anglo-Dutch War near the cape of Dungeness in Kent.- Background :...
.
Van Rietschoten achieved something akin to this in the 1981-82 Whitbread Round the World Race
1981-82 Whitbread Round the World Race
On August 8, 1981, 29 boats started out from Southampton for the Whitbread Round the World Race.-Final Standings:The maxi yacht Flyer II was designed by Germán Frers and built at the Royal Huisman shipyard in 1981 for skipper Cornelius van Rietschoten. In an unusual feat, she won the race both on...
when his 76ft sloop
Sloop
A sloop is a sail boat with a fore-and-aft rig and a single mast farther forward than the mast of a cutter....
rigged maxi yacht
Maxi yacht
A maxi yacht usually refers to a racing sailboat of at least in length. It is also a Swedish brand of smaller sailing yachts.-Origin:The term maxi originated with the International Offshore Rule rating system, which in the 1970s and 1980s measured offshore racing yachts and applied a...
Flyer designed by German Frers
German Frers
Germán Frers is a naval architect renowned for designing successful racing yachts. He designed his first yacht in 1958. There is a design team consisting of Germán Frers and his son, also named Germán Frers, supported by a team of engineers, architects and designers, some of whom have been with...
, not only won line honours but left everyone trailing in her wake in the race for the all important handicap honours too.
The Dutchman was ‘unknown’ as a sailor even in his own waters before appearing four years earlier to compete in the 1977-78 Whitbread Round the World Race
1977-78 Whitbread Round the World Race
On August 27th, 1977, 15 boats started out from Southampton for the Whitbread Round the World Race under gale force winds and driving rain.-Final Standings:...
. At 45, the Rotterdam based industrialist had retired from active business and was looking for a fresh challenge. He had read reports about the first Whitbread Race, saw it as the opportunity of a lifetime – and grabbed it with both hands. A circumnavigation was something his Father, Jan Jacob, had always wanted to do but never found the time. The younger Van Rietschoten had in fact been sailing since he was three, and had continued until tuberculosis interrupted both his sailing and business career in the early 1960s. He spent a year convalescing in a Swiss sanatorium
Sanatorium
A sanatorium is a medical facility for long-term illness, most typically associated with treatment of tuberculosis before antibiotics...
, and then threw all his energies into developing the family electrical engineering business, Van Rietschoten & Houwens.
What set Van Rietschoten ahead of the established sailing names like Sir Robin Knox-Johnston and Éric Tabarly
Éric Tabarly
Éric Tabarly was a notable French yachtsman.A former officer in the French navy who is often considered the father of French yachting....
was a professional business approach to his campaigns. His eight-year tenure at the top of the sport spelt the end of amateur gung-ho ocean racing entries. He may well still see himself as an amateur
Amateur
An amateur is generally considered a person attached to a particular pursuit, study, or science, without pay and often without formal training....
, but he set levels of professionalism within the sport that were not repeated until Peter Blake
Peter Blake (yachtsman)
Sir Peter James Blake, KBE was a New Zealand yachtsman who won the Whitbread Round the World Race, the Jules Verne Trophy – setting the fastest time around the world of 74 days 22 hours 17 minutes 22 seconds on catamaran Enza, and led his country to successive victories in the America’s Cup...
also swept all before him with Steinlager 2 in the 1993–94 Whitbread Round the World Race.
Van Rietschoten was first to undertake extensive trialling and crew training before the race, and invested in research to improve crew clothing, rigs and weather forecasting
Weather forecasting
Weather forecasting is the application of science and technology to predict the state of the atmosphere for a given location. Human beings have attempted to predict the weather informally for millennia, and formally since the nineteenth century...
techniques.
For his first Whitbread yacht, Conny van Rietschoten turned to American designers Olin and Rod Stephens
Sparkman & Stephens
Sparkman & Stephens is a naval architecture and yacht brokerage firm with main offices on 5th Avenue in New York City, USA and offices in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida and Newport, Rhode Island, USA. The firm performs design and engineering of new vessels for pleasure, commercial, and military use....
to design a more modern version of the Swan 65
Nautor's Swan
Oy Nautor AB is a Finnish producer of luxury sailing yachts, based in Jakobstad. It is known for its Swan line of fiberglass yacht. The company was founded in 1966 by Pekka Koskenkylä...
production yacht Sayula II, which had carried Mexican Ramon Carlin and his crew to victory in the first Whitbread race in 1973/74. The new Flyer, built in aluminium by Dutch boatbuilder Royal Huisman
Royal Huisman
Royal Huisman, founded in 1884 is a family-owned builder of unique custom sailing and motor yachts, classic or modern, between 26 and 90 meters. The yard was awarded the Royal seal by Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands in 1984...
Shipyard, was ketch rigged like Sayula II, but had a longer waterline and more sail area.
After winning the transatlantic race, the Flyer crew found that their greatest rival to be another Swan 65, the sloop rigged British yacht Kings Legend owned by Nick Ratcliffe and skippered by American Skip Novak. 1,000 miles from Cape Town
Cape Town
Cape Town is the second-most populous city in South Africa, and the provincial capital and primate city of the Western Cape. As the seat of the National Parliament, it is also the legislative capital of the country. It forms part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality...
, the two crews found themselves within sight of each other, before Flyer pulled ahead to win the first leg of the race from Portsmouth by 2 hours 4 minutes.
On the second leg to Auckland
Auckland
The Auckland metropolitan area , in the North Island of New Zealand, is the largest and most populous urban area in the country with residents, percent of the country's population. Auckland also has the largest Polynesian population of any city in the world...
, New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
, Kings Legend stole the upper hand, and soon had a 360mile lead over Flyer as the Whitbread fleet raced across the Southern Ocean
Southern Ocean
The Southern Ocean comprises the southernmost waters of the World Ocean, generally taken to be south of 60°S latitude and encircling Antarctica. It is usually regarded as the fourth-largest of the five principal oceanic divisions...
, but then suffered a leak, which slowed her progress. At the finish, Conny van Rietschoten’s crew had cut Kings Legend’s lead had been cut to 1 hour 15 minutes.
The third leg around Cape Horn
Cape Horn
Cape Horn is the southernmost headland of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago of southern Chile, and is located on the small Hornos Island...
to Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...
proved something of an anti-climax as far as the race was concerned, when Kings Legend suffered a broach and water wiped out her radio. Without weather forecasts, Novak and his crew were at a distinct disadvantage and fell almost 60 hours behind Flyer.
On the final leg back to Portsmouth
Portsmouth
Portsmouth is the second largest city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire on the south coast of England. Portsmouth is notable for being the United Kingdom's only island city; it is located mainly on Portsea Island...
, Van Rietschoten and his crew had only to shadow Kings Legend home which they did, finishing 2 hours behind the British yacht, to win the Whitbread Race on handicap.
The 1981/82 Whitbread Race saw Conny van Rietschoten’s maxi sloop Flyer matched against Peter Blake’s 68ft Bruce Farr
Bruce Farr
Bruce K. Farr OBE is a designer of racing and cruising yachts.Farr began building boats at 13 in Warkworth near Auckland,New Zealand.His first boats were plywood hard chine Moth class designs.He later designed and built variants of Cherubs and especially Flying 18s.His early designs were built in...
designed Ceramco New Zealand. Ceramco was dismasted during the first leg to give Flyer a run-away victory on the first leg to Cape Town, but there after, the two yachts raced neck-and-neck around the rest of the world.
It was at the height of this competition when Conny van Rietschoten showed a steely side to his character when he suffered a heart attack deep in the Southern Ocean. Van Rietschoten swore his crew to secrecy, and would not even allow the Flyer doctor to call a cardiologist aboard their rival yacht Ceramco for advice. “The nearest port was 10 days away and the critical period is always the first 24-36 hours,” he recalls. “Ceramco was already breathing down our necks. If they had known that I had a health problem, they would have pushed their boat even harder. When you die at sea, you are buried over the side. Perhaps those Ceramco crew might then have spotted me drifting by. I was determined that that would be the only thing they would see or hear from Flyer on the matter!”
Flyer pulled out a 9 hour lead by Auckland, but Ceramco won the leg on handicap. The race from there to Cape Horn was one of constantly swapping places. Half way across the Pacific, they were within sight of each other, and also rounded Cape Horn together. But while Flyer got to Mar del Plata
Mar del Plata
Mar del Plata is an Argentine city located on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean, south of Buenos Aires. Mar del Plata is the second largest city of Buenos Aires Province. The name "Mar del Plata" had apparently the sense of "sea of the Río de la Plata region" or "adjoining sea to the Río de la Plata"...
first, the Ceramco crew were rewarded with 2nd on handicap.
Conny van Rietschoten and his crew finished first again back at Portsmouth followed by Ceramco New Zealand to take line honours for the Race, and with the rest of the fleet becalmed near the Azores
Azores
The Archipelago of the Azores is composed of nine volcanic islands situated in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean, and is located about west from Lisbon and about east from the east coast of North America. The islands, and their economic exclusion zone, form the Autonomous Region of the...
, took handicap honours too – the first crew to win both honours in the history of the Race. Van Rietschoten and his crew also set two world records: The fastest Noon to Noon run of 327 miles, and the fastest circumnavigation of 120 days
1977-78 Flyer Crew
Conny van Rietschoten - Skipper
Gerry Dijkstra - Navigator / Watchleader
Aedgard Koekebakker - Watchleader
John Anderson
Bruce Ashwood
Bert Dykema - Doctor
Adrian Ford - Sailmaker
Billy Johnson
Marcel Laurin - Cook
Chris Moselen
Ari Steinberg
Rod White
Hugh Wilson - Shipwright
1981-82 Flyer Crew
Conny van Rietschoten - Skipper
Aedgard Koekebakker - Watchleader
Erle Williams - Watchleader / Shipwright
Daniel Wlochovski - Navigator / Electrician
Joey Allen
Patrick Antelme - Cook
Bill Biewenga
Warwick Buckley
Grant Dalton - Sailmaker
Lobo Fischer
Julian Fuller
Steve Harrison - Rigger
George Hendy
Roger Janes
Russell Pickthall - Sailmaker
Dirk Reidel
Michel Santander
Onne Van der Wal - Engineer / Photographer
John Vitali
In 1948 the Norwegian
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
King Haakon VII
Haakon VII of Norway
Haakon VII , known as Prince Carl of Denmark until 1905, was the first king of Norway after the 1905 dissolution of the personal union with Sweden. He was a member of the House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg...
named Van Rietschoten the best yachtsman in the world in the Dragon class
Dragon (keelboat)
thumbThe International Dragon is a one-design keelboat.The Dragon was designed by Norwegian Johan Anker in 1929. In 1948 the Dragon became an Olympic Class, a status it retained until the Munich Olympics in 1972...
.
Since the 1980s the Conny van Rietschoten Trophy is awarded to the best Dutch competition sailor.