“Childhood” crewmembers acknowledged cheers from the Yacht Cub as the yacht passed through the Simpson Bay Bridge into the Lagoon on Sunday.
SIMPSON BAY--With the sailing season shaping up to be another very busy one, a number of high-profile racing yachts are arriving early, the first of which was the Volvo 65 Childhood which arrived on Sunday.
Childhood is the former Team Brunel which has circumnavigated the world twice in the Ocean Race and was in St. Maarten in 2015 and 2016. Since October 2019 it has been rebranded under the Childhood World Foundation, a charity set up by Queen Silvia of Sweden in 1999 to fight against and raise awareness of violence and sexual abuse of children worldwide.
The charity’s slogan is “Fight against child abuse and sexual exploitation.”
Childhood, owned by Sailing Holland, will remain based in St. Maarten until the end of April 2020, racing in the major Caribbean regattas, beginning with the Around Antigua Race and including Caribbean 600, St. Maarten Heineken Regatta, Les Voiles de St. Barths, Antigua Race Week, and Antigua Bermuda Race, before going back to Holland and then on to Sweden for the Around Gotland Race in Sweden.
After that, the plan is to extend the project, solicit sponsors and enter Childhood in the Ocean Race that starts in October 2021.
“The objective of the campaign is twofold: to raise awareness of child abuse, giving as much exposure as possible to Childhood Foundation everywhere we go, and to race in the major regattas,” explained Project Manager Anita van Oeuveren. “We have a contract with Childhood for one year, until October 2020. Childhood is not a sponsor; we have separate sponsors to fund the project. We are sailing under the Dutch flag, so you can say it’s a Dutch/Swedish project.”
Van Oeuveren said that while the Ocean Race is still on the horizon, the idea is to train up a crew of young enthusiastic sailors to a good offshore level to be ready if the green light is given.
“For the immediate campaign we have a combination of experienced crew, an experienced skipper, some talented young people and guests from the Childhood Foundation. The boat will also be available to charter for short trips, before and after the Heineken Regatta. Proceeds from ticket sales will go to supporting the team and the foundation.
“The Foundation members also want to make contact here with the schools and appropriate organisations to give talks about child sexual abuse to raise the awareness.”
Childhood arrived in St. Maarten by way of the RORC Transatlantic Race from Lanzarote to Grenada with 14 crewmembers taking line honours after a 12-day crossing.
Boat Captains Jelmer van Beek and Laura van Veen will remain in St. Maarten looking after the boat and doing maintenance while more crew members will arrive once regattas are about to start.
Both relish the experience of racing the Volvo 65 and with the Ocean Race’s new concept of having a large proportion of crew under 30 years old, they hope to be selected in 2021.
“For Laura and myself it was the first time we had crossed the Atlantic, so it was a very good experience,” said Jelmer of the RORC. “I personally like the combination of the crew, some experienced and others like ourselves. We got to learn a lot about racing this boat.”
Added Laura: “We had four hours on and four hours for sleeping. We worked in different positions so there was a lot of variety. We were able to improve in different areas and get a better feeling for the boat. The new Ocean Race concept gives sailors like us a great opportunity. In the past it used to be only two crew members under 30.
“The level of the race will be quite different, I think, with less experienced people, but the objective is to get more youth into the offshore-sailing world. We are both up for it. The great thing is we have the opportunity to do all these regattas on this boat now to build up the experience.”
For more information about Childhood Foundation go to www.childhood.org
The Volvo 65 “Childhood” at the St. Maarten Yacht Club dock. (Robert Luckock photo)
