Conny van Rietschoten

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.

External links and references

• Conny van Rietschoten Trophy website