All the crewmembers has been sailing together in the St. Maarten Heineken Regatta in various years. In 1997 René Bultena and Frans van der Wel started sailing this event aboard a Gibsea 47. The next 3 years we sailed with a J/120 in the Cruising Racing class 1. In 2001 we participated with a Henderson 30 in Racing Class 2, but the unavailability of racing boats brought us back in the Bareboat class again. Over the years we have been quite successful with a third place overall in 1999 in Cruising/Racing 1 and winner in 2002 in the Bareboat Class 5 with three consistent victories. In the Bareboat overall we missed 1 point to take the trophy in a 113 boat fleet.

During the years we were always very impressed by the quality and sailing performance of the J-boats. At this moment J/boats in France is building our own J/105 in which we will be sailing the Caribbean circuit in 2003.

René Bultena (1961)

René is the owner of Stortemelk. He started sailing at young age, learning all the basics from his father. He sailed on various dinghy’s and keelboats, made some trips at the North Sea and sailed the Swan European Regatta in 1985. In daily life René is participating in various companies in business telephony, property and water sports.

Johan Bosman (1962)

Johan started sailing during the Heineken Regatta 1998. He has developed himself as an all-round crewmember. In his daily life Johan is partner in the ice-cream factory Portofino in Vinkeveen, Netherlands. He has promised to make us daily fresh ice-cream during the trip. We keep you informed.

Anne Frankenhuis (1949)

Anne is our strongest crewmember. He claims to be inside a sport school on a regular basis. He started sailing during his study in small boats and dinghies. Anne is crewmember of our Heineken Regatta team since 2000. As he is the oldest person aboard, we can always count on his experience in life. Anne is founder of Broad-Casting Agency, a leading casting agent in Amsterdam.

René van Vegten (1961)

René is without any doubt the person in our team with the most nautical miles behind his name. He was a deckhand aboard a commercial carrier in his ‘young years’. Since 1998 René is member of our Heineken Regatta team. René is owner of two cafés in Alkmaar.

Frans van der Wel (1964)

Frans did a couple of long-distance races such as the Rotterdam – Azores and back in 1988 and the Brighton – Cadiz race (Brent-Walker Cup) in 1990. He also participated in 4 Fastnet races and various North Sea races and is skipper during the Heineken Regatta’s. Mostly is racing J/24’s and has won a considerable amount of titles, such as the Dutch nationals (’94 & ’96) Kieler Woche (’98 & ’99). In his daily life Frans is marketing manager of Galaxy Business Networks, a professional operator for mobile telephony in the Netherlands.