The Team
The Team
How it all started
In February 2017, sailing talents from the Rotterdam region aged 17 to 30 years could sign up to become part of the Rotterdam Offshore Sailing Team (ROST). The main goal of the team was to give young sailing talent a chance to get to know the offshore sailing world and participate at the Rolex Fastnet race. To get as much young sailing talent involved as possible, the team stays together for two years, after which a new team is selected. In these two years young sailors are being trained to be professional sailers with each their own specialty. The first edition of the team ROST I, has successfully trained for two years, after which they came in 14th at the Rolex FastNet of 2019. In October 2019 the second edition of the team was selected with sailors aged 17 to 25. After a though selection procedure, ROST II has started. Curious to see who’s part of the team now? Click on ‘meet the team’.
Goals
The goal of ROST is to train talented youth of 17 to 25 years old coming from the Royal Maas Yacht Club and other sailing clubs from Rotterdam. Moreover, ROST strives for performance in international racing. In 2021, the main goal is a good result in the Rolex Fastnet Race. Past results can be viewed on the ‘Results’ page.
Ker 46 van Uden
The McConaghy built Ker 46 Van Uden is a state of the art racing yacht. The Ker 46 Van Uden has a length of 14 meter and was designed by Jason Ker and build by McConaghy in 2011. The yacht has a depth of 3.30m and weighs only 6 tons. Equiped with full carbon hull and mast, the yacht is well capable of speeds exceeding 25 knots.
Gerd-Jan Poortman
The Rotterdam Offshore Sailing Team is led by three time Volvo Ocean Race sailor Gerd-Jan Poortman.
His professional sailing carreer started with winning the Admirals Cup in 1999. In March 2003 Gerd-Jan Poortman was selected for Team ABN AMRO II in the Volvo Ocean Race 2005/06. The talent team eventually ended on a fourth place in the overall results. In 2008 Gerd-Jan participated again in the Volvo Ocean Race, this time with Team Delta Lloyd. He finished second in the Volvo Ocean Race 2014/15 with Team Brunel. In 2018 Gerd-Jan is the official host of the Volvo Ocean Race finish in Scheveningen!
