JAJO Team DutchSail coaches Postma, Bes and Van Dongen announced their final selection of 10 sailors for the UniCredit Youth and Puig Women’s America’s Cup in Barcelona next month. Among them Olympic champions Odile van Aanholt and Annette Duetz.

JAJO Team DutchSail youth

Aleksandr Moliakov
Bart Lambriex
Bjarne Bouwer
Eliott Savelon
Paul Hameeteman

JAJO Team DutchSail women

Annette Duetz
Arianne van de Loosdrecht
Ismene Usman
Odile van Aanholt
Willemijn Offerman

UniCredit Youth and Puig Women’s America’s Cup
The UniCredit Youth and Puig Women’s America’s Cup are part of the 37th Louis Vuitton America’s Cup. In the UniCredit Youth & Puig Women’s America’s Cup, 12 teams compete for the title per category. The participating teams consist of the youth and women’s teams of the America’s Cup teams and of teams from the 6 invited countries, in addition to the Netherlands (DutchSail), also Germany, Sweden, Canada, Spain and Australia. Both events are sailed in the AC40. A total of four sailors take place in these foiling AC40’s: 2 helmsmen/women and 2 trimers. The UnICredit Youth America’s Cup takes place from September 17 to 26. The Puig Women’s America’s Cup takes place from October 5 tot October 13.

Selection back to ten
The selection process for JAJO team DutchSail started almost a year and a half ago. From more than 60 registrations, 25 athletes were first selected. A year ago, this selection was reduced to 12 athletes. These 12 athletes have prepared themselves as best as possible over the past year, partly in addition to their existing (Olympic) sailing programs, by putting in many hours on the AC40 simulator, match racing and sailing regattas in the 69F class. Since only four sailors per team will be able to sit in the boat, the coaches have decided to start this last period with only ten sailors.

It means that for the youth Wiebrand de Vos will not go to Barcelona. Among the women, it had already been agreed at an earlier stage that Maxime Jonker would not participate because she had decided to prefer her studies in recent months.

Headcoach PieterJan Postma: “We are extremely grateful to both Wiebrand and Maxime for their contribution to this team. Maxime made the choice to continue her studies last year. That’s a choice that we can only respect and we are very grateful to her for the fact that, when it was necessary, she was there to train with us.”

*Wiebrand de Vos training in the AC40 simulator. Picture: Sander van der Borch*

Postma continues: “The choice not to take Wiebrand to Barcelona was more difficult. The differences are very small among the youth men, but we have to make choices to keep the learning curve of the team as steep as possible. Our training time in the AC40 will be limited to about four days, we want to make optimal use of it and the fewer sailors we take with us, the more hours they can train and get familiar with the boat.

Being ahead of the game
”From the start of this campaign, we have tried to make all choices as early as possible. We want to be ‘ahead of the game’. Making decisions on time gives peace of mind. Everyone knows at an early stage where he or she stands and that ensures that tension is less and everyone remains mentally fit and has sufficient head room left. We’re going to need that space in our heads. Because we want to be and remain the fastest growing team.”

JAJO Team DutchSail youth will therefore travel to Barcelona on September 5, where the team will board the AC40 boat for the first time on September 10. The JAJO Team DutchSail women will also be present in Barcelona from September 10 to support the youth team up close and at the same time to learn as much as possible.

JAJO Team DutchSail announced for UniCredit Youth and Puig Women's America's Cup