Team Speelman

We, Jeanine and Marchien started sailing in an optimist.  

We started sailing when we were 8 and 9 years old in an optimist. We started at a local sailing club, we trained and learned the basics of sailing and we also joined some competitions. Each year a price was given (from the sailing club) to the person who sailed the best of all the members of this sailing club. The first year Jeanine won that price and Marchien was second. The year after, Marchien won and Jeanine was second.

After sailing there for two years, we thought that it was time to make a step forward. We changed from sailing club to a sailing club in Lelystad. The trainings were more effective and more specified on sailing competitions. We sailed more competitions in other places and the level of sailing was a lot higher. After a year sailing there and sailing real competitions, Marchien was in second place overall and Jeanine was in fourth place.

We wanted to join the selections competitions and to learn sailing on waves etc. and to sail on the Ijsselmeer.  The sailing club in Lelystad didn’t train on the Ijsselmeer but there was a group sailors who did train on the Ijsselmeer (they come from the north of Holland). We joined their training and also sailed some competitions in the north. The trainer asked us to join their training and to sail the selection competitions. So that’s what we did. We got new boats because the boats that we had weren’t measured. We trained together with them and sailed the Dutch selections competitions (after the summer holidays). The results were taken over the whole year but we only sailed half of

that.

The next year, 2007, we trained in the south of France to get more experience. We started doing fitness, condition training etc. We did fitness twice a week and sailed most of the weekends. In the summer holidays, we went to Italy to the Gardalake. There was the biggest optimist regatta event. There were about 1000 optimists and we were the only Dutch people there. It felt like the Olympic Games but then for the optimist, we walked with the Dutch Flag through the town. The sailing level was really high there, all the top-teams were there.

In 2008 we were training for the European championships but we didn’t reach that. We sailed until the Dutch Youth Regatta and Marchien stopped with sailing in the optimist because she was too tall. Jeanine sailed the rest of the selections. In October we were invited to join the assessment of the 420 for project 2012 and we got in! Our dream to sail together in a 420 became true.

Right now, we are training in the 420 together, we already trained a week in France this year. We sail every weekend and train every day at home fitness, running, core stability exercises etc. We also have mental coaching because that should be our ‘sister power’! 

Sailing regards Jeanine and Marchien Speelman