Rijnrace 2026

On Saturday the 6th of June, Aqua participated in the 61st edition of the Rijnrace, with one of the Valken from WSV Vada and a team of five sailors.

We started at 10 o'clock in the morning to do a preparation sail and then sail to grindgat Heteren where the race would start. The team consisted of five people, of which four skippers and four people who had never sailed with a Spinacker before. 

After explaining how the Spinaker works and doing some test runs we set sail to the startline of the race where we arrived way in time of the start. Here we had the opportunity to once again train our Spi skills and eat our lunch. Then the start began. We were all not very experienced in sailing matches, so our start was not the best. Also the lack of a stopwatch was a bit of a disappointment. 

Anyway, after this start we successfully rounded the upwind buoy and raised the Spinacker to race one of the other Valken. After we left the grindgat we were neck and neck with the same Valk still and raced them all the way to the finish, where we crossed the line with a time of 03:07:36.196! This is the longest time on the list, so we enjoyed the Rhine the most of all competitors!

We would like to thank WSV Vada for the Valk we could use and the organisation for making the Rijnrace possible this year again. We hope to be able to participate next year again.