Our Overlooked Danish and World Champions

The Danish Championship races in boat class X-99 was held last weekend. A high blue sky and a fair wind - and the team on VELUX won gold for the third time in a row.

René Villefrance from Team VELUX says, "It was our combined effort that did the trick - we took the chances we got and managed to wriggle free when we needed to. For us it is important to learn tackle our desire to win against our fear of losing."

And Team VELUX had some adverse wind at the start of the season.

They opted out of the Round Funen race in order to optimise their brand-new boat.

It seems that that was the right decision. The VELUX boat was fast and the team on board put in an optimum performance at the weekend's Danish Championship.

They came in first in five of the eight races, third in two and fifth in one. 21 boats participated.

The Danish Championship was a challenge. It was not the easiest Danish Championship. The wind was jumping around and the strongest competitors were there to sail against the now three times Danish Champions. There were even boats from Germany and the Netherlands, with crews eager to train against the VELUX team in preparation for the battle for the World Title. That has belonged to Team VELUX for the last four years. The team will be defending its World Title in Norway in July.

"We worked hard for our Danish Title, and we shall demand even more of ourselves in the World Championship," says René Villefrance. "We have tried it before and have won before. And we are looking forward to sailing against skilled competitors again."

The world's best yachtsmen
Although Denmark has the world's best X-99 yachtsmen, there has been very little fuss about the boat and the wins.
In fact, that suits our slightly overlooked Danish and World Champions rather well.

René Villefrance says, "Of course we want to win, and of course we are proud when we do, but it's mainly about our results and really not so much ourselves. That also fits in well with the philosophy at VELUX, which is our sponsor and is thus enabling us to take up the battle for medals. Besides that, VELUX has many of the same values as we have in the team: fresh air, daylight and thoughtful use of resources. It is not only who we are, but also what we do."