TEAM

Kees Kaan

Helm / Owner

 

Besides heading the project, Kees also has an active participation in sailing the yacht. He will be the main helmsman throughout the season, supported and coached by professionals. Kees has an enormous drive and energy for the sailing sport and will continuously seek to improve his skills. Regular close cooperation in training and racing with the speed team on board will be a continuous source of inspiration.

Geert de Krom

Mast

Geert is sailing with team ROARK since the team started in 2002. He's had a typical sailing career, starting with dinghies, then moving onto bigger boats since his 16th. From 2002 to 2005 he has been a fulltime sailing instructor on boats from 20ft up to 60 ft. He is at home aboard sailing yachts in any waters varying from inshore lakes to the Mediterranean. His physical strength and motivation make him very valuable for team ROARK.

Rutger Krijger

Mainsail

Rutger joined team ROARK in 2004. He has grown up racing dinghies, and gradually moved into bigger boats. He has won several national, european and world championship titles in the J22, X35, several dinghy classes as well as in IRC.

Carrie Howe

Tactics

A newcomer for the 2011 season with ROARK. Carrie has a diverse background in sailing. Olympic dinghy sailing, cats, big boats – she loves all types of sailing as long as it is not too cold! She is living in the Netherlands (which is a bit too cold) but is American. She nearly won the Melges 32 Worlds in 2010 so is back with a goal! 

Gregor Vlasblom

Bow/Pit

Gregor is sailing with team ROARK since 2008, very motivated and always in for a laugh. He is also competitive about playing icehockey. When not sailing on ROARK he can be found sailing in IRC, swan 45 or the X35, in which he won the Europeans this year.

Mischa Heemskerk

Strategist

 Mischa's world has been surrounded by boats since childhood. He literally learned how to cure carbon and build catamarans before learning to play in a sandbox. Mischa's father gave him a jumpstart into his World of learning how to fix and solve problems with boats. Besides the construction aspect, Mischa could be found trapezing in speeds of up to 30 knots while never stepping into the normal optimist or 420 development for youth sailors.

Still in the industry, Mischa keeps himself very busy as a consultant for factories of boats, testing materials, and racing with finished products. Writing the tuning guides and developing the sails as well as coaching sailors on every level.

His slogan is "The Need for Speed" and he proves this every day with his love for catamarans. His current projects run with Cirrus F18 Cats, eXtreme 40's and DNA A Cats.

Matt Trautman

Trim

Matt grew up in Durban and has come a long way since the days he worked as a sailing instructor for Chris Bonnet. He left South Africa and ended up as the Boat Captain for Peter Vroon`s highly successful Tonnerre de Breskens which was the top IRC boat in the UK this year. Not only has he run the boat, Matt was also in charge of the build in New Zealand.

Dimitri Simons

Dimitri started sailing at the age of 6 in small dinghies. Later on he spended more and more time on the water in his Europe. When he started studying in 2008 in Delft he also joined the Delft Challenge student sailing team there. With the Delft Challenge team he sailed the Tour de France in 2009 and 2010 in the Farr 30 class. Now Dimitri has lots of fun sailing with the ROARK team on the Melges 32.

Ernst Jan van Housselt

Bow

An old crewmember returining to ROARK, Ernst Jan will be this season's bowman of the melges 32. He brings a wealth of experience and a good sense of humour to the team. 

Bert Schandevyl

Trim

Bert is a long time crewmember of ROARK, he has not been part of the team last season, but we're happy to have him back on board. He is fast becoming one of the most promising young professional sailors of the benelux.