What is the Race of the Classics?

This year the sails will be hoisted for the twentyfirst Race of the Classics (ROTC). This is a sailing race that is not only exciting for participants and sponsors, but also for the organising committee whose members are exclusively students. 

More than twenty years ago two students from the Amsterdam Academy created ‘The Race’, as students call it nowadays, to promote social relations between students of different universities. In the meantime, the target has expanded and the organisation not only aims at stimulating the relation between various students and diverse courses that participate in ‘The Race’, but also to enhance contact with the companies that help to realise ‘The Race’. Moreover, Fun and Competition play an important role. 

For one year, fifteen enthusiastic students who have a liking for organising, sailing and having a good time, work very hard to realise this aim and to make the event even more spectacular than preceding years. As a result, ‘The Race’ has become the largest sailing race for non-professionals on classic vessels. Students, who are directed by enthusiastic captains, experience what sailing is like on the North Sea.

The Race of the Classics 2009 will start again in accordance with tradition with the firing of a starting canon. The start will be on the 13^th of April. In the first leg the vessels will sail to the port of Oostende. The next day, the ships will begin with the long crossing to Ramsgate. Here the teams will be received by the Royal Temple Yacht Club where the members of the royal family every so often appear. This is par excellence the place to share experiences of the outward journey to England. As always the weather remains unpredictable. There can be storm, high waves, freezing cold or bright sunshine together with a provoking calm wind. The next day course is directed towards IJmuiden where the fleet will arrive on Saturday. The vessels will sail into the finishing port of Amsterdam to finally arrive at the ‘Sumatrakade’. The week will be brought to its end at the Port Side Party in Amsterdam. During this celebration, the skippers, the organising committee, participants and friends have the opportunity to exchange all their experiences of the past week. Finally, the three best teams will receive a prize.

 History

It all began in 1989 ago when two students from the Amsterdam Academy generated the idea of The Race of the Classics in the bar of a student residence. After several months of organising and planning a brand new sporting contest for students was launched. The first teams raced from Amsterdam to Ramsgate and back. Subsequently, this expanded into an international professionally organised event that is now known as ‘The Race of the Classics’.

Luc van Laarhoven, who is now living in Luxembourg, is one of the founders. He still follows the event yearly. “I hope the event remains the way it was intended; for and by students without financial gain.

For more information about the Race of the Classics, please contact: