About Koos

Koos Winnips: Dutch mothie born 1972, sail number NED 3100.

Been sailing since age 22, first renting keelboats. Then buying a 10 metre Dutch traditional barge “De Ouwe Tukker” with my partner. Things getting worse and worse with sailing, and boats getting smaller. Been building my own boat in the living room in 2003. I am always changing a lot to the boats I sail, and the moth is a great excuse to work with carbon and high tech stuff.

There is a competitive edge too. I’ve always been doing lots of sports. This led up to being selected for the Dutch national team in Ultimate Frisbee, then missing the team selections for the European Ultimate Frisbee championships by a whisker. I was the last to drop out from a pre-selected group of 60 people going down to 20, I was number 21 so to speak. Since then I’ve been telling myself that the main goal is just having fun, trying to control to urge to win So, here goes: my most enjoyed achievements in sports so far:

- Winning a set (and later the match) in table-tennis by 35-33, sets at table tennis that time going to 21 points, after that a 2 point difference winning the set…

- 4th dutch national championships Ultimate frisbee indoor, for the first time playing for a crowd of some 100 people (ok ok, they were gathering to watch the finals

- Winning my start group in the Batavierenrace (an estafette running event with 350 teams particpating, with some 60 per start group), the year after ending 22nd out of 365 people on the distance I ran. The distance was my favourite, 5.4 kilometers through rough terrain: hills, mud, sand, tree trunks, …

- Being first at the upwind mark while racing our barge “de Ouwe Tukker”. At that time the boat was not modified yet, and supposed to be slooow. This was one of the best moments of my life. We were so happy we completely messed up the rest of the race.

- Completing a race with “de Ouwe Tukker” with partner Bert and friend Peter Tait. We had 2 collisions in this race, missed a mark, and a nice squall came through. More then half of the boats gave up this race. Fighting all the way in good company!

- Winning a best of 7 match race after being 3-1 down. Virtual sailboat racing with Virtual skipper, Quarter finals of the Horus Trophy 2005 (about 200 boats competing). Suddenly you get a small chance, and you find you can do the impossible and turn things around. When the score got to 3-3 I just knew I was going to win.

- Completing my first moth race in Bruinisse 2006. It’s great to find out you can sail the boat.

More good moments to come in the Moth…