July 26, 2024
6 minutes reading time
55th Semaine Olympique Française - Toulon Provence Méditerranée. With two regattas: Qualified Nations and The Last Chance Regatta
© Sailing Energy / Semaine Olympique Française
26 April, 2024
From rural farming to the Marseille Marina – Floris van de Werken & Bart Lambriex line up Olympic gold
In many ways, Floris van de Werken is the exception to the rule. Where family pedigree is often a sign of future success in sailing, Van de Werken is proof that you do not need a background on the water to triumph at the highest level.
Hailing from the north of the Netherlands, Van de Werken will make his Olympic debut in Marseille this summer, having enjoyed a dream campaign since Tokyo.
Joining forces with Bart Lambriex in the men’s 49er, the Dutch pair have secured a hat-trick of world titles and will enter Paris 2024 as one of the favourites for gold.
But where his partner is the son of a pair of elite sailors, with Bart’s dad Huub having competed in the Tornado at LA 1984, Van de Werken is the first of his family to excel in the sport.
Discovering sailing
Growing up in a farming family in Holland’s rural north, Van de Werken was a keen sportsman, but sailing was at most a passing interest.
However, once he got a taste of life on the water, it was clear that it was the only sport for him.
He said: “A lot of people, their parents have been sailors. But for me, that is not the case. My parents were very active in sports, I grew up doing a lot of different sports.
“My parents had a cruising yacht so we did sail on holidays, just inland in the Netherlands. Sometimes, on the North Sea but that was an exception, if we went up to the ‘big’ North Sea. That is how I fell in love with the sport.
“Then, one day I was walking around the Marina. I saw sailing lessons and decided to try. From there on, my parents had to explore everything in the sailing world because they were not sailing parents.
“They didn’t know they had to travel around Europe with their kids, they had to discover all that. It was a lot more work than they thought it was!”
Joining forces with Lambriex
While Van de Werken has been sailing at a high level for more than a decade, he did not compete at Tokyo 2020, unlike current partner Lambriex.
Alongside Pim van Vugt, Lambriex finished sixth in Tokyo, as British pair Dylan Fletcher-Scott and Stuart Bithell claimed gold.
View this post on Instagram
Lambriex decided he wanted to try something new in Paris, and when he got in touch with Van de Werken about the possibility of working together, it did not take long to convince him.
Van de Werken recalled: “A month after the Olympics, Bart decided to do another campaign with someone else. He gave me a call and I didn’t have to think too long about it. We started off with a very good regatta.
“It was more luck at that moment than actual because we felt we lacked in a lot of areas. Right now, we feel like we have a much wider skillset which we can bring to the Olympics. That gives us good confidence going into the Olympics.”
Dominating the fleet
This Olympic cycle has seen something of a changing of the guard in the 49er fleet, with all three pairs from the podium in Tokyo stepping away from the sport.
Notably, New Zealand duo Peter Burling and Blair Tuke have turned their attentions to the America’s Cup, having won six world titles and three Olympic medals in a stellar 49er career.
In their absence, Lambriex and Van de Werken have filled the void.
A first world title was secured in 2021, a matter of months after coming together, with that gold backed up in Canada and then on home waters in The Hague last summer.
View this post on Instagram
And while Van de Werken admitted that initially their success was based on a very specific strength, it is clear that they have become one of the strongest all-round duos in the fleet.
He explained: “We are a lot of better in a wider range of conditions than we were in the first regatta. We had 7-10 knots for the whole regatta, which we had made a specialism. We were good in those conditions, but outside of that wind range, in the 16 knots and the 20 knots, we struggled, or a messy sea state.
“That has changed over the years and what is nice now is that no matter the conditions, we are quite confident that we can win races. That was not the case when we had just started. We really grew into it and three years gives you time to grow as a team mentally.”
View this post on Instagram
Marseille ambitions
After a hat-trick of world titles, Lambriex and Van de Werken saw their reign ended in Lanzarote in March, as French pair Erwan Fischer and Clément Pequin pipped them to gold.
Despite that, the Dutch duo have been the most successful crew in the fleet in this campaign are the team to beat in Marseille, even if they do not necessarily see it that way.
Speaking of his Olympic debut, Van de Werken said: “For me it has always been a dream to even compete at an Olympics and to be in a position where we can actually do something at an Olympics is a special feeling.
View this post on Instagram
“On the one hand, we try to look at it as just another regatta, but on the other hand, it isn’t. There is a lot of potential but I think we can say that both Bart and I are not too sensitive to pressure moments. We are both realistic, we are two Dutch farming guys! We’re quite chilled in that sense.
“People around us might say that (we are favourites). We will never say that. But we will never take the three world titles for granted. They have all been exceptionally good regattas for us. We’ve also been fourth or fifth or sixth at other World Cup regattas, so that can also be the case.
“We are quite realistic. If we reach the highest level we can reach, then we can win regattas, but the fleet is also strong enough to punish you very hard if you don’t reach the level that you can and make too many mistakes. The level of the fleet is too high for us to say we have won three Worlds so we are very confident that we can win the Olympics.
“We’re very confident that if we reach our level, then we can do well. But whether that is first, second, third, fourth or fifth, it also depends on the others. The French are very good in the breeze, the Uruguayans are very good in the light stuff. So if we get a week of breeze or a week of light stuff, we’ll probably be in the mix but it’s not so clear who is going to win.”