1977
Mom and dad meet
Mom a sailor, dad a windsurfer, meet at Bloso (Sport Vlaanderen) in Ostend teaching kids the arts on the water and in the wind.
Mom’s parents had an Arpège Dufour, a notable racer-cruiser at the time. After each of his two first sails on the North Sea, dad swore he’d never sail again. Seasickness can be more than a pain in the @&&.
June 7th 1979
BORN
Son of a windsurfing self-made entrepreneur/engineer and a sailing nuclear physics prodigy.
Just a couple of weeks old, in the crib on the beach.
July 1980
First time on the North Sea
1yr old, look at that smile 😀
July 1981
Age 2
With mom
1982
My first boat
With my younger brother in Nieuwpoort…
1987
1st major breakthrough
Giving my first lecture in middle school, named: ‘‘I’m going to be windsurfing champion! ‘’.
The whole class was enthousiastic, including me. However, mom and dad were clear: “we’re not going to do this”.
Mom and dad tought me to walk at 8 months, rollerskate at age 3, … and had a different opinion: “Aim as high as you can, in academics! There will always be an opportunity in sports later.”
A disappointment, but I either win or I learn. From then on, I searched and tried everything that crossed my path.
Sidenote: Robby Naish proved 13yr olds can win world championships from adults. Keeping up with adults myself in windsurfing at the age of 8, my ambitions seemed like a realistic goal.
1988
Learning sailing
Age 9 in an Optimist at Bloso Nieuwpoort. Sailed them 4yrs and 1yr 4M (single trapeze, no spinnaker).
1994
The 1st family sailboat, another breakthrough
Almost 20yrs after my dad’s first dramatic sails, my parents bought a Van de Stad 40 Norman. A compromise between mom’s quest for performance and dad’s needs to have comfort.
Our first trip was Nieuwpoort to Benodet (Brittany, South-East of Raz-de-Sein) with an experienced pilot. We encountered 40knt winds blowing of the mainland to the Channel Islands and anchored just South of Cap The La Hague. At least one boat was lost that night, several injured. A Navy battleship came alongside in the middle of the night to check on us. It inspired a string of new ports being built on that coastline a couple of years later.
Not a major breakthrough initially, but it would come.
1998-2004
TU Delft – a coincidence?
Aim as high in academics as possible. The adagio at home. In Belgium this is paramount as well.
Due to my broad interests (see 1st Major Breakthrough), everything interested me and I didn’t know what to study. It was an article in the newspaper inspiring my mom to go and have a look with me and my dad.
A new building for Aerospace alone and a big hall with airplane and helicopter (parts). Cool, but is this what should define my future? « Maybe you can’t get enlisted » was a genius trick of my dad to go to admissions for a check. The nice guy looks at my grades, then sees I went to the USA and says it’s ok. My dad jumps up and asks « Where should I pay? »
I could have jumped up as well to say no, but I’m always open to new experiences. It would take a lot for me to say no. Either way, this was the start of my professional career.
Later on, I learned my mom’s (first?) lecture was about Apollo 11 landing on the moon… It was only in my thirties when I learned Aerospace was a golden ticket to open doors. Still up to me to perform, but a competitive advantage to start the narrative.
2008
2nd Major Breakthrough
After the divorce of my parents (2000), my father bougth a sailboat to sail it solo on the North Sea for many years.
30 years earlier, he swore he would never set a foot on a sailboat again. 🙂
Magic does happen.
2004-2013
Volvo: HR driven operations
After my thesis internship, I’m honored to receive a permanent position at Volvo Cars Ghent.
In my 2nd month on the job, I unknowingly fumble big time, making the head of purchasing Sweden sending me a mail with 2 words:
YOU IDIOT!!!
My boss (at least 5 levels down) calls him to agree and end the phone call asking him to apologize to me. I didn’t know what I was hearing. 2 min’s later that’s exactly what happened. I will remember this forever. Everybody makes mistakes, it’s how we handle them that matters.
I got more examples like this. If you really want to know, give me a call/drop me a mail. 😉
I got a dream career at Volvo and will be forever thankfull to all the colleagues and leaders who got me where I am today.
2011-2015
Rocket sailboat
My first sailboat. As always: ambitious, this is a planing skiff, which doesn’t need a lot of wind, has 1 trapeze to go hanging out the boat as counter weight for the large canvas. The assymetric makes the boat fly downwind. For the few 49er or 18ft skiff sailors out there, it’s nothing like your thing, still jealous.
Don’t know about sailing: this is windsurfing with 2 people. When you leave the boat for 5 seconds alone in the marina, it will flip upside down. 0 stability, more like continuously dancing, but wicked fast.
2014-2019
IRC1 First 40 => 2018 Belgian champion
“Michel Lefebvre is a living legend” my grand father tells me. Everybody in the Belgian sailing scene does know him. He was a friend of the late Jacques Rogge as well. Just says a lot.
Winning the 2018 Belgian championship, I was just one of the 9 crew members. And it wasn’t Michel’s first victory either… Yes, the TEAM definitely deserves credit, it didn’t come easy. He does yell, but at the dock it’s all chips and drinks. And the merit he hass, just makes us respect him on the water. Imagine having his expertise and taking novices like us on board to try winning regattas for a living… Just to say, we all understand Michel steered and coached us to victory.
For the non-sailors out there:
Regatta sailing on a 40ft sailboat with 10 crew… you don’t have time to speak to each and everyone to tell them what to do in a manoeuvre. In a matter of 10 to 15sec, everyone is doing several tasks, each and everyone synchronised with at least 1 other crew member. This under high stress if you’re catching up, in unknown conditions -dancing on their feet when their are big waves- and time-pressure (think 2000′ F1 pit-stop).
2019 – today
J80 One Design Racing
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