Skûtsjesilen Every year, the battle for the championship of the Sintrale Kommisje Skûtsjesilen (SKS) [Central Committee on Dutch Barge Racing] starts in Grou. Traditionally, the fleet arrives in the welcoming village at the beginning of the northern summer holidays. On Friday evening, the fourteen SKS skippers and their crews gather in a large tent on Halbertsmaplein in the atmospheric village centre. During the festive meeting, lots will be drawn for the starting order on De Veenhoop and in Earnewâld. On Saturday, the skippers on the Pikmar and Wide start the series of eleven races through Friesland. The boats are brought from the timber docks in one long haul to the race course, watched by thousands of spectators who have gathered on the shore and the water. A splendid tradition since 1854 Races for barges and freighters have been held in Grou since 1854. In those days, skippers earned their living by transporting cargo on those ships. Any financial perks were welcome and so they took part in the sailing regattas, which were initially organised by the Oostergoo and Frisia sailing clubs. In 1929, the Kommisje Skûtsjesilen Grou took over until the foundations were laid for the Sintrale Kommisje Skûtsjesilen association in 1945. Since then, the races have been organised under the banner of the SKS. Competition sailing with historic cargo ships has survived and grown into an annual sailing championship that everyone in Friesland can enjoy. There are skippers at the helm who descend from ‘skûtsje-families’ who had earned their living in Friesland with a freighter for at least ten years in the last century. Will ‘It Doarp Grou’ become the SKS champion again? Grou has owned a skûtsje since 1957. Douwe Azn joined in 2005. With Visser as skipper of the Grouster skûtsje. He has enjoyed great success with skûtsje. In his first season, Visser became SKS champion with ‘It Doarp Grou’. He repeated this in 2009. He then finished second several times (2011, 2012 and 2013), but recaptured first place again in 2014. In 2015 and 2016, Visser finished third on the podium. But in recent years he has been unbeaten: in 2017, 2018 and 2019 he finished first. The skipper will do everything to become SKS champion with ‘It Doarp Grou’ again this year. But competition from the other thirteen skippers is fierce. So the battle for the championship remains tense until the last race on the Snitser Mar. 2022 Competition More information about the 2022 competition will be posted on the website as soon as it becomes available. The competition dates for 2022 are ‘provisional’. 126
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