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Painting of theTielsa by
Duke Winston Lucassen

The ocean racer Tielsa  is designed and build specially for the Whitbread round the world race (now the Volvo ocean race) in 1977. The Whitbread/Volvo ocean race is probably one of the hardest and most well known races in the world.

The design by Johan Elsenga is rather revolutionary for an ocean racer, a multi-bended-frame made of Corten-Steel which is 25% stronger than ordinary steel used for shipbuilding. Due to this the weight could be reduced.

The interior of the Tielsa is luxury compared to the racers produced nowadays. The main sponsor after which the ship is named, the design kitchen factory "Tielsa" equipped the ship with a real Tielsa design kitchen. So probably it is the only ocean racer in the world with a Tielsa design kitchen on board. This with the fact of the comfortable finishing made the Tielsa suitable as charter ship after the race. 

Dirk Nauta was captain of the Tielsa during the Whitbread round the world race 1977/78 . He managed the building and sponsoring of the ship. The Tielsa ended on the 7th place, which was a very good performance of crew and ship considering the nature of the ship..

After the race the Tielsa was sold and made her way as  charter between Agadir en de Canary islands.

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