Rik and Ralf Rienks tinker with their hobby sloop
Rik Rienks looks around and laughs in agreement. “Yeah, it’s a bit of a Baantjer-like scene here.” He and his brother Ralf—who missed the World Championship final in the pair last month—are sitting in the sun outside a shed in a run-down marina in the Amsterdamse Bos. At first glance, it would be the perfect setting for a murder, but the brothers are actually bringing an old Norwegian rescue sloop back to life. “Every Sunday I’m here all day,” says Ralf.
Old boats and spare parts lie scattered everywhere, a rusty hoist is used for lowering vessels into the water, and the vegetation looks like it hasn’t been trimmed in ages. Inside the shed, next to their meters-long boat, stands a kitchen ladder. With ease, Rik and Ralf climb aboard their sloop. Ralf opens the little door to a tiny cabin, which turns out to be filled with paint, screws, and nails. “I think it used to be a space where you could shelter rescued people if they had fallen into the water,” he says. “Now we’re turning it into a storage area for cushions.” The steering wheel was once mounted at the front, but that’s long gone. Rik: “You bike around the city, look at other boats, and suddenly think: having the steering up front makes no sense. Steering from the back is way more relaxed. I can definitely see us cruising.”
Ralf and Rik Rienks
Found on Marktplaats
Boats never really leave Rik and Ralf Rienks alone, not even in their spare time. Despite their busy lives as TeamNL rowers, the brothers show this afternoon what kind of unusual hobby project they’ve become obsessed with. A high-altitude training camp in Austria and the World Championships caused a pause in the work, but now the Norwegian Man Overboard (M.O.B.) sloop is getting their full attention again. “It’s a rescue boat from 1982,” Rik explains. “It was built to go fast. We don’t need that. It’s becoming a showboat. I think we can fit about eight to ten people on it. Parents, girlfriends, friends—grab a drink and take a little cruise instead of a row. We found this boat in Velsen on Marktplaats. I was immediately into it. Ralf wasn’t entirely convinced, but we went for it anyway.”
Ralf shows a series of photos on his phone of a bright orange lifeboat. With some imagination, you can see it cutting through Norwegian fjords, but the boat now sitting in primer in front of us is already halfway transformed into a pleasure craft. “The hull is fiberglass,” says Ralf. “But we’ve added some wooden features. Like the wheelhouse and a cool box. I’ve been completely sucked into it. Every Sunday I’m here all day working on it. I just enjoy it too much.” Rik adds: “I think building it is more fun than using it. Friends sometimes ask when the boat will finally be finished… I think it’ll hit the water next summer. Then we’ll cruise along the Amstel in style.”
A Long-Held Wish
This international racing season was the first time Rik and Ralf competed as a duo. It fulfilled a long-held wish for the sons of two-time Olympic champion Nico. Ralf explains: “In 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020 we did everything together. Then we joined the national team and rowed two World Championships in the four, together with two others. Great experience, but for the Paris Olympics we were split up for the first time in years. I was in the eight and Rik in the four. That was actually pretty unfortunate. Secretly, it had always been my dream to try the pair together afterwards.” At the World Championships in China, that (so far) didn’t pay off: they missed the final and finished eighth overall.
Now that the tournament is over, there’s more time to work on the sloop—or to “tinker with our little hobby project,” as Rik calls it. “Just pottering around. We like that. This shed is also used for rowing, by the way. When we have long training sessions, our rowing shells are stored here too. That’s how we ended up working here. The sloop originally had a diesel engine, but we swapped it for an electric one. That took some figuring out, but diesel isn’t allowed anymore anyway. I just like working with my hands.” Ralf: “We kind of know how things fit together. We just jumped in. It’s not that complicated.”
The ability to build things didn’t appear out of nowhere. “I first did a technical bachelor’s and then a master’s at the Vrije Universiteit,” Rik says. “Our girlfriends Ymkje and Roos (Clevering and De Jong, both also TeamNL rowers) had a camper that got totaled. I always liked traveling with that camper, so I built a new one. And that’s how it went with the boat too. I had some time after finishing my studies and saw no obstacles. Before we knew it, we were already using the angle grinder.”
Mr. Perfectionist
Working on the boat makes the brothers’ personality differences crystal clear, Rik laughs. “Ralf is a bit more of a perfectionist, more precise.” The brothers are close and best friends. They eat together several evenings a week. That bond had to grow—as with many siblings. “I’m two and a half years older,” says Rik. “But Ralf couldn’t stand it when I was better or faster at something, because he’s extremely driven. In school he often learned my French vocabulary and geography before I did. Yeah, he had something to prove. And just like our father, he’s very competitive. But that’s what makes it fun. Now I don’t notice the age gap anymore. At training camp I said: ‘I think you’re my best friend.’ Ralf liked hearing that, because you don’t often say those things out loud.”
The question is what the rowing future holds for the brothers. Normally, “Buurman and Buurman” are aiming for Los Angeles 2028, but they’ll need to step up after the World Championships in Shanghai. “Unfortunately no A-final. Based on our training sessions together, we thought our level was good enough,” says Rik. “But I really enjoyed this period. The top crews are better, but I’d love to continue this for a longer time—if people see potential in us as a pair. For now, some time to get back to the boat!”
RIK AND RALF RIENKS
Rik (30) and Ralf Rienks (28) won the Silver Goblets & Nickalls’ Challenge Cup at the Henley Regatta this summer. Last year they both competed at the Paris Olympics. Ralf returned with the silver medal he won with the Holland Eight. Rik had long set his sights on that boat as well, but ended up in the coxless four and finished seventh. “When Rik missed the final during the repechage, I did throw a few things,” Ralf admits. The fact that the brothers missed the 2021 Olympics caused quite a stir in the rowing world. Many believed that the boat with Rik and Ralf Rienks, Jacob van de Kerkhof, and Michiel Mantel would have been faster than the four that the Dutch federation ultimately sent. At the 2022 World Championships in Račice, the brothers won bronze in the coxless four, after also taking silver at the European Championships earlier that season.
