Diana Bogaards
About Diana Bogaards
With my Bachelor in Communications Management at the Higher Institute of European Studies in the pocket, I felt ready to explore the world of yachting and communications. I could however not find an appropriate job that offered this combination of my two passions, so I created it myself in 2003: Diabo. Over the last sixteen years, I built up my own business as communications professional and passionate sailor. It brought me to all corners of our globe.
Since I have a background in racing beach cats, the initial couple of years of Diabo were partly related to this water sports discipline. My first freelance job ever was the PR of World’s Biggest Cat Race around Texel in 2003, which I have continued for another nine years. From the beginning until 2007, I worked quite a lot for Hobie Cat Europe and covered many of their European and World Championships.
I was the press officer of the Aruba Catamaran Regatta from 2003 till the last edition in 2009. Another multihull project was Team Holmatro, that contracted me in 2005 for its communications during the Extreme 40 Series. Team Boskalis, consisting of four F18 teams, has become my longest-lasting multihull project. The master/trainee concept commenced with two boats in 2007 and ever since it has grown in talents and results.
Journalism and photography
Meanwhile, I trained my journalistic and photographic skills in my work, mainly for Zeilen and Nautique, two leading yachting magazines in the Netherlands. I got to interview interesting people from the sailing sports and I covered national regatta’s and international events. A few highlights are the 2003 and 2007 ISAF World Championships in Olympic classes, the Volvo Ocean Race 2005-06, the Archipelago Raid 2006, the IODA and Tornado Worlds 2006, the Louis Vuitton Cup in 2007 and the 2008 Commodores’ Cup. In 2008 and 2009 I traveled about nine months with the Volvo Ocean Race, where after I started my own news platform in March 2010: SailReport.nl. Since then, I have reported on so many events and teams, like London 2012, the Monsoon Cup, Singapore Straits Regatta, Raja Muda Regatta, Clipper Round the World Race, Semaine Olympique Hyeres, Audi Med Cup, Key West Race Week, Miami OCR, Route du Rhum, Swan 45 and 60, Melges 30 Team Roark, Schuttevaerrace, Youth Summer Olympics, etc. <
Events Communications
Events communications has always been a strong branch of my business. Apart from the events mentioned above, I worked for many more organizations. For example the IODA Europeans 2006, 420/470 Youth Europeans 2007, Delta Lloyd Regatta 2008-09, Yngling Worlds 2010, 470 Worlds 2010, Nacra Worlds 2010-11 and the inaugural Nacra 17 Worlds 2013.
Ocean Racing
Slowly I moved into the world of ocean racing, starting with the Dutch students of Team Delft Challenge, that competed in the Tour de France à la Voile. I then took care of the communications of Team Ocean Challenge, Lucas Schröder’s campaign for the 2007 Transat 6,50. But the highlight of my career came in 2008, when I was contracted as International Press Officer of Team Delta Lloyd in the Volvo Ocean Race 2008-09. During the next edition, I was offered the job as Dutch Media Manager of the Volvo Ocean Race and the contract has been prolonged until July 2015.
Olympic Games
From day one of Diabo, my journalistic work has had a strong focus on Olympic and Paralympic sailing. My debut to the Olympic Games however came in Beijing 2008, where I covered the regatta and I worked for the Dutch Tornado team of Mitch Booth and Pim Nieuwenhuis. Four years later I went to Weymouth to cover the London 2012 Sailing Games, both for Olympic and Paralympic sailors. This time I published on SailReport.nl.
SailReport.nl
After I came home from the 2008-09 Volvo Ocean Race, the world had changed due to the crisis. Magazines had smaller budgets for freelance editors and there was not really room for pure racing news. That is why I created SailReport.nl in 2009, a Dutch platform for national and international reporting on competitive sailing. The idea was to make a difference in producing our own content, more than publishing press releases. The concept worked, but my first and main partner Delta Lloyd terminated the sponsorship after three years. Although I really enjoyed running SailReport.nl, I have decided to change my course into a different direction halfway 2013. Back to my roots!
Other
It does not fit in one of my services, but I find it worth bringing up my book about beach cat sailing (Catbook), that was published in 2006. Since the introduction it has been used for many catamaran courses, trainings and by individuals.
Kind regards,
Diana Bogaards