Pieter Heerema was born on 6 June 1951[1] in Maracaibo (Venezuela), he is of Dutch nationality and an industrialist and amateur sailor who participates in the 2016–2017 Vendée Globe.

[2] He started his life in Venezuela but at the age of eleven, he came to live in the Netherlands and begins to sail on a Flits a small Dutch double dinghy popular with the youth [3] then moving onto the 470 and keelboats Yngling, J/22 and J/24.

But he end up buying his boat "No Way Back" that was being commissioned under the name "Vento di Sardegna" for  Andrea Mura (ITA) whose main sponsor was the region of Sardinia who no longer could support the project due to the economic crisis.

[5] He took on lots of advice from consultant including Michel Desjoyeaux and built up his experience qualified for the Vendée Globe by participating in April 2016 at the Calero Solo Transat between Lanzarote and Newport.

Three days after this conviction Pieter Heerema decided to default the company in order to evade the repayment of his open-standing taxes.