Like an invasion, countless sailors invaded the red rock in the North Sea last weekend for the 77th time in keeping with tradition. On Friday morning, 14 boats set off from Hamburg for the Haspa Private Banking Cup and headed for Cuxhaven. From there, the SE-Vibe Out Series Sundowner Regatta followed across to the island that same evening. Saturday morning saw the start of several more feeder regattas from Cuxhaven, Bremerhaven, Wilhelmshaven and Hallig Hooge.
The next day, on Sunday, 102 boats took part in the BHF-Bank-Cup Rund Helgoland. The winner in the ORCC 1 class was "Amuse-Bouche" skippered by Klaus-Thomas Krüger. In the ORCi 1 group, the newbuilding "Xenia", an XP 44 owned by Ralf Lässig, won, and in ORC 3/4 the "ReläXX", an X-332 owned by Jens Ralf Schade. The winner in the ORCi2 group was the yacht "Patent 3" owned by patent attorney Jürgen Klinghardt from Bremen. The day before, the reigning world champion in the ORCi 2 class and three-time German champion (2006, 2008 and 2009) had already clinched overall victory in the SE Vibe Out Series, a regatta series for ambitious crews.
Between the races, there was plenty of time in the evenings to socialise with the other sailors. The community and the parties have been an integral and important part of the event for many years. Thanks to the limited dimensions of the island, you are bound to bump into every sailor more than once during the regatta days.
To round off the regattas around the island, the Inducon Cup Helgoland Eight took place on Monday. The crews of no less than 50 yachts made it to the starting line at 10.35 am from what must have been a very tempting berth (after the Sunday evening party). Between the neighbouring island of Düne and Helgoland, the field first sailed north at the cross, then headed west and circumnavigated the island anti-clockwise. After a hook to the east side of the dune, the boats crossed the finish line between the islands a few hours later. The winner of ORCC 1 was Albert Schweizer's "Leu", while "Xenia" again won the ORCi 1 group. Patent 3" was also able to claim another victory in the ORCi 2 class. "Coyote" with Jan Schwital was successful in the ORC 3/4 class.
Holger and Claudia Neugebauer won the North Sea Cup with three victories on their X-332 "ReläXX". The boat was steered by Ralf Schade from the Wulsdorf water sports club. They won the Bremerhaven-Helgoland regatta, the BHF-Bank Cup Rund Helgoland and the Inducon Cup Helgoländer Acht.
At around 5.30 pm yesterday afternoon, 37 of the 160 ships in the North Sea Week finally set off on the Helgoland Edinburgh Race. The ships can be tracked on the Racetracker ( click here ) can be tracked. The "Haspa Hamburg" is currently in the lead, closely followed by the "Bank von Bremen". They are expected to reach their destination after 420 North Sea miles tomorrow afternoon.
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Some of the participants will then start again on 19 June for the ASV Offshore Challenge organised by ASV Aachen. The boats will sail non-stop from Edinburgh around Skagen to Kiel.
The results can be viewed here: www.nordseewoche.org
