80th North Sea Week: New Afterguard for the North Sea Week

Germany's largest North Sea regatta has a new afterguard: Marcus Boehlich, an oceanographer from Blankenes, has taken over both posts from Bernd Jörg, who left his position as 1st Chairman and Head of Organisation to great acclaim after ten years of service. His deputy in future will be Dr Stefan Lehnert from Bremen, who has succeeded his predecessor Wolfgang Schaake as 2nd Chairman. Lehnert was also elected race director of the offshore series with races to and from Helgoland.

The organisers are expecting around 1500 participants for the 80th North Sea Week at Whitsun from 6 to 9 June. This year's highlight is once again the Pantaenius Round Skagen Regatta from Hegoland to Kiel, which takes its starters across the challenging and sometimes extremely rough North Sea around Skagen into the Baltic Sea. The long-distance race takes place every two years, alternating with the Helgoland-Edinburgh Regatta.

The North Sea Week was first organised in 1922 and is one of the oldest series in German sailing. Even back then, it quickly developed into a cult regatta. The founding of the "Verein zur Schonung der Betten in der Morgenröte" (Association for the Protection of the Beds in the Morning Glory) was evidence of this as early as the mid-1920s.

At the centre of the feeder races, short and medium distances as well as the start of the long-distance races at the North Sea Week is the island of Helgoland, which rises out of the North Sea as a red rock with a white sandbank about 35 nautical miles off Cuxhaven. Torsten Conradi, President of the German Boat and Shipbuilders' Association, partner of Judel & Vrolijk, enthusiastic sailor and self-confessed Helgolander, said: "The North Sea Week is not only the only German offshore regatta, but also the nicest. Everyone gets their money's worth here. You're right in the middle of the sailing world here, after the regatta everything stays together. On this rock in the middle of the sea, you experience regatta sailing more intensively than anywhere else."

The North Sea Week Regatta Association now consists of ten member clubs following the admission of the Unterelbe Sailing Club from 1929. Bernd Jörg remains loyal to the North Sea Week as Commodore.