Hamburg - Cuxhaven: Fastest North Sea Week start since 1922
Friday, 22 May: The first day of the North Sea Week with the Hamburg-Cuxhaven race was under a particularly favourable star. The wind conditions were so favourable that the fastest yacht in the fleet, the Elliot 57 "Opal", crossed the finish line after just 4 hours and 44 minutes.
The sailors were surprised by the sunshine and a light, rough breeze right from the start at 6am. The wind direction made it possible to start under spinnaker. The art of crossing the starting line exactly at the starting signal in such a way that you can sail with free wind against the tidal current is particularly important in this wind direction. Overtaking slower boats that have made a better start always costs time and speed.
The "Amuse Bouche" in particular shone with a perfect zero start in the second start, which enabled the Tripp 40 to take the overall victory across all classes early on.
In the third start, "Edelweiss", a Millenium 40, shone with a zero start. The first sharp course to Haseldorf suited the light carbon racer, under gennaker it ploughed quickly through the regatta field and was only overtaken by the much larger Elliott 57 "Opal". Shortly after Haseldorf, the tide turned and the wind freshened, so that the sailors quickly passed Stade.
From Brunsbüttel onwards, the Elbe became wider, the wind fresher - as it almost always is - and the water rougher. In addition, the wind shifted to the west, making it necessary to tack against the wind. This caused a few shifts in positions, with smaller yachts in particular falling behind, while places were gained through tactics and knowledge of the area. The finish took place under blue skies in bright sunshine, and the fast journey meant that the regatta sailors were able to enjoy the afternoon in Cuxhaven to the full.
In the ORC1 group, the "Nikaia von Hamburg" won, although the "Opal" crossed the finish line an hour and 3 minutes earlier. However, the light, much larger canting keel yacht "Opal" has an extremely high handicap. In the ORCi 2 group, the smallest yacht "Chosi 6", a J35, took victory. "Rubix" with the youth team of the Hamburg Sailing Club won the ORCi 3 class. Fast starter and Wedel-Cuxhaven overall winner "Amuse Bouche" naturally also won her ORC Club 2 group. "Kühnezug-Goldkatze", a regatta yacht from the IOR era, won the ORC Club 3 class.
"The cooperation with the authorities, especially with the crews of the water police boats 'Amerika-Höft' and 'Bürgermeister Brauer', was exceptionally good." Jürgen Raddax has been the race director of the 81st North Sea Week's opening race for many years. "However, the weather conditions this year were also simply perfect."
"It is always a great challenge to organise the race on the Elbe, which is heavily frequented by commercial shipping." Marcus Boehlich, Head of Organisation for the North Sea Week, is delighted with how smoothly everything went: "Our safety boats cooperated excellently with the water police, which was not a matter of course as we have two new young crews."
Regatta marathon before and after Heligoland
Saturday, 23 May:Some heads were running hot on Heligoland: regatta results were calculated late into the evening. Saturday is the regatta day of the North Sea Week that is the toughest for the race committee in particular. Six races, four of them almost simultaneously at four different locations, always require a special logistical performance and careful control of all incoming information.
Minox Cup Cuxhaven - Helgoland
Most of the yachts in the Minox Cup were already on Heligoland by midday. However, this was mainly due to the early start time of 6 a.m.: During the start, there was still a slight current elbauf. As the ebb current set in, the course became increasingly bumpy: wind against current creates an uncomfortably short wave, which the smaller boats in particular had to contend with. Drizzle and 20 knots of wind were also not conditions that contributed to a good mood. Fortunately, the weather improved as we left the Elbe fairway on the way to Helgoland, and the wind and waves also became less severe.
The first yacht in the south harbour was the "Calypso". The 83-foot racer was built in 1998 as a 68-footer, but later lengthened a little at the front and rear as the "Wild Thing", and sailed successfully in offshore regattas in Australia. The second yacht just a few minutes later was the much shorter 57-foot "Opal", which is equipped with a tilting keel and has shed 600 kilograms since last year.
First in group ORC-Club 2 was the J/V 40 OD "Dieskopp" with Temmo Niekamp, in ORC-Club won "Susewind", a Faurby 296 of Hagen Reese. The "Elan", a Swan 48 with Harald Baum, won the ORCi 2+3 group, while the X50 "Bajazzo" was ahead in ORCi 1. The Family Cruiser classification was won by the "Amigo" (Sun Odyssey 42), Helmuth König.
Feeder from Bremerhaven and Wilhelmshaven
The yachts on the feeder from Bremerhaven had the toughest crossing. "We spent a total of seven hours just cruising. That was extremely rough." Kai Greten won the Pantaenius Rund Skagen long-distance race with his "Oromocto" last year and should be used to long sailing days. "Sunbird even lost her mast, they were quickly far ahead of us, then we saw them give up without a mast and have to clear up." The North Sea Week was to be the first regatta for the brand new aluminium yacht "Sunbird".
The winners Bremerhaven-Helgoland:
ORCi + Club 2: Desperado (Dufour 40), Timo Fischer
ORCi + Club 3: Pyleia (one off), Matthias Bröker
Family-Cruiser: Walkabout (C+C 30E), Hartmut Tietje
The winners Wilhelmshaven-Helgoland:
ORCi 3 + Club 2+3: Westergast, Jörg Schleebaum
Family-Cruiser: Waltzing Matilda (Comet 11 plus), Frank Häger
Feeder from Hallig Hooge
The crossing from Hallig Hooge was much faster and more pleasant. Thanks to the north-westerly winds, most of the route was a fast room sheet course. Incidentally, the Family Cruiser Cup had the largest number of participants from Hallig Hooge. Of the 16 yachts that made the journey from the North Frisian island, 14 belonged to this group. The Family Cruiser Cup is an easy introduction to regatta sailing - without measuring and without a spinnaker.
Early Bird Series
In the Early Bird Series, the particularly ambitious regatta crews sail the North Sea Week. On the Friday before Whitsun, part of the regatta fleet sets off for Helgoland in the evening, while the majority of the participants only sail the classic feeder races on Saturday. This race, known as the "Sundowner", is one of four races in the Early Bird Series. Three more races followed off Helgoland on Saturday.
After a perfect start off Cuxhaven, the IMX 40 "Pax" led the field. With a slight counter-current due to the still rising water, the IMX 40 was able to hold its position for a long time thanks to consistent current tactics. Later, at Vogelsand, the wind freshened and the larger, faster yachts took the lead.
First to cross the finish line after 4 hours and 5 minutes was the "Shakti", a Ker 46, the hottest carbon racer in the field. However, the "Skakti" was unable to win the race due to the high ORC time allowance.
Lobster 1 to 3
On Heligoland, the participants in the Early Bird Series were rewarded for their efforts the previous evening with 5 Beaufort and sunshine. There was a long wave up to 1.5 metres high on the race course off the island of Düne, which rewarded skilful steering with fast surfs during the spike courses. A total of 3 races were sailed, one long and two short.
In the course of the first race, Shakti had to retire in the leading position due to a technical defect. After a mass early start in the second race, race officer Stefan Lehnert initiated educational measures and raised the black flag. In the next start, 4 boats were over-motivated despite the tighter start and were disqualified due to their early starts.
There was also an overall recall in the 3rd race, but after the "black flag" was raised again, this time the participants started in an extremely qualified manner.
The overall winners of the Early Bird Series
ORCi 1: Xenia (XP-44), Ralf Lässig
ORCi + Club 2: Solconia (Salona 37 RK), Johannes Bahnsen
ORCi + Club 3: patent3 (X-332), Henning Tebbe
Decision at Düne Süd - Capitell Cup round Helgoland
Sunday, 24 May:The Capitell Cup round Helgoland is always particularly tactically demanding. Generally speaking, there is less current under land due to the depth. Due to the low water temperatures and the sun, which had been shining increasingly intensively since late morning, a pronounced thermal developed. Further complicating matters, current-induced wind fields caused wind shifts.
Right from the start, a wind swinging up to 30 degrees created opportunities that attentive tacticians were able to use to their advantage. In the fourth start of the ORCi 2 group, in which many extremely ambitious participants from the previous day's Early Bird series started, there was another mass early start with an overall recall.
Over the course of the race, yachts that consistently kept as close to land as possible or as permitted were able to make up considerable distance compared to those that ventured too far out to sea. The North Sea swell demanded maximum concentration from the trimmers, and the strong ship movements meant that the spinnaker or gennaker could quickly collapse or the current in the sail could tear it off. At around 3 p.m., the gradient wind died down, but with the strong thermals, the yachts were still able to sail on towards their destination.
On the last three to four nautical miles of the course, the field was split into two groups due to a lull zone west of the southern dune buoy. The eastern group finished quickly, while the yachts in the western group anchored or drifted back. As the larger, faster ships had to sail a longer course, the slack zone affected small and large ships alike.
At 17:15, the Millenium 40 "Edelweiss" was the penultimate yacht to cross the finish line. 15 other participants gave up in view of the nearby harbour and the less than encouraging weather forecast. The Lütje 48 "Marmelie" decided to finish the race and was still drifting off Helgoland at 18:40.
"Today, current and wind tactics were more important than boat speed." Race director Stefan Lehnert has seen a lot in his many years of experience. "In my opinion, you could have sailed out up to an hour today with clever tactics."
Even in these conditions, the teams that had already proven their skills over the last two days tended to come out on top. "Solconia", a Salona 37 RK, won the ORCi group, while the X332 "Patent3" again won the ORCi3 group. ORC Club 2 was again won by the "Amuse Bouche". "Oromocto", a wooden IOR one-tonner, is ahead in the ORC-Club 3 group. The YP44 "Xenia" won the ORCi + Club 1 group. Hendrik and Insa Conradi, who both grew up on Heligoland, demonstrated their knowledge of the area on "Esta" and "Insa" and took first and second place in the Family Cruiser Cup.
The start of the Helgoland Eight is planned for 9.00 am on Whit Monday. From 12.00 noon, the boats will be ready to start the return races. The start of the Edinburgh Regatta is planned for around 16:30. The safety checks for this regatta on Sunday showed that the yachts taking part in the long-distance race to Scotland are considerably better prepared than in previous years: So far there has been nothing to complain about.
