The last and longest race of the 79th North Sea Week started on Monday, 20 May 2013. After the other five races of the North Sea Week Monday, the Inducon Cup Helgoländer Acht and the return races in the estuaries of the Elbe, Weser and Jade, had to be cancelled by the race committee due to adverse weather conditions, the Edinburgh Regatta was able to start on time in the afternoon.
The Edinburgh Regatta is a genuine ocean race across the open North Sea and the Dogger Bank. The 21 sea-going yachts will be on their own for three to five days to conquer the 460 nautical miles to Edinburgh. This traditional regatta has been held since 1968. The ocean race leads from Helgoland to Edinburgh/Scotland 420 nautical miles across the open sea in the Firth of Forth and ends in Edinburgh's Granton marina. The race starts every two years, always on Whit Monday, alternating with the Pantaenius Rund Skagen regatta.
All registered participants passed the race committee's safety check and were allowed to set off for Scotland in extremely light winds. However, the weather forecast of the boat weather service, personally prepared on Heligoland by the experienced sailing weather meteorologist Meeno Schrader from Wetterwelt, has a lot to offer, from calm to squalls.
After the start, the tidal current generated enough wind for the participants to cross. On the morning of Tuesday, 21 May 2013, the field crossed in 15 to 17 knots of wind, ideal sailing conditions. The wind will continue to freshen during the course of the day, with gusts of up to 35 knots expected at the peak. Under certain circumstances, a marginal low pressure system from Stavanger to the south may develop in the form of a storm depression with winds of up to 45 knots and may graze the field during the night from Thursday to Friday, depending on how quickly the ships make progress.
It is expected that the almost equally sized yachts "Scho-Ka-Kola" and "Norddeutsche Vermögen Hamburg" will fight a tough duel for the title of the fastest ship. However, the calculated result may be quite different, as the slower yachts will get more wind according to the prevailing weather forecast.
