It is an unchallenged victory that skipper Katrin and skipper Jens Priewe have achieved on their H dinghy "Tekitisi": When they arrive in Arnhem in the Netherlands after three hours on the last of six legs of this year's Rhine Week, the next boat is nowhere in sight. The route on this Whit Monday was around 40 kilometres long. By way of comparison, the Varianta "Oscar" needed more than five hours in four to five Beaufort and gusty winds. This meant that the "Tekitisi" also won the "Blue Riband" for the fastest boat - the Priewes needed 14:52:33 hours for the 185-kilometre route, which this year started in Cologne-Porz and stopped in Hitdorf, Düsseldorf, Duisburg, Wesel and Rees. The "Blue Ribbon" for the fastest boat by calculated time went to the J/22 "7Sitzer" and its crew of three.
A total of 68 boats were entered this year, including seven Shark 24s, five H-boats each, Sailhorse and Dyas and three J/22s. The smallest boat in the race, an RS Vision dinghy sailed by two older men, had to give up after capsizing on the first leg and the sailors moved to the support boat "Eureka", which served as a place to sleep and eat, but also as a party boat and regatta office. In the end, 49 boats were categorised in the competition for the "Blue Riband". The results can be read here.
This meant that the Rhine Week was unable to match the success of previous years, when up to 140 boats came to the Rhine Week. However, in the last two years, the traditional event, which continues to be organised purely on a voluntary basis, was cancelled entirely due to the coronavirus pandemic. This year, only the stage finish in Emmerich had to be cancelled from the programme at short notice due to a severe weather warning - instead, the entourage only sailed the 20 kilometres from Wesel to Rees on Whit Sunday and from there across the border to Arnhem on Monday.
The route changes every year; in 1922, for example, 52 boats sailed the 207 kilometres from Andernach to Emmerich. Back then, tugboats with smoking steam engines dominated the current, and even larger sailing yachts had no auxiliary engine. Since then, the Rhine has become narrower and the current stronger, tugboats and steamers have disappeared, most ferries have been replaced by bridges and numerous bays and oxbow lakes have silted up. Even today, many boats are still towed from time to time, dinghies and small cruisers dominate the Rhine Week scene, while high-bred regatta racers are rarely seen. Instead, many families, parents with children and sailors who do not fight doggedly for every metre on the start line with a knife between their teeth have always come.
Sailing is always downstream, i.e. towards the valley, as they say on the Rhine - with the current pushing each ship towards the finish line at around five kilometres per hour. So five minutes before the start, you can still drift 500 metres in front of the starting line - sailing is possible here even in calm conditions, which the old Rhine sailors call "stiwweln". On the way, especially at weekends, you will encounter numerous large commercial vessels, which you always have to avoid - but which also honk their horns if they feel too stressed by the regatta traffic on the Rhine. The route leads past Cologne Cathedral, but also past numerous industrial plants in the Ruhr region, while elsewhere cows graze on the banks and numerous trees line the banks and provide shade from the wind.
YACHT was also there this year, including on the "Li", an L-boat built by Abeking & Rasmussen in 1949 - also the oldest boat at this Rhine Week. A detailed report will appear in an upcoming issue of YACHT.
