5th Helga Cup: Home victory at the world's largest women's regatta: When the Helga Cup becomes the Silke Cup

This weekend, Hamburg's Outer Alster was all about female regatta sport. The Norddeutscher Regatta Verein hosted the world's largest women-only regatta. At its fifth edition, Silke Basedow and her crew from the Hamburg Sailing Club sailed to their third victory in a row. The "Stiftung Mammazentrum" team started the three-day event, in which 50 women's crews with sailors from nine countries took part, as favourites. Organised and initiated by Sven Jürgensen for the first time in 2018, the "Made in Hamburg" regatta has become internationally synonymous with female sailing within just a few years, despite the coronavirus pandemic.

However, five years after their premiere, the Alster local heroes had to prove their comeback qualities in the preliminary round. "It wasn't all easy going. We were sometimes behind and had to fight our way back. We realised how much the standard at the Helga Cup has risen," said helmswoman Silke Basedow, describing the challenges. In the final races, however, her team was unstoppable. "The final races were perfect races," said Basedow, "we started well and were able to make metres, even though the conditions were difficult with fickle winds." Before the Helga Cup, the skipper and her crew, as well as other participants, had volunteered to train newcomers and inexperienced regatta sailors as part of the Helga Cup Academy and had themselves contributed to the increased standard in the fleet, which now challenged them. The regatta will retain its succinct name Helga Cup, although it could also be called the Silke Cup after three consecutive victories by the HSC aces following the successful triple.

The "BYC Goldelsen" from the Berlin Yacht Club came second ahead of the "Scål Team" with helmswoman Ava Momm from the Norddeutscher Regatta Verein on this wonderful sailing weekend on the Alster. Teams such as the "Sahneschnitten" (8th), the "Mondsee-Mädels" (9th) and "Die Prinzessinnen" (10th) also sailed into the top ten, showing that creative team names and strong sailing go well together at this regatta summit. The Commodore Prize for the best international team at the Helga Cup was won by Team Ukraine with helmswoman Anastsiya Winkel in sixth place overall.

DSV President Mona Küppers was also part of the action on J 70 boats in the heart of the Hanseatic city. More of a cruising sailor herself, she spent the whole weekend on the water and on land with the female sailors and said: "There are top athletes competing here as well as those who are prevented from racing in their clubs because men don't want them there. They all come to Hamburg, sail together, network and help each other. No one envies the other - the opposite is the case. Everyone does their best. What the Helga Cup has achieved is so important: the women become visible. They are there, and everyone sees that."

All the fans around the Alster and on the NRV jetty were also able to see how two silver medallists won gold in the Helga Cup together. In the second, inclusive Helga Cup class S\V 14, 49er FX Olympic silver medallist Sanni Beucke and wheelchair basketball Paralympics silver medallist Anne Patzwald sailed away from their competitors. They showed in the double pass that inclusive sailing is not only a lot of fun, but can also be very successful.