The annual sailing regatta attracted around 24,000 visitors to Lake Constance. They watched, among other things, how Fritz Trippolt from Bregenz took just 3 hours, 44 minutes and 40 seconds to complete the almost 100 kilometre route. He had already reached the finish line at 7.44 pm. As Rolf Schlett from the Lindau Sailing Club reports, this was "an absolute fabulous record for the Blue Riband of the 1st starting group".
The runners-up - Ralph Schatz ("Orange Utan"), the Sach brothers ("NTT Data"), Albert Schiess ("Holy Smoke") and Sammy Smits ("Green Horny") - also set record times. All of them were faster than the last and existing record, according to the press release from the Lindau Sailing Club.
In starting group 2, Jörg Pieper ("Excalibur") took the Blue Riband after 7 hours, 37 minutes and 2 seconds ahead of Wilhelm Gorbach ("En joy"). Günter Scheck ("Maximum") followed in third place.
There were also records in the third starting group (formerly the "Little Blue Ribbon"): No fewer than 38 boats out of 270 were under the previous best time of 7 hours, 30 minutes and 36 seconds. Harry Bücher ("Fortune") was the first boat to cross the finish line after just 6 hours, 47 minutes and 17 seconds, closely followed by Christoph Hardt ("Honeybadger"). Michael Reinert ("Ria III") crossed the finish line in third place.
Constant wind for the sailors at the Rund Um
The decisive factor for these "results of the century" was the absolutely constant wind from the north/north-east, which remained unchanged for practically the entire length of the lake and throughout the night, as Rolf Schlett from the Lindau Sailing Club reports. "An absolute novelty!"
The route took the sailors through all three countries that border Lake Constance: Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The exact route varies from year to year, depending on wind conditions and other factors.
The Rund Um 2023 was already over by 5.30 a.m. on Saturday morning. One skipper said after her return at 1 a.m. that "it was like a nice evening outing, but not like a Rund Um". According to Rolf Schlett, a race like this had put everyone involved in high spirits.
Thousands of interested people followed the event on Lake Constance
The premiere of the online transmission also went extremely well, as Rolf Schlett from the Lindau Sailing Club summarised.
Tom Zeleny came up with the new concept and realised it with amateur cameramen. The event was projected onto an LED wall on site, on YouTube and via the new Website broadcasted. According to Rolf Schlett, there were 69,000 page views and 17,000 visitors to the website in the past 24 hours alone. The event was presented by Thomas Bergert from RSA-Radio, Frank Bantle - "the weatherman of the Rund Um" - and Lukas Hummler.
The organisers spent around a year working on the new concept for the largest regatta on Lake Constance. The concept is to be fine-tuned once again for the Rund Um 2024.
- The registration portal for the Rund Um 2024 will be open again from 1 March 2024.
