Final at the world's largest women's regatta in Hamburg: 230 women celebrate their Alster pleasure at the Helga Cup

The idea is alive and growing: the Helga Cup in Hamburg, initiated by Sven Jürgensen and organised by the Norddeutscher Regatta Verein, is and remains the world's largest women's regatta. More than 230 female sailors from nine countries met this weekend for the fourth edition of the regatta, which has great appeal. This year's participants came from the USA, Canada, Monaco, Great Britain, Sweden, the Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland and Germany. State Councillor Christoph Holstein, DSV President Mona Küppers and Ulrike Kloiber, Hamburg's new Senate Coordinator for Equality for People with Disabilities, opened the regatta festival on the Outer Alster. This was followed by fun, excitement and a great deal of sailing sport worth seeing. All of this in predominantly magnificent sailing conditions in front of the jetties of the host Norddeutscher Regatta Verein. "There are so many women around you here who can help you expand your wealth of experience. Just look to your left and to your right," said Mona Küppers, herself a fan of the female sailing summit in the Hanseatic city.

On the water, it was all about the J/70 yachts of the Bundesliga and S/V 14 boats. In the end, the defending champions and favourites prevailed in the large field of J/70 teams: For the HSC Women Team, helmswoman Silke Basedow, her sister Maren Hahlbrock, Juliane Zepp and Marion Rommel were victorious for the second time in a row. The Heinz Nixdorf Academy sailed onto the podium in second place. Third place went to the Berlin Goldelsen.

In addition to their sailing skills, many of the women also showed creativity in finding their team names. The teams KYC Ladies, Scål, the WYC-Südseeperlen, the VSaW-Seglerinnen, the Elbdeerns, the Schleiperlen and the Segelmädels followed in fourth to tenth place. With first place in the preliminary race and first place in the final, the confident HSC Women Team left no doubt about their class, roaring across the course at eleven knots in the final heat and enjoying the Alster fun just as much as the spectators on the pontoons. After 45 races plus the final race, initiator Sven Jürgensen spontaneously jumped into the Alster in fresh autumn temperatures and swam to meet the successful Hamburg quartet as the first well-wisher.

Hamburg's State Councillor Christoph Holstein also paid tribute to the fascinating all-rounder Helga Cup at the award ceremony on Sunday: "As I was crossing the jetty, I heard one crew say: 'I don't care where I ended up, the main thing is that we have fun'. It is precisely this mixture of sport, competition, training, cooperation, empowerment and inclusion - topped off with the fun factor - that makes this event so incredibly valuable." The S/V14 fleet was won by Team LilleHei with Heike Gercken and Lillemor Köper, who had just won World Championship gold in the paracanoe race a fortnight ago. Team Fock'n Roll with Susanne Krause and Katharina Menge sailed to second place ahead of the Dutch Ladies with Alice van der Ham and Elles van der Meer-Oudejans.

The Helga Cup will be five years old in 2022. This will be celebrated with many special events. Then - the organisers and participants hope - finally without coronavirus restrictions again. Next year, the sailors will be challenged from 9 to 12 June. Click here for the Helga Cup homepage and the results (please click!).