The Danish South Sea is a favourite destination for many Baltic sailors. Small islands line the coast from west to east. Bays invite you to anchor, and in good weather the water shimmers almost turquoise - just like in the South Sea.
This coming weekend, a very special regatta will take place in this paradisiacal setting. From 20 to 22 August, the Escape Regatta of the same name will be sailed off the island of Lyø. What makes it special: It is designed to capture the flair of the area and the lifestyle of the residents and bring it to life. According to the organisers, it is therefore aimed at those sailors who are in "cruising mode" or "laid back". Sailing during the day and socialising in the evening - the motto of the event says it all.
The few rules that exist, reflect exactly that. The course of the two races is star-shaped and around 20 nautical miles long. While the first start (Saturday morning at 9 a.m.) will still take place normally, the second will be organised according to the chase start principle. This means that the loser of the first race goes first. The other boats start in reverse order so that the slower boats start first.
Katharina Charpianand Axel Hackbarth took part in the regatta last year with their "Zest", a First 345, and recorded their impressions for YACHT. Their descriptions make us look forward to this year's Lyø Escape. Her personal Lyø Escape report can be found on the following page:
Saturday, 22 August, 7 am.Our alarm clock rings. Three hours to go until the start. My friend Axel and I spontaneously signed up for the "Lyø Escape" four weeks ago. My first regatta, my second sailing holiday, and Axel's second regatta. Five hours of sleep behind us, a seven and a half hour regatta ahead of us. When we arrived in the harbour the evening before, we were not only greeted by a seal, but spontaneously ended up at the "Lyø Escape" team get-together.
8 o'clock. A trumpet sounds through the small harbour of Lyø. Over coffee and cheese rolls, we are greeted by curly-haired Morten Brandt, co-initiator of "Lyø Escape" and inventor of the Silverrudder and Vegvisir Race, and his family at the harbour house and meet our competitors. 18 teams, sailing boats with very different crew sizes and promising names such as "Job Done" or "N-Joy".
At this point, we have no idea that we will not only be sharing the rough Baltic Sea with them today, but also the smooth dancefloor. Morten explains the 42 nautical mile route around the neighbouring islands such as Avernakø, Drejø and Skarø and emphasises the idea behind the regatta: "Lyø Escape is an adventure sailing race in a relaxed form - we sail during the day and socialise at night."
9.30 am.Another 30 minutes until the start. We attach our start number 411 to the "Zest". Eleven years ago, Axel bought the now thirty-four-year-old "First 345" with his friends Jan and Klaas - she has already made it to the Caribbean and has also broken her mast and rudder off Portugal and in the English Channel. The regatta marks the climax of our two-week sailing holiday in Denmark.
The "Zest" is packed with great things. The surfboard on deck is just a teaser. Our toys live in our aft cabin. Four kites, a wing, two kiteboards, a waveboard, a foiling wing and SUP board, a kitefoil board, four scuba tanks and a giant inflatable unicorn. Morten would like to expand the Lyø Escape next year to include other water sports disciplines. We taught Axel's unicorn "Rainbow" to foil during our sailing trip and are ready for next year.
9.35 am. While the other crews cast off, Axel climbs the mast and attaches the new wind indicator. Our neighbour is amazed at his composure.
9.50 am.The rainbow-coloured flag flies at the start line. It heralds the imminent start. Fun regatta or not, the tension is now not only palpable on the "Zest", but also in front of the starting line. The boats, from the Mini 6.50 proto, a foiling Farrier F82 R trimaran to sporty cruisers such as a Grand Soleil 43, are represented in a wide range and are nervously doing their laps under sail. Anyone wondering how to win the regatta will receive a simple answer from Morten: "Whoever crosses the finish line last today will be the first to start on the second day of the regatta and whoever crosses the finish line first on Sunday is the winner".
And he adds in the morning at the skippers' meeting: "So if you're smart, you're not particularly fast today" - a statement that fits in with the "laid back" attitude of the weekend. Fun instead of competition. With each other instead of against each other.
10 am.The pirate flag flutters in the north-westerly wind and the starting signal sounds. Our fake tattoo session with seashells and seahorses doesn't quite get us across the start line on time, but lucky charms are important. We have a tailwind. What the five-member family crew of the "Grand Soleil 43" named "Josefine" from Hamburg can do before us, we can do too, and pull up our spinnaker at over 20 knots.
After all, we had practised diligently the previous days in 30°C and max. 10 knots of wind - and were extremely happy when the spinnaker disappeared back into its bag 10 minutes later, a few places further ahead, and we got away with a black eye, because the wind continued to freshen up strongly - 40 knot gusts are talked about at the bar in the evening.
The wind whips, the spinnaker dances, the waves make the "Zest" rock, the boats scatter like bugs in the Danish South Sea. At an average speed of 7.5 knots, we mostly followed other boats, but sometimes we searched in vain for a turning buoy, but other sailors did the same and we smiled at each other and sailed on sportily.
12.30 pm. A boat approaches us from behind and we see Anders Kraft at the tiller. He came up with the idea for the regatta and grew up on the water. A short time later, we are sailing bow to bow with his old Aphrodite "Kaffe" and go head to head in a top-class two-hour race, which we later celebrate in his restaurant with "Gammel Dansk". On this day, we utilise the full repertoire of the "Zest".
We switch from spinnaker to genoa and reefed main. Then we set off through the Danish archipelago at half wind with a full sail and various sunshades. We hoist the small jib 3 on the inner forestay, reef the mainsail and set off on the arduous return journey to Lyø through the stormy Baltic Sea, motivated by Morten, who passes us at regular intervals in a rubber dinghy armed with a camera.
5.30 pm. It's getting chilly on the Danish Sea. We sail contentedly to the finish in our onesies to the applause of the Lyøans. Now it's time for "Beer on the Pier" before we follow the "hippie/casual" dress code and cruise on our longboards with top hats, rainbow shirts and floral dresses to the hygge restaurant "Hly" in the town centre, which Anders only opened a few weeks ago.
8 pm.We enter the garden of the restaurant, which is located in an old school building, to the sound of jazz from the Marko Martinovic Trio. There are colourful bouquets of flowers on the table, seafood, beer, wine and chilli liqueur. The conversations don't revolve much around the tactics of the day. Boat builder Jan talks about his woolly pigs, red-haired Swede Joshua about Vikings, restaurant owner Anders Kraft about his birth on the "Kaffe" and the two Danish sea rogues about their rabbit that lives on board with them. The reason why they had to abandon the regatta early today. It was getting too stormy for the rabbit.
0 o'clock. We share the rainbow marshmallows we have brought with us around the campfire and dance to the sounds of Abba and the 80s with the other participants almost until dawn. To our great surprise, we win the "special prize" for our hippie vibes that evening, even though we are the second-to-last crew to cross the finish line today. We blame it on the heavy toys on board. Of course.
5.20 am. We head downhill to the harbour on our longboards. Our alarm clock rings at 9am. The horn sounds at 9.20am. We jog sleepily across the jetty to the skippers' meeting and find out our start time. 11.03 am. We are the first team to start and are confident of victory. The losers from the previous day have dropped out.
Sunday, 23 August, 10.55 am.We cast off in the harbour. Suddenly two men jump on board. Carsten and Max. At night around the campfire under a starry sky, I had offered them the chance to sail with us today. Danes take invitations more seriously than expected. That too is Lyø Escape. Spontaneous, relaxed and without disqualifications in the event of a sudden crew change. It's the very first sailing trip for young Max.
7 minutes to go until the start. Today, the regatta course is only 8 miles long. An eighth around buoys in front of the harbour entrance to Lyø is on the agenda, so that the 85 inhabitants of the island have a change of scenery in front of the quay wall. We run aground briefly at the start - but it's also flat here - let a trimaran sail past us and two hours later we cross the finish line happily as the sixth team.
Our private Lyø Escape continues for another three days. The contacts we made over the weekend gave us a good time and the 6 square kilometre island cast a spell over us. We anchor, kite, swing, ride Lasse's Icelandic horses, find a real unicorn in Susi's Skrøne Museum, make music with Carsten on the Klockesteen, sleep in Hari's converted mill and get to know Jan's shipyard and woolly pig Alf.
We'll be back next year - on the water and on the dancefloor. We are convinced that the spontaneously initiated prototype "Lyø Escape 2020" by Morten and Anders - without Corona - can become a big Hippie Water Festival 2021. Will we see each other? You'll recognise us by the foiling unicorn.
