The Silverrudder Challenge starts in 46 days, and there are still places available! On 7 August at 6 p.m. there will be www.silverrudder.com A second chance for all those who have missed or failed to register for this year's edition. As some have not paid their entry fee or have changed their mind, there are now 17 more starting places available.
But you should probably be quick again, because the maximum number of starting places of 450 boats for the race to and from Svendborg on 16 September was already taken two hours after the registration portal opened.
Many record holders and other heroes and heroines of the stormy 2021 edition will be back, as will a significantly larger group of ambitious female skippers. Their number has almost tripled from just six starters in 2021 to 16 registered women. Among them are two-time mini-transat sailor Lina Rixgens, Olympic 49er FX silver medallist Sanni Beucke for the second time after her challenging debut last year and Lena Weißkichel, another aspiring repeat offender.
Lena Weißkichel is training hard away from the Silverrudder course to take up Susann Beucke's legacy in Olympic sailing alongside her 49er FX cox Nadine Böhm in two years' time. Beucke and Weißkichel, who have an affinity for skiff and sea sailing, will cross paths at the Silverrudder. Sanni Beucke has upgraded after her tough baptism of fire on the Seascape 18 last year: She will be contesting her second round on a Beneteau Figaro 3. Lena Weißkichel has chosen a Dehler 30 od for the Denmark test with a view to her Silverrudder comeback.
The Silverrudder brings together many exciting sailing careers and attracts experienced warhorses, adventure-hungry novices, passionate solo regatta sailors, returnees and first-time participants every year. The event is becoming increasingly international: starters from 13 countries want to make their mark on the multinational fleet with their performances and their stories one year after the anniversary edition in mid-September. The anticipation is just as great among the newcomers as it is among the regulars.
The "Challenge of the Sea" is an annual single-handed regatta that is sailed around the island of Funen in Denmark. The regatta event is the largest single-handed regatta in the world in terms of the number of participants. The start and finish is the harbour town of Svendborg, located on Svendborg Sound in the south of the island.
The event quickly became very popular after its first edition and will be held for the eleventh time this year. At the first regatta in 2012, 15 boats registered; the following year, 100 skippers had already signed up.
In 2014, there were even 200 registered sailors. Even then, half of the participants were not Danish. Eight different nationalities were represented, and for the first time the winners in three boat classes did not come from Denmark.
The Silverrudder enjoys cult status among German sailors. For 2022, the proportion of German starters was just over 60 per cent shortly before the list of participants was finalised for this year.
The most important figures from last year: the maximum 450 participants were also registered for the tenth edition. 29 cancelled their participation before the start. 67 stayed away from the races - mostly out of respect for the predicted strong winds - without cancelling. 354 boats started the Rund-Fünen-Race, 329 reached the finish line. New records were set in all seven classes just in time for the anniversary. They will be hard to beat this year.
You can register here on 7 August at 6 pm (please click!).
