41st Peter Gast Shipping Regatta: The maritime industry goes sailing - Gallery update
"It was perfect," said Christian and Dieter Gast, Managing Directors of Peter Gast Shipping, summarising the 41st edition of the traditional regatta. "We had sporty sailing with some surprising winners and a wonderful summer evening with a big party in Denmark."
The weather window for the regatta, in which around 120 yachts including support vessels took part, could not have been better: While stormy gusts of over 35 knots had still been a tough challenge for the sailors on their journey to the Schlei on Friday, perfect sailing conditions prevailed on Saturday with around 15 knots of wind from southerly directions and plenty of sunshine.
Two 20-minute start delays
With the wind shifting further and further south, the race committee under Alexander Prinz zu Schleswig-Holstein (Norddeutscher Regatta Verein) had to demonstrate a great deal of flexibility and constantly adapt to a new starting scenario. "In total, we had two 20-minute start delays for the faster starting groups, so that the smaller, slower yachts finished almost at the same time as the big, fast racers," reports Alexander Holstein. "For the first time, we were able to welcome a classic as 'First Ship Home' with the 12er 'Anita'."
The last yacht crossed the finish line off the idyllic Danish town of Ærøskøbing at 5.04 pm. Shortly afterwards, all participants swapped their sailing jackets and shorts for stylish blazers to parade through the town, led by a traditional Danish marching band. The award ceremony then took place in the large marquee set up in the harbour. The successful crews of the individual groups were honoured on the central stage.
Organising team of the shipping regatta sails actively
The Schiffahrtsregatta is the largest privately organised regatta event. This year, the main organisation was carried out by Christian and Dieter Gast (management of Peter Gast Shipping), Schiffahrtsregatta "veteran" Hans-Joachim Lemcke and Alexander Gast. All four took part in the regatta on different yachts.
Christian Gast sailed on the Jeanneau 60 "Sexy Lady", Dieter Gast steered his X 4.3 "No Excuse", Hans-Joachim Lemcke sailed on the Dehler 46 "Sixpack". Alexander Gast, who joined the shipping regatta team this year and also works for Peter Gast Shipping, sailed aboard the Millenium 40 "Edelweiss" to Ǽrǿ.
Regatta results and special prizes
"Even though it's a fun regatta, the yardstick factor is a huge concern for everyone in the run-up and as soon as the starting signal sounds, all participants are highly ambitious," says Alexander Holstein. "The later the yachts started, the more they had to cross on the way to the finish line, so this year the participants' tactical expertise was also required."
The "Peter von Seestermühe", skippered by Christoph von Reibnitz and sailing for Hammonia Reederei, won the classics category. The yacht also won the challenge prize donated by Pantaenius for the first yacht in the overall yardstick classification and the Abeking & Rasmussen challenge prize. This prize, a half-model of a yacht designed by Henry Rasmussen, was presented with a short laudatory speech by Matthias Hellmann, CEO of Abeking & Rasmussen.
In the group of the smallest yachts with a yardstick factor of 93 and above, the "Ida" with helmsman Jens Wrede won. The X-332 "Alexa" with Axel Grissmer/ DHV-Marine won the group of yachts with a yardstick factor of 91 to 93. In the group of yachts with a factor of 87 to 90, the C&C 115 "Asteria" skippered by Jens Weishaupt and sailing under the flag of Peter Gast Shipping took the lead, while Dirk Becker/Minship Shipmanagement was successful with the Luffe 44 "Tea Time" in the group with a yardstick of 84 to 88. Peter Wrede/ Mankiewicz Gebr. won the group of the largest yachts by yardstick with the Hanse 470e "Peppermint".
The best yacht in the ORC-B classification was the "Amuse Bouche" with Jörg Zieron/ Zieron Shipping, ORC-A and also the Pantaenius challenge prize for the best yacht in the overall ORC classification was won by Daniel Baum/ Pantaenius Versicherung with his "Elida".
A special prize was awarded to the classic "Princess of Tides", which was the only yacht to make it to the starting line on time at 9 a.m. despite the surprisingly strong counter-current in the Schlei. Ralf Paulsen from the Kieler Yacht-Club (KYC), who supports the regatta every year with his motor yacht "Pauli IV" and has become "the face of the KYC" at the regatta, received a special award for his many years of commitment to the race management team of the shipping regatta. The race committee is traditionally made up of the three clubs Kieler Yacht-Club (KYC), Norddeutscher Regatta Verein (NRV) and Segelvereinigung Altona-Oevelgönne (SVAOe).
All results of the 41st Peter Gast Schiffahrtsregatta are here to find.
* It goes without saying that Schifffahrt is nowadays spelt with three "f "s, but as the Peter Gast Schiffahrtsregatta is a proper name, we respect this and stick to this spelling.
