50th anniversary of the Ocean Race: Big celebration in Kiel, regatta with participating yachts
Lasse Johannsen
· 12.09.2023
The Whitbread Round the World Race was the first team race that took sailing yachts around the world in stages. The ASV took part with its flagship at the time, the "Peter von Danzig", skippered by Reinhard Laucht.
On 8 September 1973, the starting signal was given and 17 yachts crossed the line off Portsmouth in the south of England and set off on a course around the world, following the route in four stages along which the old square-riggers shipped goods during the 19th century.
"Peter von Danzig" was already an old yacht
The crews thus faced the rounding of the notorious capes as well as the arduous passage of the South Pacific. The sailors were mostly amateurs who took on the challenge for a variety of personal reasons. The race went down in the history of sailing not least because of this character and became the forerunner of "The Ocean Race", which is still organised today but is now highly professional, before that the "Volvo Ocean Race" and before that the "Whitbread Round the World Race"
The ASV is rightly proud to have helped write this history from the very beginning with a self-organised crew of 15 students led by skipper Reinhard Laucht. The celebration will take place in the boathouse in front of the jetty from which "der Peter" set off under sail back then - the 30-tonne, 18-metre-long ocean-going yawl from 1936 did not have an engine. Both participants from the crew of the time and the ship now known as "Peter von Seestermühe" will be there.
The ASV says
The club boat "Peter von Danzig" was built in 1936 from steel with a length of 18 metres at a shipyard in Danzig with the dedicated cooperation of students for the local "Academic Sailing Club" in order to take part in an Atlantic regatta. After the end of the Second World War, the boat took an adventurous route to the ASV i.K. in Kiel, where, as a heavy flagship without an engine and powered only by sails, it always placed high demands on its crews.
When it was announced that there was to be a sailing regatta for crewed boats around the world, the Kiel students were immediately "on fire" and wanted to be part of it. An organisational team was formed to tackle the difficult preparations: The entire club had to be enthused, money had to be raised to improve the equipment, sufficiently qualified crew had to be found, etc. But as is so often the case, the ASV solved the problems just in time and was able to proudly send out the registration form for participation. 15 students took part in the race. Nine of them sailed around the world.
The starting signal for the race was given by English sailing legend Sir Alec Rose, who had circumnavigated the globe alone in a sailing boat a few years earlier, making only two stops along the way. There were 19 yachts entered in the regatta, but only 14 of them were able to complete the entire race around the world, in which 27,000 nautical miles had to be covered. The race took a tragic turn in the Southern Ocean: Three sailors lost their lives in extreme weather conditions, they went overboard and could not be rescued. The "Peter von Danzig", however, was spared any dramatic incidents.
Unexpectedly, the winner was the Mexican yacht "Sayula II", against a number of boats built especially for this race. She arrived at the finish line in Portsmouth after 152 days at sea. The 36-year-old "Peter von Danzig" took 204 days at sea. This made it the last of the 14 boats to complete the regatta on time. The students from Kiel, who sailed the regatta with their old "Peter von Danzig" without any notable accidents, were respectfully celebrated by the other participants in the race with the award as "The Best Loser".
Everyone is welcome to the party
The anniversary celebrations will be held under the patronage of Kiel's Lord Mayor Dr Ulf Kämpfer. Other renowned yachts that sailed in successor races to the 1st Whitbread Round the World Race under the German flag can also be admired at the club's jetty. An anniversary regatta is planned on the Kiel Fjord with all invited former racing sailboats. The start will take place on 23.9.23 at 11 a.m. in front of ASV Kiellinie 9, and the race for tonnes in the inner fjord will be easy to watch from the shore at the Kiellinie. Afterwards, there will be a "lavish commemorative party" on the ASV club grounds.
