Royal visit

Rolex Baltic Week starts with plenty of VIPs on the water

A royal visit was the outstanding highlight of the Rolex Baltic Week on Sunday: Her Royal Highness Queen Silvia of Sweden honoured the event with her attendance to start a charity race in favour of the World Childhood Foundation, which the Queen herself founded in 1999. Meanwhile the IMS 600 yachts embarked onto their 134.5-nautical miles offshore race of their world championships after the start had to be postponed due to no wind. The Swan Race is half-way through with the Hamburg-based yacht Chrila of Claus Bressler in the lead.

Proving once again that he is a man of the people, Schleswig-Holstein's Prime Minister Peter Harry Carstensen made his way across the event area of the Rolex Baltic Week in the ancora Marina, Neustadt, to personally greet Queen Silvia. She came to the regatta venue in a luxurious Bentley and gave waves and smiles to the several hundred spectators. Queen Silvia and the only recently elected prime minister of the German land Schleswig-Holstein then boarded the 65-footer Maranatha that served as the committee boat for the charity race preceding the Hanseatic Lloyd Dragon World Championships that begins on Monday. Race fees, donations and the bids of an auction summed to more than 110,000 Euros. It will be used for misused and exploited children worldwide.

Carstensen, about whom it is said that as a student, he had often spent more time sailing than studying, gave proof of sailing skills: Acting as helmsman he safely steered Chrisco, owned by current world champion Dieter Schön, Germany, across Lübeck Bay as a so-called fox in a special scoring system. Alexander Eshkov from Moscow, however, successfully hunted him down with Alisa. The charity race was won by Jevgeni Kasakov from Tallinn, Estonia on My Best, followed by Valery of Konstantin Emelianov (also from Moscow) and European champion Claus Hoj Jensen, Denmark on HLL-Calliston. Three-times America's Cup winner Russell Coutts from New Zealand and many other prominent sailors finished as also-rans.

It was only after lunchtime on Sunday that the first slight breeze blew across the Baltic Sea. The absence of wind had had the IMS 600 yachts waiting for the starting signal for quite some time. They made a rather slow start to their long-distance race, which may well keep them out at sea for 20 hours unless the wind picks up. At Sunday evening, the fleet had already spread apart, with some yachts preferring the right and others the left side of the course. Right from the start, it had been mainly a tactician's job for the German and international favourites to the title. L+M Hispaniola (Horst Mann/Kiel) and Hanseatic Lloyd (Christian Plump/Bremen) chose the right-hand side, whereas the Spanish-Italian crew of Movistar with Spanish sailing legend Pedro Campos on board and the Norwegian Al Cap One III with Europe ace Peer Moberg opted for the left.

With three bullets under his belt by now, Claus Bressler from Hamburg sailed his Swan 56 Chrila to a lead in the Swan Race, presented by Deutsche Bank. The last years winner dominated all three races so far followed by Bobby Luchte from Flensburg on his Swan 44 MKII Moriju scoring three seconds. Third rank overall is held by Harald Baum from Hamburg. The vice president of the German Sailing Association finished fifth and twice third with is Swan 48 Elan.

Swan Race presented by Deutsche Bank
1. Chrila, Claus Bressler (Hamburg, Germany) 3 points,
2. Moriju, Bobby Luchte (Flensburg, Germany) 6
3. Elan, Harald Baum (Hamburg, Germany) 11.

Charity Race of the Dragon
1. My Best, Jevgeni Kasakov (Estonia)
2. Valery, Konstantin Emelianov (Russia)
3. HLL-Calliston, Claus Hoj Jensen (Denmark).