Round another island

Bob Fisher previews this weekend's Eurocard Gotland Runt

At 12 noon, Sunday, 3 July 2005, the starting gun will be fired for this year’s edition of one of the largest offshore races in the world - Eurocard Round Gotland Race 2005.

The Starting line
The starting line is between the Revengegrundet lighthouse and the buoy Svängen, approximately 3 nautical miles from Sandhamn. The first start will commence 1200 hrs and in the following order:
12:00 IMS EM/SM
12:15 IMS 1 och IMS 2
12:30 ORC Club 1 och J/105
12:45 ORC Club 2 och X-99
13:00 ORC Grand Open
13:15 Multihull

The courses

There are two longer and slightly different courses this year. The different courses separate the field to create a more varied race. From Almagrundet via Gustaf Dahlén lighthouse, then Salvorev down to Hoburgen, Knolls Grund and Visby. Here the two courses divide, the shorter (Bravo 362 nm) heading for Almagrundet lighthouse and on to the finish line at Skanskobb. The longer course (Alfa 432 nm) heads after Visby to Svenska Björn and Almagrundet lighthouse to the finish line at Skanskobb. There will be an 'Overall Winner', the prize is awarded to the best yacht under IMS. This year KSSS will also hold the IMS European Championship. IMS yachts participating in this event will compete in their own class. As KSSS is celebrating its 175th Anniversary, there is a special course for veteran boats from Sandhamn to Visby and back, starting on Saturday.

The 238 yachts signed up for the race include a number of international participants, of which the majority, as usual, come from neighbouring Finland. Sailors from 10 countries will compete in this year’s Eurocard Round Gotland Race.

Trimarans

The trimarans sailing the Nokia Oops Cup in the Nordic capitals, the Faerder Race (Norway) and around Zeeland (Denmark), have two more countries to visit after Sweden and Sandhamn and they are Poland (Gdansk) and Russia (St. Petersburg).

Last year’s winner of the Nokia Oops Cup, Academy with Knut Frostad of Norway, is back in Sandhamn. The other five are the 2003 Oops Cup winner and the fastest boat in Eurocard Gotland Runt last year, Klas Nylöf’s HiQ; Magnus Olsson’s Nokia; TietoEnator skippered by Thomas Johanson, the 2000 Olympic Champion of the 49er class, from Finland; and Bonduelle from Poland.

The leader of the Nokia Oops Cup is Stena Sovcomflot which is a newly formed team participating in Nokia Oops Cup for the first time. Stena Sovcomflot is a joint operation between Sweden and Russia, skippered by Bruno Peyron and with Roger Nilson as navigator.

How the winner is determined

While they will race separately, the single-hulled yachts and trimarans always “fight to the finish” to become the first to cross the finish line at Skanskobb in Sandhamn.

Most participants in the Eurocard Round Gotland Race are actually families, colleagues from work and groups of friends, both men and women. There are always a few yachts with all-women crews and sailing is one of the few sports in which men and women compete on equal terms. This delightful mixture of sailing yachts and crews makes the Round Gotland Race the biggest and most exciting sailing challenge of the year.

Several different courses have been used and yachts have sailed both clockwise and counter-clockwise with the start and finish alternating between Visby, on Gotland, and Sandhamn. However, the race has started and finished in Sandhamn since 1963 and the yachts always sail clockwise around the course. The first Round Gotland Race was won by Sven Salén’s yacht, Havsörnen.

KSSS - the leading yacht club

The Royal Swedish Yacht Club (Kungl Svenska Segelsällskapet, KSSS) is the largest and oldest sailing club in Sweden. Founded in 1830, and with more than 6,000 members, KSSS is an active and leading yachting club today. The club’s activities include racing, training, education, group sailing and a variety of club activities. KSSS also operates its own harbour activities in Saltsjöbaden and Sandhamn.
The club conducts intensive sail training programmes for young people and other types of training activities in Saltsjöbaden and Djursholm in Stockholm, and in Sandhamn. Most KSSS races take place on Baggensfjärden in Saltsjöbaden.

From the club’s facilities in Sandhamn, and on the island of Lökholmen, KSSS arranges sailing competitions during the summer, with the Eurocard Round Gotland Race being the largest in terms of the number of yachts and participants.