Race around the Baltic

July's Nord/LB Baltic Sprint Cup will visit Finland, Estonia, Riga, Lithuania, Poland, Denmark and Germany

The biggest is over 20m, the smallest just over 10m long, there are high-tech racers and real classic yachts....in exactly one month, around 50 yachts of different types will take part in the first ever NORD/LB Baltic Sprint Cup.

This three-week regatta will start on 9 July in Sandhamn, Sweden. In seven legs and approximately 1,150 nautical miles; it will visit eight harbour cities around the Baltic rim countries: Helsinki (Finland), Tallinn (Estonia), Riga (Latvia), Klaipeda (Lithuania) and Gdansk (Poland). Starting in Copenhagen (Denmark), the last leg will finish on Friday, 29 July with an extraordinary sailors’ party in Warnemuende (Germany). The honours reward for the overall winner is the 'Neptune with two Tritons' trophy made by the
traditional porcelain manufacturers Fürstenberg.

The short sprint legs from 45 to 260 nautical miles, often lasting two days and a night, when ambitious crews sometimes don’t sleep at all, make the challenging difference of this offshore regatta. And though the weather is forecasted to keep up, even in July there may be strong winds and choppy seas in the Baltic Sea.

“Regarding the courses, we will react flexibly to the weather conditions, and if necessary also adapt the start times”, promises Race Director Alan Green. “We want everybody to come in safely, and get to know the wonderful cities along the route,” adds event manager Henning Rocholl.

“The size of the fleet more than fulfils our expectations and shows that a Pan-Baltic sailing regatta was long overdue,” say Gunter Persiehl, chairman of the Norddeutscher Regatta Verein (NRV), and Sven Herlyn, general representative of the NORD/LB bank note. While the NRV chairman will himself sail the NORD/LB Baltic Sprint Cup with his brand new Bavaria 42 match Pippifax, the chief of the North-Eastern Europe business unit of the NORD/LB bank is looking forward to the exciting social program for sailors, key customers and the spectators. In all stopover ports, there will be individual greetings and crew parties, as well as public events such as the great Sea Festival in Klaipeda.

Even though most of the yachts are starting under German flag, the organisers are expecting an international fleet. The clubs and associates of every city have two wildcards for sailors who can only participate in the legs to and from the stopover harbour. “We hope that in the end we will have boats from all eight countries that are offering this unique backdrop to the NORD/LB Baltic Sprint Cup”, say the organisers.

Racing under the ORC Club scoring system, the fleet is divided into three classes and a classic division. All yachts with a race handicap (GPH) up to 580 are starting in division A, division B goes up to GPH 615, and yachts with a GPH from 615 to 650 are sailing in division C. Yachts built before 1980 are allowed for the classic division.

Until the beginning of the regatta on 9 July, the participants will be busy preparing their yachts and their crews. Tutima, owned by watchmaker Tom Ebert from Frankfurt, was still under construction by the end of May. The 14m yacht was built in Malaysia. “We will be at the yacht club in Kiel in time for Kiel Week”, says Ebert. The NORD/LB Baltic Sprint Cup will be the first race for the DK 46 in the Baltic Sea. So Tutima, still waiting for her classification, will be the youngest yacht in the race. The oldest ship is Major Simon Davies’ 57ft sloop Flamingo. Aboard his yacht, made in wood by Abeking & Rasmussen in 1935, the British skipper will be starting in the classic division for the British Kiel Yacht Club. 21.31m length overall, the Sinfonie Sylt owned by Reinholt Riel from Westerland/Sylt is the biggest yacht.

The possibly fastest, according to handicap, is the Outsider of the Admiral’s Cup veteran from Kiel, Tilmar Hansen.

On board of the new Norddeutsche Vermögen Hamburg, 28-year-old skipper Benjamin Hub will be responsible for the first three legs. “As some of us are a bit pressed on time, we take turns on board. Two more skippers will arrive later”, explains Hub. The yacht, an Andrews 54, starting under the flag of the Hamburg Seafaring Club (HVS) in division A, is one of the hottest favourites for the overall victory. And the crew is one of the youngest in the fleet, as it is the HVS’ philosophy is, to introduce young people to offshore sailing. Benjamin Hub is looking forward to the sailing challenge as well as to the trip through the Baltic region. “The idea of the NORD/LB Baltic Sprint Cup is absolutely new in the Northern Europe regatta circus”, continues Hub, “and very interesting, as holiday and performance-oriented regatta sailing can be combined in a marvellous way.”

The single legs will be scored according to the low-point system, meaning the fastest yacht by measured time gets one point, the second-fastest two points and so on. The worst two legs – except for the last one - are cancelled. After each race there will be award ceremonies and the “yellow tricot” - a forestay flag - will be given to the leading yacht before each re-start.