Solo offshore racing in Norway

Jon Amtrup reports on the new Simrad OneStar

The Scandinavians are flocking to the shorthanded scene... The next big thing will be a 250 nautical miles singlehanded regatta with stopovers starting on 1 August 2006. Simrad Marine is backing the event and are title sponsor of the newly christened Simrad OneStar.

"Our ambition is to make the Simrad OneStar one of the best solo regattas in Northern Europe in the years to come. The goal is to expand the regatta and crank up the level each year," says Øyvind Vedeler, eager solo sailor and the man who kicked off the interest in shorthanded sailing in Norway.

All the major offshore regattas in Norway have incorporated shorthanded classes in their concepts this year and two double-handed regattas have been born in the last years: the Frydenbø Doublehanded between Bergen and Stavanger, and Watski Skagerrak TwoStar with pitstops in both Norway and Sweden. This last solo addition to the shorthanded regatta was tested out last year when 15 eager OneStar-sailors sailed the course. They where all smiles when they returned after 200 nautical miles of hard solo racing.

But the Simrad OneStar will be even harder than the training regatta. The boats will start from the Race Village in downtown Fredrikstad on 1 August 2006 and dive south to the Swedish islands of Väderöarna. After rounding the islands they will cross the Skagerrak and arrive in Arendal 24 hours later. The worst case scenario will give the sailors 10 hours rest before they are set out on an eight hour long course to return to Arendal for some more R&R. The start from Arendal to Fredrikstad is early morning on Friday 4 August and hopefully the boats will be back at the Race Village the day after. The total length of the regatta is 250 nautical miles.

"This is a true adventure and shorthanded sailing has become the big thing in the last couple of years here in Scandinavia. The Simrad OneStar will give us an excellent opportunity to showcase our products for the sailing community," says Jan-Hugo Schnelle, Managing Director of Simrad Marine AS.

The regatta is open for all boats with LYS (Norwegian handicap) over 1.15 and sailors from all nations are more than welcome to the start line. Right now the largest boat on the entry list is a 56ft racing trimaran and the smallest are the six Mini 6.50s. The presentation of the new regatta took place on Wednesday in front of 150 keen shorthanded sailors in Oslo. 25 of them where all ready signed up for the solo adventure and the organisers are hoping to max out the 50 available spots.

"This is the ultimate regatta for the experienced sailors that want to push their limits and experience a real adventure. Skagerrak is our play
ground and we want this regatta to develop together with the sailors," says Vedeler.