SeaCart around Gotland

Fresh mid-winter attempt on this record with German-Swedish crew

What: 311 Nautical Miles Round Gotland Midwinter Challenge
When-Where: Course open from December 1 to February 29 / Baltic Sea, Sweden.
Class: Multihull 30 (open for other classes).
Challenger: Playing for Success (GER). Boat type: SeaCart 30 GP Trimaran.
Record to beat: 2006-2007, 27h 58m 42s. Name: Business 3. Boat type: SeaCart 30.

Recently Playing for Success arrived in Sandhamn with one thing in mind; Try to beat the standing Round Gotland

It’s interesting to note that during the history of this course no monohullers have ever attempted to race around Gotland in the middle of the winter. Maybe multihull sailors are nuts or just love sailing their fast boats so much? Thomas Reinke and Michael Walther sailed from Kiel last Saturday and are now on stand by in Sandhamn waiting for a suitable weather window to make an attempt on this record. Calle Hennix and Mikael Lundh will join the German team in Sandhamn.

Staying at Seglarhotellet the crew have recharged their batteries from the trip to Sandhamn. More than 450 nautical miles two-handed in a high speed trimaran is tough, especially at this time of year.

In 2005 Thomas Reinke at Sportmohr, the multihull specialist in northern Germany, became interested in Calle Hennix’s SeaCart 30 project. He fell in love at first sight but the timing was not right for a project start that year. Two years later, Reinke decided to launch a SeaCart 30 campaign together with Kiel’s multihull specialist Michael Walther. He bought the SeaCart 30 Playing For Success from the English sailing legend Pete Goss and sailed together with Michael’s brother from Plymouth to Kiel in December. Kiel will be the PFS team’s base camp and apart from inshore and offshore racing they will encourage young people to open up their eyes for this clean team sport in cooperation with Kiel Sailing City.

If you’re not online you can join the crew live in Sandhamn before the start on Thursday, and/or on Friday night when they hopefully have finished and have a record to celebrate. Will they beat the record or even the dreamtime of 24 hours for a 30 ft boat sailing around Gotland? Sailonline.org will be tracking the progress of the record attempt from around 15:00 on Thursday, 7 February.

Skipper: Thomas Reinke, GER (1964), one of the owners of the Sportmohr Company. Apart from being a dealer for Hobie Cat and Corsair Hobie Cats and Corsair Multihulls, he is also the winner of many national catamaran races.

Crew: Michael Walther, GER (1981) has sailed for 15 years with his older brother Thomas on different catamarans in national and international races. The last three years he has competed in the Archipelago Raid aboard different Formula 18 catamarans. 2007 he and his brother won the German Hobie Tiger Championships and the national ranking as well.

Crew: Calle Hennix, SWE (1963) ex-round the world and America's Cup crew, founder of the SeaCart 30 One Design trimarans Class.

Crew: Mikael Lundh, SWE (1972) ex. Whitbread with Swedish Match and V.O.R. with djuice, Admirals Cup/Fastnet Race to name a few races he has participated in.

Partners:
Seglarhotellet i Sandhamn / www.seglarhotellet.se
Route Assistance and Online Race Partner / www.sailonline.org
Musto for great heavy performance gear / www.musto.com
Sportmohr Multihull Dealer / www.sportmohr.de
Oceanlake Marine AB / www.seacart30.com
Official Photographer / www.malcolmhanes.com

Standing Records 2005–2007
60 ft multihull: Time: 17h37m25s. Name: HiQ. Boat type: ORMA 60 Trimaran. Record established between: 2005.12.05 – 2005.12.06
30 ft multihull.
2006–2007: Time: 28h58m42s. Name: Business 3. Boat type: SeaCart 30. Record established: 2006.12.09 – 2006.12.11
2005–2006: Time: 35h58m10s. Name: Audi. Boat type: SeaCart 30. Record established: 2005.12.01 – 2005.12.02