Some of Germany’s fastest racing yachts have been signed up to compete in the HSH Nordbank pre blue race, starting on 20th May. The participants face a great nautical challenge that requires all their skills and competence. Some of them take advantage of the ambitious course from Kiel to Hamburg round Skagen as a training opportunity for the 2007 North Atlantic Race.
On Saturday the 20th May at 10.00 a.m. Angelika Volquartz, mayor of Kiel, and the mayor of Hamburg Ole von Beust will fire the starting gun at Kiel/Germany.
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Update:
The rain poured heavily down, but did not stop the excitement of the participants preparing for the first leg.
The “Roy”, a “Rainbow 42” will start with the oldest team in the race. Only bowman Ingo Trebian is an expectance, counting 27 years. “We will have a fast ride, looking at the weather and may sail up to 22 knots with our boat”, says skipper Werner Schulz. Reaching is the best course for “Roy”.
Faces became tight during the skippers’ briefing when the weather forecast predicted storm. ~ Where the Kattegat waters merge with the Skagerrak strait, the waves are prone to be particularly nasty on the yachts.
“We’ll be meeting up in Hamburg, and I trust that you will use the best of your seamanship to decide whether to get to the party on the Cap San Diego on your own keel or by car. Safety must come first at any rate”, race organizer Torben Knappe [said].
“Unfortunately, we’ll go home”, regretted Peer Valentin ~ who had been sailing on the Comfortina 42 Meltemi.
The oldest yacht of the fleet, Werner Schulz’ Roy, a Rainbow 42 from 1988 also stayed behind in Copenhagen for safety reasons.
[UCA] is now the undisputable overall winner of the HSH Nordbank pre blue race ~. The other 23 yachts gave up the race because of the heavy weather, but the spirits are high in Skagen, Denmark, where most of the yachts had sought shelter from the storm.