Sunshine, 15-20 kts wind, white nights, 80% kite of 450 nm racing in the Baltic: This is a fairy tale of which every yachtman is dreaming about. But no fairy tale without the Norwegian king, H.M. Harald V "the Invincible". With his 3rd overall victory in the hanseboot Baltic IRC circuit he clearly leads the international crowd with 75,6 points followed by Norwegian Camilla (67,5 points) and Varuna from Germany with 66,7 points.

Round Gotland is the biggest race in the Baltic IRC circuit with 40 yachts in the scoring and who doubts, that the king will take home the Hanseboot cup at the end of the series? But you never know, the Finns are still to race with their IRC championships end of August and the KDY autumn regatta at Copenhagen will see many participants as well! More infos about Eurocard Round Gotland here. ACTUAL SCORING HERE

H.M. King Harald V of Norway

"The wind conditions were actually more stable than predicted", reported Marten Schirge, skipper of the german J/V 52 youth yacht "Bank von Bremen". The crew of the Segelkameradschaft "Das Wappen von Bremen" felt sailing in the the baltic sea this year more like sailing in the caribean.

They were even able to watch the worldcup game Germany against Argentina during a phase of calm winds close to Bornholm. Their first ship home arrival at Sandhamn was celebrated together with Shakti and Haspa Hamburg on Monday morning 5th July with two kegs of beer. Congratulations!

Crew "Bank von Bremen" minutes after arrival Sandhamn

Skagerak and Kattegat have always been a natural arena for serious offshore racing. Historically Skaw Race was one of the most grueling races and in more recent year Watski Skagerack Twostar have been called the toughest shorthanded race in Scandinavia.

For the 15th Göteborg Offshore Race the Royal Gothenburg Yacht Club in agreement with the Swedish Sailing Federation has been working together with the sailors to revive this exciting race. Start and finish at Långedrag, August 12 -14, 2010. A new challenging 150 mile course is running from Långedrag in Gothenburg, north to Marstrand, over to Skagen and around Kattegat. The start is on friday 13:th and we expect all the boats to be back well before the prizegiving and the big party saturday.

Photo: Peter Gustafsson, blur.se

1040 boats started in sunshine and light winds to the long-distance Faerder'n Race. This regatta is the most popular long-distance race in Norway, and the fourth regatta of the Baltic IRC series. The race track is about 120 nm long and runs from Oslo around the lighthouse Faerder Fyr on the Tristein island at the exit of the Oslo Fjord, and back again. The challenge in this race is the navigation between the islands and the current tactics in Oslofjord. Under certain circumstances the yachts have to deal with very rough Skagerrak weather at the outflow of the Oslo Fjord.
Therefore, the lighthouse Faedern has a comparable meaning for the Norwegians as the Fastnet-Rock has for the British.

With a 30 min lead over her sister Rogers 46 "Gut´s n Glory",Jens Kellinghusen´s Rogers "Varuna" (Hamburg/ Germany) took over the yellow jersey in race 3 "Round Fyn" in the Baltic IRC Cup. Varuna was modified by getting a bigger squaretop mainsail and some extra weight in the keel last winter. But with this modification Varuna only got a 5 TCC points higher IRC Rating. It was an absolutely tight racing between the three Rogers for a long time, when "Shakti" hit the ground near Svendborg to have a rest of 45 minutes.

The yachts from Germany did benefit from 2 extra points sailing abroad as the Swedish boats did, which will be no further advantage, when the Danish fleet reaches Gotland, Helsinki and Flensburg. One of the top scoring Danish yachts is DEN 19294 "Visione 3" from Per Weiskvist/ Kerteminde on position 4 at the moment. Visione is a former ILC 40, modified with a new carbon rigg, big symetric and asymetric kites and the very experienced skipper Per Weiskvist, who is one of the initiators of the Baltic IRC circuit . Download the actual scoring here.

Skippers meeting at Kerteminde after a nice breakfast

The Elsinor Yacht Club near Helsingoer has now opened for entries to the Danish part of the hanseboot Baltic IRC Open. The regatta is part of both the Baltic IRC Open as well as the Baltic Sea Challenge for Swan Yachts. The regatta is an invitational regatta for competitive yachts over 35’ holding a valid IRC certificate and is also open for yachts over 35’ holding a valid DH certificate, but IRC participants will precede.

There will be max. 35 entries accepted after the principle “first entry, first served” and the regatta will offer 3 days of competitive sailing with one long race and 6 windward-leeward races. The race office will be based in the NORTH HARBOUR next to the Castle of Kronborg near the town of Elsinore. The Elsinor Yacht Club will guarantee you a you a high level of social activities after the races.

See invitation here!

After a stormy Round Skagen with only 8 boats of 20 entries under IRC finishing and the Big Boat Challenge in Kerteminde the hanseboot Baltic Open scoring shows the first results: Not surprisingly the winners of BBC, "Blur" from Sweden and "Fram XXI" from Norway and of Skagen, "Hexe" from Germany are the leaders on the scoring board.

Though 80 ft HEXE, skippered by Norbert Plambeck from Germany was the big winner of the Skagen race from Helgoland to Kiel round Denmark, the very well sailed BLUR skippered by Peter Gustafsson and FRAM XXI helmed by H.M.King Harald V hold a small advantage over "Hexe", as they benefit from extra points for racing abroad.

The leaderboard will certainly be reshuffled, when the next race Round Fyn will follow on Friday 4th June, where many of the competitors from both races will meet each other again. Download the actual Excel-Scoring sheet here!

The first regatta of the new Baltic IRC series, took place in Kerteminde Denmark. The Big Boat Challenge had almost similar numbers of entries under IRC and Danish Handicap, so it was a success to the Baltic IRC Open concept.

In the entry list there was the TP 52 FRAM owned by HKH Harald of Norway and the Cookson 50 Camilla, owned by Ole Martin Vordal also from Norway as the favorites in Class 2. The Cup lived up to the expectations with perfect sailing. In Class 1, for the smaller yachts, there was entry by Jesper Bank in his new Faurby 396 race, and Peter “Blur” Gustafsson in his J 109, amongst 3 Farr 30 and more.

Tarok 7, the Danish Swan 45 owned by Erik Berth, which is participating in the Baltic IRC Open series, has found new and bigger partners for their serious training sessions.

DEN 9503, Tarok 7, Erik Berth, Swan 45, KDY