The 28th of May 2012 heralds the start of the Pantaenius Rund Skagen race, part of the North Sea Week 2012, the only German race series that takes place on the open sea and is so testing that it attracts international participation. Each yacht will set off with a Yellowbrick aboard, a satellite-based tracking system that has already proven its worth in many regattas and rallies.
Approximately 80 yachts are expected to participate in this year’s Pantaenius Rund Skagen regatta, and each yacht will be fitted with a race tracker system from Yellowbrick, enabling live, real-time race coverage on the Internet. All that viewers need to follow the fleet online is Adobe Flash. The Yellowbrick race tracker provides positional data, yacht names, yacht information, crew details, course and route, waypoints and much, much more.
The Pantaenius Rund Skagen is held every two years as a part of the international North Sea Week yacht racing event and is considered to be one of the most challenging open-sea regattas. The route crosses through three very different areas of sea: the North Sea from Heligoland to Hanstholm which is a shelf sea, with heavy sea and ground swells accompanied by prevailing westerly winds, then comes the Skagerrak, an Atlantic strait with water depths of up to 1000 metres and flat bays on Jutland’s coast, such as the Jammerbugten (loosely translated as the “Bay of Lamentation” for good reason), and finally, after rounding the Skaw buoy, the yachts enter the Baltic Sea, a body of water that is temperamental but never boring, with many opportunities to employ clever tactics before finally reaching the finishing line in Kiel.
The demanding regatta lived up to its expectations in every respect in 2010: of the 87 registered yachts, only 54 crossed the start line due to a forecast of inclement weather. Of these 54, only 30 reached Kiel. With Beaufort Force 7 gales gusting to Force 8 from the North, an air temperature of around 12 degrees Celsius and water temperatures of between 4 and 6 degrees, Mother Nature was harsh and uncompromising as she separated the wheat from the chaff. It remains to be seen what the Pantaenius Rund Skagen 2012 has in store for its participants, but whether it be storm or calm, it will definitely be exciting.
Follow the action live at http://www.pantaenius.de/tracking
Every year at Whitsun around 1500 yachtsmen and several tourists gather at Heligoland to be part of the “Nordseewoche“ event. The North Sea Week is the biggest offshore yacht racing event in Germany. The Nordseewoche also offers the less experienced yacht’sman a fantastic opportunity to get into the race scene. Next to the ORC races the “Family-Cruiser-Cup” offers a relaxed atmosphere – sailing and winning without a rating certificate and without spinnaker or gennaker. And all sailors will catch up at the “boot Regattaparty” afterwards to celebrate together. The main sponsors are the international boat exhibition “boot Duesseldorf” and the SE Spezial Electronic AG. In 2012, the Nordseewoche is again organizer for the International German Championships for offshore sailing!