Nord Stream Race - High-tech yachts and a maritime tradition

by Gerald Gebhardt on 15 Aug 2017 Five national top crews will compete from 25 August to 7 September 2017 at a 1,000-nautic-mile regatta from Kiel to St. Petersburg - via Copenhagen, Stockholm and Helsinki. Under the motto 'Connecting Baltics through Sport', their high-tech yachts will be followed by paths that have been crossed centuries ago.

Since the Middle Ages, a steady, but often daring, maritime trade traded the Baltic Sea, both materially and culturally, with a flow of goods from food and luxury goods. Each of the cities has its own history, its own character and, last but not least, another country language. But the common maritime tradition still connects the metropolises across the borders of the country. This heritage is preserved in the large yacht clubs, both the old and the younger ones. Its members and their guests still experience the autumnal Baltic Sea as the trade-drivers of past centuries: as a real challenge with stormy sea, surprising weather changes and challenging navigation.

Five top teams with equal chances start on uniting from Kiel to St. Petersburg

The five club crews from Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Russia have qualified as winners of their national sailing leagues for the Nord Stream Race. In a long season they had to prove their sailing excellence on inland waters and on the coast as well as their team ability. If they now change from the small, J70 keel boats to much larger and faster Club Swan 50 and instead of short races they have to absolve days and nights races, a principle of the sailing league is maintained: the boats are absolutely identical; All teams have the same chances of winning.

Guest yacht clubs: royal splendor and citizenship

From the challenging, long legs on deck of their racing yachts, the sailors will recover in the yacht clubs, which organized the Nord Stream Race. Their buildings and institutions still give an impression of the great maritime tradition of the Baltic countries: Whether with the opulent glamor and the stylish furniture of the Royal Swedish Yacht Club (Stockholm) or the modern architecture of the Royal Danish Yacht Club (Copenhagen) and the cultured bourgeois simplicity of Helsingfors Segelklubb (Helsinki). The receptions with which the clubs and all celebrities honor the deep sea sailors are conceivably the greatest contrast to life on the racing yachts with dry food and rationed water, but, like the use on the sea, belong to the maritime tradition of the Baltic Sea. After the celebrations in Copenhagen, Stockholm and Helsinki the sportsmen will exchange the blazer for modern high tech sail equipment over and over again to arm themselves for the next stage – up to the ceremonious winner's honour and the gala dinner in the inhabitant of St. Petersburg yacht club on the seventh of September.

The well-known sailing clubs Norddeutscher Regatta Verein and Kiel Yacht Club (Kiel), Kongelig Dansk Yachtklub (Copenhagen), Kungliga Svenska Segelsälls-kapet (Stockholm) and Helsingfors Segelklub (Helsinki) invite the crews and sailors to a variety of cultural events Athletic exchange. For the finish, the European Segelelite meets the victorious celebrations at the staging Saint Petersburg Yacht Club, one of the leading yacht clubs in Europe.

Nord Stream Race:

The Baltic Offshore Regatta - Nord Stream Race - has been held by the Saint Petersburg Yacht Club with the support of GAZPROM and Nord Stream AG since 2012. The regatta is 1,000 nautical miles long and runs along the Nord Stream Pipeline route. The Race connects Russia, Germany, Finland, Sweden and Denmark.