On February 8th in 2013 we are very much looking forward to presenting the 6th GERMAN OFFSHORE AWARD to the best offshore yacht participated in an international regatta. Together with the federal state government of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg the German Offshore Owners Association e.V. is delighted with inviting nominees, yacht owners, participants of the Hanse Race, journalists and friends of yachting to solemnly celebrate the price giving; we expect about 500 guests from Germany and abroad.

The criteria to be awarded the German Offshore Award are the placing of each race as well as the conditions under which the crew was successful, which means that we do not only recognise the sporting attainment but also the personal one.

On February 8^th, we are also hosting the Baltic Circuit Award which the Danish crew of Visione 3.1 has won. We are highly delighted to have them coming all the way to Hamburg and extend a warm welcome to them.

Share the joyful moments with us and applaud in the ceremonial hall of the Hamburg Town Hall being our guests.

If you would like to get an invitation, please register here.

For three years the Baltic Circuit has been held and in three years the circuit had three different champions. This year Per Weiskvist with his Visione 3.1 won the circuit pleasantly surprised, since he did not count on it. After a rough start in the season and due to the workload with only four races planned, the first two races (Aarhus Big Boat Race and Big Boat Challenge) didn’t leave much hope for a successful season with only two fifth places. But with the Classic Fyn Rundt the tide turned. Winning the Classic Fyn Rundt and the Rig Tig Race in his classes brought him high Baltic Points, since the starting fields were rather big in this season, which is the foundation for the Baltic Points. The best two Baltic Circuit Points of the Season are added to determine the champion of the course and since Per Weiskvist won the two biggest regattas in the Baltic Circuit the award is his.

He will be awarded with the Baltic Circuit 2013 Award in the Hamburg City Hall on February, the 8^th 2013.

The next Baltic Circuit will be taken back to the roots in 2013, with 2 races per country in the Baltic, a sponsor and open to all handicap rules.

Same setting – different racetrack. One way out of a dozen to describe this years edition of Swedens premier offshore race. Being organized by the KSSS, the Royal Swedish Yacht Club, racing around the island of Gotland can look back at a history of 75 years with the first Gotland runt taking place back in 1937. Since then, Gotland runt has regularly attracted both the keenest racers from all around the world, as also a wide variety of regular cruising sailors.

Entitled ÅF Offshore Race after the main sponsor ÅF Consult, this years edition gathered 225 yachts at the starting line. A slight changed had been made to the racecourse, leading to a spectacular scenery at the starting line inside the waters of the city of Stockholm, where hundreds of spectator crowds waved the yachts fair winds and good sailing, when they left for their first night at sea. After a 40 nautical miles sprint through the Stockholm archipelago past the Sandhamn scoring gate, the teams then were going to head south via the name giving island of Gotland, which had to be left to starboard, before heading back to the finish in the harbour of Sandhamn.

Pouring rain awaited the 123 boat strong fleet as the teams were lining up at the starting line off Kerteminde for the annual race around the Danish Island of Fyn.

As every year, a 140 nautical mile race course would lead the yachts through the challenging waters of the Danish archipelago to determine both the overall winner on handicap as the prestigious fight for line honours. As usual for the racetracks around Denmark, the Dansk Handicap fleet built the strongest one by numbers reaching 97 competitors separated in various classes.

With one of them being a double handed ranking for yachts racing under Dansk Handicap with two crew only, Classic Fyn Rundt once more underlined its standing among both competitive racers as moderate cruising sailors to provide a joyful event to as many sailors as possible. With conditions varying around10- 15 knots of breeze, it was the 40 foot racing trimaran “Carbon 3” that took line honours by crossing the finish line off Kerteminde after 15:34:50 h of racing, averaging a speed of 9,2 knots.