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St. Maarten Heineken Regatta 2012, Sail­ing Team ATT-EN-SION spon­sored by the offi­cial Gaas­tra Online Shop

The St. Maarten Heineken Regatta 2012 in the Caribbean hol­i­day– and sail­ing para-dise St. Maarten sets course this sea­son from 1^st to 4^th of march: To its 32. edi­tion the biggest sail­ing regatta of the Caribbean, orga­nized by the Sint Maarten Yacht Club, unites anew inter­na­tional sail­ing sports with much enter­tain­ment onshore under the motto ‘Seri­ous Fun’. The offi­cial Gaas­tra Online Shop is spon­sor­ing the Dutch sail­ing team „ATT-EN-SION“ from Wer­mond this year, the home­town of the lake coun­try and pop­u­lar sail­ing area ‘Kager­plassen’ near the Dutch town Lei­den. On the newest Beneteau Moor­ings 50.5 Monohull-Yacht, the sail­ing team goes on board with Jeroen Man­tel as cap­tain, with Ger­ton Lusink, Daniel Tuit, Niek Koop­mans, Jan-Willem Ver­sluijs, Jan-Willem Velzel and Jeroen van Stijn equipped with nau­ti­cal Caribbean Gaas­tra Sports­wear like the brand-new Antigua Sports­wear 2012 and the exclu­sive Les Voiles de Saint Barth 2012 Sports­wear from the Offi­cial Gaas­tra Online Shop!

The St. Maarten Heineken Regatta made its debut in 1980 with twelve par­tic­i­pants and cli­maxed 2008 with 289 boats. This year anew, more than 200 are expected, with about 2500 sailors from more than 25 coun­tries. Amongst them, more than one hun­dred will match with St. Maarten rental boats in the Bare­boat fleet on spot. But it’s not only the unique spirit of the Caribbean regatta attract­ing thou­sands on the Nether­lands Antilles Island. After the chal­leng­ing races, fun is fol­low­ing! Socia­ble and pas­sion­ate par­ties com­bined with local and inter­na­tional music acts will refresh on four evenings in a row. The Gaas­tra Shop with the biggest assort­ment of Gaas­tra Sail­ing Fash­ion and tech­ni­cal Gaas­tra Pro Sail­ing Gear wishes fresh days on deck and hot nights on shore!

Boat­fit 2012, clas­sic boat show, Exhi­bi­tion Cen­tre Bremen

Yacht refit, boat restora­tion, GFK boat and yacht main­te­nance, preser­va­tion of wooden and steel boats: In 2012 anew, the Boat­fit boat show Bre­men is Germany’s biggest boat refit exhi­bi­tion and sole boat show for clas­sic boats. This year, the sev­enth edi­tion takes its course from 24–26 feb­ru­ary 2012 – on 10.000 qm2, with about 160 exhibitors and 11.000 expected vis­tors anew at the Bre­men Exhi­bi­tion Cen­tre. The Boat­fit 2012 will be the place to be for the clas­sic boat fans before season’s start.

The well-known Ger­man Clas­sic Yacht Club will anchor at the Boat­fit as well, with whom Gaas­tra has a close coop­er­a­tion for years. Three quar­ters of the Boat­fit clas­sic boat show vis­i­tors are boat own­ers them­selves and will find the­o­ret­i­cal and prac­ti­cal know-how at the clas­sic boat show. This will be imparted as well in more than 100 lec­tures: Going from ‘Wooden boat restora­tion: What can I do on my own?’, Boat Osmo­sis, refur­bish­ing and pre­cau­tion­ing’ to ’70 years folk­boat, 50 years Tadorna – time for a refit?’ with skip­per and author Bas­t­ian Hauck. Numer­ous experts and boat refit ser­vice com­pa­nies will give advise to clas­sic boat fans as well in the offered work­shops. Gaas­tra Blog rec­om­mends: Expe­ri­ence the mar­itime clas­sic boat show – best in nau­ti­cal sail­ing fash­ion by Gaas­tra. Ahoy!

Antigua Sports­wear Sail­ing Fash­ion 2012 by Gaas­tra, Copy­right Kurt Arrigo

Wel­come to the world of Antigua: 365 fine beaches, trop­i­cal cli­mate and dream­like sail­ing cond-itions…the hol­i­day– and sail­ing par­adise Antigua is world­wide val­ued for its extra­or­di­nary atmos­phere. The Caribbean island belongs to the north­ern part of the Lesser Antilles, which extend from the Vir­gin Islands to Dominica. On the strenght of the north­east trade winds, these lat­i­tudes of the Caribbean island chain are called Lee­ward Islands. 

Above all in april, sailors from all over the world set course for sunny Antigua: Since the six­ties, the famous Antigua Sail­ing Week is held, this year in 2012 run­ning from april 29 to mai 4, orga­nized by the Antigua Yacht Club and amongst oth­ers spon­sored by the Yacht­ing World Mag­a­zine, the ear­li­est sail­ing mag­a­zine of the world. The biggest Caribbean clas­sic yacht regatta, the Antigua Clas­sic Yacht Regatta, cel­e­brates 2012 its 25. edi­tion from april 19–24, with that said its sil­ver jubilee! Boat own­ers mainly dock in the his­toric Antigua Eng­lish Har­bour, Nelson´s Dock­yard in the south­ern part of the Antilles island, sig­ni­fy­ing Antigua’s yacht­ing– and sail­ing cen­tre – with numer­ous Antigua char­ters, offer­ing bare­boats, flotil­las or berths. This nat­ural har­bour was for­ti­fied by the British Royal Navy in the eigh­teenth cen­tury as an impor­tant strate­gic port – belong­ing to the most trop­i­cal storm proof har­bours of Cen­tral Amer­ica up to the present day. Start your per­sonal sail­ing adven­ture this sea­son in the brand-new Gaas­tra Antigua Sail­ing Fash­ion Sports­wear Col­lec­tion 2012 rang­ing from wind­proof Gaas­tra jack­ets, Gaas­tra shirts, blouses, polo shirts and more in the nau­ti­cal colours blue, white and: An intense season’s trend colour red!

Bel­gian Boat Show, Flan­ders Expo Ghent, Gaas­tra Blog recommendation

The Bel­gian Boat Show 2012 sets course to its 24^th edi­tion: Run­ning from 11–13 & from 17–19 feb­ru­ary, the Bel­gian Boat Trade Fair at Flan­ders Expo Gent will present a range of nov­el­ties and pre­mieres from the world of water sports. Yachts, boats, boat engines, rigid inflat­able boats (RIB’s) as the aqua­VITE 888 by Tech­no­hull, inno­v­a­tive elec­tric boats as by Green­line Hybrid (dec­o­rated with the Euro­pean Power­boat Title in 2010), water sports trends like wake­board­ing and stand-up pad­dling (SUP) as well as water sports tourism and the sunny host coun­try of the year, Cape Verde, will be rep­re­sented on the boat show deck. In addi­tion, the Dutch full-service yacht har­bour Atlantica will present its marina ser­vices and Bert Bossyns will fire the start­ing pis­tol for his new Transat 6,50 project in 2013 (solo transat­lantic yacht race). Due to its good trans­port con­nec­tions to France, the Nether­lands and Ger­many, the Bel­gian Boat Show is an inter­na­tional meet­ing spot for the water sport busi­ness. For all those, who are still cast­ing about the per­fectly match­ing, nau­ti­cal Gaas­tra Sail­ing Fash­ion, will nat­u­rally make many finds in the Gaas­tra Online Shop!

Sail­ing Team Azzurra, Gaas­tra offi­cial sup­plier © Gaas­tra Inter­na­tional Sports­wear b.v.

This year anew, Gaas­tra sup­ports the leg­endary Ital­ian Sail­ing Team Azzurra: Equipped with pro­fes­sional sail­ing cloth­ing from the tech­ni­cal Gaas­tra Pro Sail­ing Gear and nau­ti­cal Sports­wear, Team Azzurra of the Yacht Club Costa Smer­alda sets course for the new inter­na­tional sail­ing sea­son 2012 with a new Azzurra TP52 class boat. Con­struc­tions have started last novem­ber 2011 in the Span­ish King Marina yacht build­ing ship­yard headed by King Marine’s man­ager and engi­neer Pablo San­tar­siero. The first TP52 regatta con­sti­tutes the Palma Vela 2012 as a tune up event, fol­lowed by the Conde de Godó Barcelona in may, the Sar­dinia Cup at home­like Porto Cervo in june, the Copa del Rey Palma in july and the Valen­cia Cup in october.

So, the rich Azzurra his­tory will be upheld with a new liv­ery this regatta sea­son: Founded in the early 80s by H.H. The Aga Khan and Gianni Agnelli, the Azzurra Sail­ing Team com­peted firstly in 1983 at the Louis Vuit­ton Cup New­port, fol­lowed by the Sail­ing World Cham­pi­onships 1985. The Azzurra Team aroused new enthu­si­asm for sail­ing sports in Italy. In a word: What Fer­rari is to For­mula 1 fans, Azzurra is to Ital­ian yacht­ing enthu­si­asts! The greater was the excite­ment, when the sail­ing team cel­e­brated its come­back after sev­en­teen years at the Louis Vuit­ton Tro­phy 2009 and recently won over at the Audi Med­Cup Cir­cuit 2011. We are look­ing for­ward to a new sea­son with sail­ing team Azzurra in pro­fes­sional Gaas­tra Sail­ing Gear and sporty Gaas­tra Sail­ing Fash­ion – Good Speed!

Boot Hol­land 2012: Dutch Boat Show feb­ru­ary 10–15

On 40.000 m², the Dutch Boat Hol­land 2012 Boat Show will wel­come about 47.000 expected vis­tors at the WTC Expo Leeuwar­den: About 350 exhibitors will present their boat nov­el­ties dur­ing alto­gether six trade fair days run­ning from 10 to 15 feb­ru­ary 2012.

Sail­ing– and par­tic­u­larly motor boat world pre­mieres, sloops to inflat­a­bles, acces­soires, engines, elec­tric boats as well as water sport ser­vices and clubs as the Dutch water sport asso­ci­a­tion ‘Konin­klijke Ned­er­landse Water­sportver­bond (KNWV)’, with whom Gaas­tra has a strong spon­sor­ship for a long time, will be on deck of the Boat Hol­land 2012. The Dutch boat fair is above all well-known for its steel boats: This year as well, a range of renowned Dutch steel boat builders as ABIM-watersport, Aqua­naut Yacht­ing, Brandsma Jachten, Jet­ten Yacht­ing, Pol­lard Jacht­bau and Vri-Jon will anchor at the WTC Expo exhi­bi­tion cen­tre – pre­sent­ing steel boats rang­ing from 9 to 17 metres. Boot Hol­land 2012 Online Tick­ets are avail­able for 12,50 € and the per­fectly match­ing nau­ti­cal Gaas­tra Sports­wear Fash­ion com­fort­ably in the offi­cial Gaas­tra Online Shop!

Stephan Luca and Bern­hard Bet­ter­mann in Gaas­tra Jack­ets, Tirol Cross Moun­tain 2011 © action­press / Franziska Krug

The Ger­man actors Stephan Luca and Bern­hard Bet­ter­mann really leaned in the curves in Gaas­tra jack­ets at the Tyrolean sled-dog race ‘Tirol Cross Moun­tain’ for a good cause: The char­ity event last decem­ber in the Aus­trian ski area Küh­tai with Gaas­tra as its part­ner and about 200 Ger­man TV and film celebri­ties, attracted much atten­tion in the media.

And attracted at the same time with many fash­ion high­lights from the cur­rent Gaas­tra fash­ion col­lec­tion in 2020 metres above sea level. Actor Bern­hard Bet­ter­mann wore the sporty and func­tional Gaas­tra Jacket Lubber’s Line – either in orange, navy or khaki avail­able in the Gaas­tra Shop. Dis­cover more sporty and fash­ion­able Gaas­tra cloth­ing with high-value win­ter jack­ets, ski­wear, fleeces, soft­shells and many more Gaas­tra Men High­lights also at the Gaas­tra Sale in the offi­cial Gaas­tra Online Shop at present!

Nova Meier­hen­rich in Gaas­tra Jacket, Tirol Cross Moun­tain 2011 © action­press / Franziska Krug

That celebri­ties feel well in the cur­rent Gaas­tra jack­ets fash­ion, you could see in the pop­u­lar Aus­trian ski area Küh­tai at the Tirol Cross Moun­tain 2011 char­ity sled-dog race – Gaas­tra blog reported in decem­ber on the VIP-charity-event. The new images with the well-known Ger­man mod­er­a­tor and actress Nova Meier­hen­rich, anchor Inge Steiner, actors cou­ple Lisa Seitz (with daugh­ter Lucie) and Max Tidof, actor Bern­hard Bet­ter­mann in the Gaas­tra jacket Lubber’s Line and organ­iser and actor Till Demtroeder with ger­man actor Anja Kling in the Gaas­tra jacket edi­tion 0002, nat­u­rally we didn’t want to keep from you. For the sec­ond time, Gaas­tra has been the part­ner of the char­ity event in Tyrolean Küh­tai and equipped the Ger­man celebri­ties fash­ion­ably with the lat­est warm­ing Gaas­tra win­ter jack­ets in an height of 2020 metres.

A selec­tion of the Gaas­tra VIP-Fashion you can order as long as stocks last in the offi­cial Gaas­tra Online Shop: Here you’ll find fash­ion­able Gaas­tra Women Jack­ets and Gaas­tra Men Jack­ets! Gaas­tra experts know: With the cur­rent col­lec­tion, Gaas­tra presents its nau­ti­cal know-how for the first time on ski runs this sea­son. Equip your­self as of now with Gaas­tra women’s ski­wear or Gaas­tra men’s ski­wear and be per­fectly pre­pared for your sport­ing trip on snow – ‘good ski­ing’ and ‘ahoy’! 

Lisa Seitz, Max Tidof, Lucie Seitz, Tirol Cross Moun­tain 2011, © action­press / Franziska Krug

Bern­hard Bet­ter­mann in Gaas­tra Jacket, Tirol Cross Moun­tain 2011 © action­press / Franziska Krug

Till Demtroeder & Anja Kling at Tirol Cross Moun­tain 2011 © action­press / Franziska Krug

Inge Steiner in Gaas­tra Jacke, Tirol Cross Moun­tain 2011, © action­press / Franziska Krug

Rolex Miami OCR 2011, Men’s 470 fleet, Photo By Rolex, Daniel Forster

This win­ter, the sails are set for the 22^nd time: The upcom­ing renowned US Sail­ing Rolex Miami OCR 2012 regatta will be held from jan­u­ary 22^nd to 28^th, this time in the pic­turesque Bis­cayne Bay. The sec­ond of seven regat­tas within the ISAF Sail­ing World Cup 2011–2012 cir­cuit is open for ten olympic and three par­a­lympic classes – at the same time, the Rolex Miami OCR 2012 marks also the final selec­tion event for the US Par­a­lympic Team – Sail­ing. ‘With 2012 being the last year of the Olympic qua­dren­nium, we expect an increase in Pa-ralympic class par­tic­i­pa­tion as all of the world’s top Par­a­lympic hope­fuls will be com­ing to Miami straight off the IFDS World Cham­pi­onships, also held in Florida,’ said Gary Bodie (Hamp­ton, Va.), regatta co-chair.

The ISAF Rolex Miami OCR 2012 will be fol­lowed by the Tro­feo Princesa Sofia 2012 Palma Spain in april, the french Semaine Olympique in Hyeres, the Delta Lloyd Regatta Medem­b­lik 2012 from mai 23–27, the Skan­dia Sail for Gold Regatta Wey­mouth and the ger­man Kieler Woche. Since 1990, the pres­ti­gious Miami regatta is orga­nized by the United States Sail­ing Asso­ci­a­tion (US Sail­ing), which has been founded just as Gaas­tra in the year of 1897! Pas­sion for sailing=1897! The US Sail­ing Asso­ci­a­tion with its head­quar­ter in Portsmouth, Rhode Island, sup­ports in addi­tion a wide-ranging amount of national US Sail­ing Cham­pi­onships and the US Sail­ing Team Alpha­Graph­ics. Gaas­tra blog wishes all par­tic­i­pants a suc­cess­ful week in Miami – all sail­ing passio-nates can pro­fes­sion­al­ize with high-value tech­ni­cal Gaas­tra Pro Sail­ing Gear off­shore or dress up with nau­ti­cal Gaas­tra Fash­ion onhore as the Gaas­tra Voiles de Saint Barth 2012 Col­lec­tion — com­fort­ably and with world­wide deliv­ery ser­vice in the offi­cial Gaas­tra Online Shop!

boot Dues­sel­dorf / Foto Rene Till­mann, Messe Düsseldorf

Under the motto ‘360° water­sports live’, the inter­na­tional ger­man boat show boot Düs­sel­dorf 2012 will roll out the red car­pets from the 21^st to 29^th jan­u­ary 2012 for the 43^th time: About 1.600 exhibitors from more than 50 coun­tries, amongst them also Gaas­tra, and about 250.000 expected vis­i­tors the boot Düs­sel­dorf 2012 will wel­come in alto­gether sev­en­teen exhi­bi­tion halls at the Rhine river. This year as well, the ger­man boat show weighs as the world­wide biggest inter­na­tional boat trade show, giv­ing proof at the same time of its con­sis­tent mod­ern­iza­tion includ­ing new exhi­bi­tion con­cepts and focus areas – result­ing in a new impor­tant atten­tive­ness for the water sports business.

Boats and yachts will be nat­u­rally still on the focus, 2012 with an impress­ing boat vari­ety of 1.700 types of all dimen­sions, spread­ing in eleven boat exhi­bi­tion halls. At the same time, the world of expe­ri­ences as ‘Beach World 2012′ with fun­sports like wake­board­ing, skim­board­ing and stand-up-paddle events have been extended, plus the water tourism and hol­i­day areas, as well as the div­ing world includ­ing the under­wa­ter pho­tog­ra­phy exhi­bi­tion „Under­wa­ter Pixel World 2012“ (eight times larger than last year!) and inno­v­a­tive boat equip­ment, tech­nique and inno­va­tions. Fur­ther high­lights of the ger­man boat show Düs­sel­dorf will be: In hall 4 big motor yacht brands like Bavaria, Bénéteau, Jean­neau, Galeon and Nim­bus, hall 5 with the power boat world, hall 15 with dutch ‘Hol­land Boats & Yachts’ steel yachts (the Nether­lands will count over­all to the largest exhibit­ing for­eign nations with 150 boat­yards and ser­vice com­pa­nies on the boat Düs­sel­dorf 2012), the world first of the Salano 35 from the yacht man­u­fac­ture AD-boats in hall 16, the ‘Euro­pean Yacht of the Year 2011/12′ Award and nat­u­rally Gaas­tra. Whether anglers, surfer, divers, sailors or char­terer: Expe­ri­ence 360° of water­sports live! Gaas­tra Blog rec­om­mends: Save boot Düs­sel­dorf Tick­ets 2012 com­fort­ably online – here you’ll find in addi­tion the boot Düs­sel­dorf Map 2012. Gaas­tra Blog wishes a refresh­ing water­sports week in nau­ti­cal Gaas­tra Fash­ion from the offi­cial Gaas­tra Shop!