Update Gaastrastore.com Sailing Team att-en-sion, St. Maarten Heineken Regatta 2012

Filed Under (Collection, Gaastra, Sailing Battle) by Gaastra on 01-03-2012

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St. Maarten Heineken Regatta 2012, Gaastrastore.com Team att-en-sion

St. Maarten Heineken Regatta 2012, Gaastrastore.com Team att-en-sion

Yes­ter­day the Gaas­tra Team has landed and is set­tled now in St. Maarten. ‘After had a wel­com­ing diner at the famous Cap­tain Oliv­ers Club in the Oys­ter Pond Marina we received an area and tech­ni­cal brief­ing yes­ter­day to get a good under­stand­ing of the dif­fer­ent courses and expected haz­ards and dif­fi­cul­ties. Food and bev­er­age is on board now so we’re ready to fly.

Today we will get access to the boat, a Sun­sail 50 and set sail to open water for two days. To get used to the boat and do a first train­ing with the team. We’re the first to leave the har­bour and are head­ing for the island St. Barth, South-East of St. Maarten with crys­tal clear blue water and white sandy beaches. Of course wear­ing our Gaas­tra St. Barth sail­ing caps of the Les Voiles de Saint Barth Sports­wear Col­lec­tion 2012. The weather fore­cast is promis­ing us a 30 degrees tem­per­a­ture and good sta­ble wind con­di­tions so we’re look­ing for­ward to our first days of racing.

Day 2: Thurs­day March 1st, First train­ing ses­sion Gaas­tra team successful

‘Yes­ter­day we left the har­bour under guid­ance of the har­bour pilot due to heavy weather con­di­tions. Roar­ing waves were break­ing over the reefs. He was lead­ing us through sev­eral sharp and some­times invis­i­ble reefs. With a 25 knots wind we left the har­bour and were directly con­fronted with an ocean swell of 5 to 6 metres. Dur­ing the first miles on sea all sails were trimmed and the first train­ing was focussed on get­ting all tasks right to gain max­i­mum speed. A max of 10 knots was reached. After one hour of sail­ing the first two wales were spot­ted. With a dis­tance of 5 metres we were close to an unex­pected and too close encounter, which could have been the end of our race. For­tu­nately the two wales were so kind to speed up their cross­ing. Already on our arrival we attached fish­ing gear to our boat and just before noon we catched the first fish. After a small strug­gle our cap­tain Jeroen Man­tel was able to get our catch on board: a young bar­racuda of approx. 50 cen­time­ters which he pre­pared for our lunch. Our first stop is at the island ‘Ile Forchue’ next to the famous island St. Barts where all the rich and famous are show­ing who has the largest.….…boat. The after­noon train­ing ses­sion will be a trip around St. Barth. With even more chal­leng­ing waves.

Day 3: Thurs­day March 2nd, last train­ing day

‘After a bumpy night we started the 2nd day to train all kind of manoeu­vres and to opti­mize the ship. Dur­ing the train­ing we slowly headed back to St. Maarten to access the last stop before the regatta starts, Simp­son Bay. To reg­is­ter at the Heineken regatta office and to pick up Daniël Tuit. Due to ill­ness he had to skip the ini­tial flight and after his arrival we started with the 2nd train­ing day. While lay­ing in Simp­son Bay we vis­ited the famous bar The Laguna. The bar where the Heineken Regatta more or less reached his cur­rend sta­tus, while 32 years ago spec­ta­tors were throw­ing cold bear to the heated fin­ish­ing sail­ing teams. Heineken beer of course. So the day started with seri­ous train­ing and ended with seri­ous fun.’

Day 4: Fri­day March 2nd, Gaas­tra Sail­ing Team starts with 3rd position

Today was the first offi­cial cours­ing day. Wind con­di­tions were great and although a lit­tle bit clowdy we had to put on our Gaas­tra Pro Longsleeve Sail­ing Gear to pro­tect our­selves against the burn­ing sun. Start­ing line was in Simp­son Bay and via Marigot we went fully around the island of St. Maarten and fin­ished in Great Bay at Philips­burg. After a dif­fi­cult start we were able to directly posi­tion our­selves at the front of the league. Shortly after the first miles we already suf­fered from our first mate­r­ial dam­age. The main­sheet stop­per wasn’t able to hold the line which caused an enor­mous volic­ity loss. This issue was solved by chang­ing to another cleat while we tacked. Unfor­tu­nately this action resulted in a posi­tion drop from posi­tion 2 to 6. Although all the six boats in the lead of the course had almost the same speed, due to bet­ter manoeu­vring we were able to fin­ish 3rd which was for us a great result com­ing back after falling behind due to mate­r­ial prob­lems. This result we cel­e­brated with a refresh­ing dip in Great Bay and a refresh­ing beer. Heineken beer of course. Let’s see what tomor­row brings.

Day 5: Sat­ur­day March 2nd, Gaas­tra Team att-en-sion moves up to sec­ond position

‘After reach­ing the 3rd posi­tion on the first day we went with the com­plete team ashore to the har­bour of Philips­burg to join all the fes­tiv­i­ties on the board­walk of Great Bay. All sail­ing teams were sur­prised with a unique mix of local and inter­na­tional music and nice food. Dressed in our Gaas­tra Orig­i­nal Water­sport out­fit we already soon got the att-en-sion of a lot of locals and an inter­na­tional film crew where our cap­tain Jeroen Man­tel was inter­viewed for a promo movie. The next morn­ing the 2nd race of the com­pe­ti­tion was on. We arrived well on time at the start­ing line which gave us a good posi­tion to check out our com­peti­tors. Espe­cially our main com­peti­tors which were ranked 1 and 2 after yesterday’s race. At 10.00h sharp the race started and we imme­di­ately got into a direct con­fronta­tion with Harten Heer which had taken the lead in this regatta one day ear­lier. Together with three other ships, head to tail or next to each other.

While Harten Heer and we were com­pet­ing with each other to get the head posi­tion in the race, Baltic, an Amer­i­can ship and ranked 2, imme­di­ately took over the lead and due to false wind we even dropped down to a 5th posi­tion. To try to win back this loss we decided to go for another course which was the rea­son why the com­plete field fall apart. After almost one hour of sail­ing alone we reached the final mark and met only one other boat, Harten Heer. This meant that we have been able to shake off all other com­peti­tors except for the one we hoped for. The last two miles to the fin­ish was a con­tin­u­ous bat­tle between the two ships with exchang­ing the lead posi­tion every other minute. After almost four hours of rac­ing Harten Heer won with only 10 sec­onds dif­fer­ence! Of course first we were dis­ap­pointed with being beated with only this small a dif­fer­ence. But shortly there­after we were very happy after hear­ing from the organ­i­sa­tion that we took over the sec­ond posi­tion in the Heineken Regatta! Tomor­row our main focus will be to at least hold this sec­ond rank because after win­ning two indi­vid­ual races, the other Dutch Team Harten Heer has the best papers to win the cham­pi­onship. Of course we want to be the best of the rest. But we’ll aim for more…’

Day 6: Sun­day March 3rd, Gaas­tra team wins sec­ond price at St. Maarten Heineken Regatta 2012

‘At 10.00h sharp the final race of the Heineken Regatta started. A short race with only a few marks and long stacks. With a wind reach­ing more than 35 knots it proved to be a chal­leng­ing race. The fleet kept very close to each other, which made it hard to manoeu­vre between the reefs as one of the many haz­ards in this final race. Although start­ing in 4th posi­tion, we man­aged to slowly move to the front of the race. The team was fully focussed to con­clude the Regatta with a 1st posi­tion in this final race. And in order to gain speed and addi­tional con­trol over the boat in these heavy weather cir­cum­stances we decided to shorten the sail, which gave us the tools to manoeu­vre around the con­tin­u­ously defen­sive sail­ing Harten Heer, the num­ber one in the course. Reach­ing the last mark we were again in a bat­tle with this oppo­nent. But this time we were the first to cross the fin­ish line!!

After a small cel­e­bra­tion on the boat we were invited to join the cer­e­monie for which the regatta organ­i­sa­tion and Heineken had pre­pared a large beach pavil­lion where more than 5000 peo­ple joined to watch the cer­e­monie: Fully dressed, from head to toe, in white Gaas­tra Gear we entered the stage to receive the 2nd price in our bare­boat class after reach­ing twice the 2nd and once a 1st posi­tion in the indi­vid­ual races. The Gaastrastore.com Sail­ing Team became 10th in the over­all Heineken Regatta 2012 Cham­pi­onship for bare­boats! In a regatta of more than 200 inter­na­tional sail­ing boats.

Hope you enjoyed read­ing the blog, we at least enjoyed writ­ing it. And of course sail­ing this great and unfor­getable event. Thanks Gaastrastore.com for sup­port­ing us dur­ing this event. Look­ing for­ward to the next Heineken Regatta.’                      

Jeroen Man­tel (Cap­tain), Ger­ton Lusink, Daniël Tuit, Jan-Willem Ver­sluijs, Niek Koop­man, Jan-Willem Velzen and Jeroen van Stijn

Les Voiles de Saint Barth 2012: ‘The Place to be’ with Gaastra from 2–7 april!

Filed Under (Collection, Gaastra, Les Voiles de St. Barth 2012, Sailing Battle) by Gaastra on 23-02-2012

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The count­down for the Caribbean sail­ing regatta Les Voiles de Saint Barth 2012 has started: To its third edi­tion run­ning from 2nd to 7th of april, Gaas­tra is anew the offi­cial part­ner of the exclu­sive regatta in the French Antilles sail­ing– and hol­i­day par­adise St. Barth, which became a shoot­ing star within the inter­na­tional sail­ing com­mu­nity in a short time. Fol­low­ing on from the suc­cess of the pre­vi­ous two edi­tions, this year even more sail­ing crews shall enjoy the extra­or­di­nary Saint Barth sail­ing con­di­tions. In the Maxi Class, breath­tak­ing boats as Pete Harrison’s Sojana, Baltic Nilaya, Swan High­land Breeze, F-class Fire­fly and Reichel/Pugh Ram­bler Yacht will chal­lenge this sea­son. Bouwe Bekking, last year on board of the High­land Breeze Yacht, will be the tac­ti­cian on the ‘Nilaya’ this april at Les Voiles de St. Barth 2012 – a rel­a­tively new boat, that won at the Super Yacht Cup Palma and at Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup Sar­dinia in its first year in the Super Maxi Divi­sion. Dip into the magic world of Saint Barth and get inspired: Dis­cover your Gaas­tra Fash­ion favourites from the lat­est exclu­sive Gaas­tra Les Voiles de Saint Barth 2012 Sports­wear Col­lec­tion com­fort­ably avail­able in the Gaas­tra Shop with world­wide and fast deliv­ery service!

St. Maarten Heineken Regatta 2012: Gaastra Shop sponsors the Dutch Sailing Team ATT-EN-SION!

Filed Under (Collection, Events, Gaastra, Sailing Battle) by Gaastra on 18-02-2012

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St. Maarten Heineken Regatta 2012, Dutch Sailing Team ATT-EN-SION

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 1st to 4th 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!

Sail TV, Sailing Regattas Live: Volvo Ocean Race 2011/12 streaming Sanya-Auckland, start leg 4 on sunday!

Filed Under (Recommendations, Sailing Battle) by Gaastra on 16-02-2012

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Sailing Regattas Live on Sail TV

Sail­ing Regat­tas Live on Sail TV, Gaas­tra Blog rec­om­men­da­tion © Gaas­tra Inter­na­tional Sportswear

At home, at all lat­i­tudes and lon­gi­tudes: Sail TV, the provider to stream Live sail­ing events, broad­casts and reports com­pre­hen­sively since 2006 about numer­ous inter­na­tional sail­ing regat­tas as at present on the Volvo Ocean Race 2011/12. After the last chal­leng­ing leg from Abu Dhabi to Sanya with Team Tele­fónica win­ning, on sun­day feb­ru­ary 19th will start the fourth one lead­ing from Sanya to Auck­land with alto­gether 5220 nau­ti­cal miles. 

Fol­low the Volvo Ocean Race stream via Sail TV, the Sanya In-Port Race on feb­ru­ary 18th will be streamed as well. Whether America’s Cup, ISAF Sail­ing World Cup, Audi Med­Cup, Louis Vuit­ton Tro­phy, World Match Race Tour or Kiel Week: The sail­ing regat­tas live stream­ing provider Sail TV fea­tures every­thing quick­ing the nau­ti­cal pulse. Going from inter­views, cov­er­ages, sail­ing sport news as well as spe­cial fea­tures as the lat­est one on the 25th jubilee of the mov­ing America’s Cup his­tory 1987 with Den­nis Con­ner, who won the Cup back to the United States. The newest, nau­ti­cal Gaas­tra Sports­wear Fash­ion and tech­ni­cal Gaas­tra Pro Sail­ing Gear you’ll find com­fort­ably in the Gaas­tra Shop!

ISAF Sailing World Cup, US Sailing Rolex Miami OCR 2012 regatta running from january 22–28

Filed Under (Events, Gaastra, Sailing Battle) by Gaastra on 08-01-2012

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

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

This win­ter, the sails are set for the 22nd time: The upcom­ing renowned US Sail­ing Rolex Miami OCR 2012 regatta will be held from jan­u­ary 22nd to 28th, 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!

Les Voiles de Saint Barth Collection 2012: Fresh nautical Gaastra fashion to the exclusive Caribbean regatta now in store!

Filed Under (Collection, Gaastra Trends, Les Voiles de St. Barth 2012, Sailing Battle) by Gaastra on 27-12-2011

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Gaastra-Voiles-Saint-Barth-nautical-fashion-collection-2012

Gaas­tra Voiles de Saint Barth Col­lec­tion 2012 — exclu­sive nau­ti­cal fash­ion new arrived!

Caribbean sea breeze has arrived in the Gaas­tra Online Shop: To the exclu­sive Caribbean sail­ing regatta Les Voiles de St. Barth 2012, Gaas­tra presents as the offi­cial part­ner the lim­ited and mar­itime Saint Barth nau­ti­cal fash­ion col­lec­tion! The mean­while third edi­tion of the French West Indies Regatta will be held from 2–7 april 2012 in the Caribbean French Antilles sail­ing– and VIP hol­i­day par­adise Saint Barth and is organ­ised by the St. Barth yacht club. The already sec­ond Gaas­tra St. Barth Col­lec­tion refreshes in bright and airy colours: Navy, laven­der, white, olive, berry, turquoise and frutto reflect fash­ion­ably the sweet life on the Caribbean VIP island in the sporty Gaas­tra Women St. Barth Polo Shirts Valen­cia and in the Gaas­tra Men St. Barth Polo Shirts Vincey. Set sail to the new Gaas­tra nau­ti­cal fash­ion arrivals fastly: The Lim­ited Gaas­tra Saint Barth Edi­tion Col­lec­tion 2012 is for now avail­able in highly diverse colours and sizes! Dis­cover as well wind– and water­proof Saint Barth jack­ets, vests and soft­shell jack­ets. Shop from now on the style 2012 of the Caribbean VIP-island Saint Barth in the Offi­cial Gaas­tra Online Shop with world­wide and fast delivery!

Heineken Regatta Curacao 2011 starts next weekend: 3 days of refreshing sailing pleasure during the Curacao Sailing Festival

Filed Under (Collection, Events, Gaastra, Sailing Battle) by Gaastra on 05-11-2011

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Heineken Regatta Curacao

Heineken Regatta Cura­cao, Caribbean Sail­ing Event, photobucket.com, Naomi Reisel album

Sun­shine the whole year, an aver­age yearly tem­per­a­ture of 28° C and steadily refresh­ing trade winds: Wel­come to the Nether­lands! (the carib-bean island belongs to the Dutch King­dom since last year). One can count him­self lucky being at Cura­cao next week­end. Because between 11 to 13 novem­ber 2011, the fourth edi­tion of the Heineken Regatta Cura­cao will take place in Willem­stad. Open for the rac­ing class on three days and on two days for the rac­ing cruis­ing class, the cruis­ing class, open fun class and the mul­ti­hull class, the Car­ribean sail­ing hotspot will be right in the city cen­ter — at the largest nat­ural har­bour of the Car­ribean, the St. Annabaai Har­bour. Sail­ing races will take place on the waters south of hol­i­day par­adise Cura­cao. En pas­sant, the inter­na­tional sail­ing teams and vis­i­tors will respire the his­tor­i­cal air of Willem­stad – for the cap­i­tal of Cura­cao belongs to the UNESCO World Heritage.

You can fol­low the Cura­cao Sail­ing Fes­ti­val on Dutch radio­sta­tion Par­adise FM with news, live reports from the regatta vil­lage on the Kleine Werft and inter­views — and nat­u­rally on the offi­cial Heineken Regatta Home­page. There you get in addi­tion all infor­ma­tions about the par­al­lelly hap­pen­ing Heineken Regatta Fes­ti­val 2011 and its per­form­ing artists like reg­gae leg­end Maxi Priest and Puerto Rican-American Grammy Win­ner Elvis Cre­spo. And one who is still look­ing for the per­fect match­ing mar­itime fash­ion look: Visit the Offi­cial Gaas­tra Online Store with world­wide deliv­ery ser­vice and with the biggest assort­ment of pre­mium Gaas­tra Sail­ing Fash­ion and this years pop­u­lar and only lim­it­edly avail­able Gaas­tra Les Voiles de St. Barth Col­lec­tion 2011 for the caribbean Gaas­tra spon­sored sail­ing venue, that will take place anew 2012 from 2–7 april!

Heineken Regatta Curacao 2009 (2)

Heineken Regatta Cura­cao 2009 (2), photobucket.com, Naomi Reisel album

Heineken Regatta Curacao 2009 (3)

Heineken Regatta Cura­cao 2009 (3), photobucket.com, Naomi Reisel album

Heineken Regatta Curacao 2009 (4)

Heineken Regatta Cura­cao 2009 (4), photobucket.com, Naomi Reisel album

Heineken Regatta Curacao 2009 (5)

Heineken Regatta Cura­cao 2009 (5), photobucket.com, Naomi Reisel album

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Volvo Ocean Race 2011–2012 starts today: Follow the route from Alicante over Miami to Galway via brand-new Livestream!

Filed Under (Events, Professional Sailing Gear, Sailing Battle) by Gaastra on 29-10-2011

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Volvo Ocean Race 2011-2012 Route Map

Volvo Ocean Race 2011–2012 Route Map, Gaas­tra Blog wishes Godspeed

All hands on deck for the pend­ing 39,000 nau­ti­cal miles: Today the Volvo Ocean Race 2011–2012, one of the world’s most chal­leng­ing sail­ing events, starts! The con­ti­nen­tal route of the 11th edi­tion will lead from port of Ali­cante via Cape Town, Abu Dhabi, Sanya, Auck­land, around Cape Horn to Ita­jaí, Miami, Lis­bon, Lori­ent and the final des­ti­na­tion Gal­way Ire­land in july 2012. The unique and extremely chal­leng­ing Volvo Ocean Race, will demand high endurance as well as per­fect fore­sighted skills on the inter­na­tional sail­ing teams — each one con­sist­ing of a crew with eleven professionals.

This edi­tion par­tic­i­pate the Abu Dhabi Ocean Rac­ing Team, Team Tele­fon­ica, Groupama Sail­ing Team, Puma Ocean Rac­ing Team, Camper with Emi­rates Team and Team Sanya. ‘The level of com­pe­ti­tion has never been higher’, said Volvo Ocean Race Chief Exec­u­tive Knut Frostad. The teams will race day and night, depend­ing on the dis­tance they will be more than twenty days on the run, expe­ri­enc­ing tem­per­a­tures from –5 to +40 degress Cel­sius. Bless­edly, the teams can bank on cutting-edge sail­ing tech­nolo­gies and the Volvo Open 70s fastest rac­ing yacht in the world, which cov­ered 596 nau­ti­cal miles in 24 hours at the edi­tion 2008-09. Get on ocean deck for the next nine months and keep in mind the Rac­ing Sched­ule and lis­ten to Pod­casts or fol­low the brand-new Volvo Ocean Race 2011-12 Livestream ser­vice in real-time. Gaas­tra Blog and the Offi­cial Gaas­tra Shop with world­wide deliv­ery ser­vice wish God­speed to all teams!  

Opening TP52 World Championship 2011 on Sardinia’s Porto Cervo waters, hosted by the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda

Filed Under (Events, Gaastra, Sailing, Sailing Battle) by Gaastra on 04-10-2011

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Audi TP52 World Championship © Stefano Gattini_Studio BorlenghiAudi MedCup

Audi TP52 World Cham­pi­onship © Ste­fano Gattini_Studio Bor­lenghi­Audi MedCup

Quan­tum Rac­ing, defender of last years Audi TP52 World Champion-ship title hold in Valen­cia, home­like Audi Azzura Sail­ing Team dressed in Gaas­tra Pro Sail­ing Gear and many more inter­na­tional high-level sail­ing teams will chal­lenge this week run­ning from octo­ber 4–8 on the waters of Ital­ian Porto Cervo. It was in 2007, when the last TP52 world regatta edi­tion was held in this pop­u­lar sail­ing riv­iera, won by Sweden’s Tor­b­jorn Tornqvist’s Artemis. This is what Ed Reynolds (USA), project man­ager of Quan­tum Rac­ing says: ‘It is going to be a unique worlds since really any boat could get on a hot streak and go out and win. In this one regatta for­mat it will be the most com­pet­i­tive worlds we have known to this point. In the past there have been one or two boats to focus on, this time it could be any one.’

Per­haps it will be the Audi Azzura Sail­ing Team with Alberto Roem­mers’ crew skip­pered by Guillermo Parada (ARG), sail­ing on home waves under the flag of the host Yacht Club Costa Sme-ralda? Or Britain’s Glad­i­a­tor by Tony Lan­g­ley (GBR) return­ing this year for chal­leng­ing for the world title again with tac­ti­cian Chris Lar­son? Or Spain’s ESP 7552 skip­pered and steered by Gon­zalo Araujo with his team equipped as well like Audi Azzura in Gaas­tra Pro Pro­fes­sional Sail­ing Gear? As Reynold said, every­thing is pos­si­ble this year! The Audi TP52 World Cham­pi­onship 2011 will com­prise five days of windward-leeward rac­ing includ­ing one coastal race on thurs­day. Gaas­tra Blog and Gaas­tra Pro Sail­ing Gear wish all teams fan­tas­tic and chal­leng­ing days!

Audi Melges 20 European Championship 2011 starts today at Venice Italy, hosted by Compagnia della Vela di Venezia

Filed Under (Events, Sailing, Sailing Battle) by Gaastra on 28-09-2011

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Audi Melges 20 Sailing Series Scarlino©2011 Luca Butto for Carlo Borlenghi B-Plan

Audi Melges 20 Sail­ing Series Scarlino©2011 Luca Butto for Carlo Bor­lenghi B-Plan

Venice will get in touch these days with pure joy of sail­ing: Going from the 29th of sep­tem­ber to octo­ber 5th 2011, the Audi Melges 20 class Euro­pean Cham­pi­onship will be held in Venice waters this week. After last years sail­ing series in Lerici, Scar­lino and Riva dela Garda, the Audi Melges 20 Cham­pi­onship 2011 are hosted by the Com­pag­nia della Vela di Venezia this time, wel­com­ing the Melges Europe teams at this fast Venice sail­ing venue. Renowned for its cutting-edge mate­ri­als and con­cepts, the Audi Melges 20 class will prove their high stan­dards in easy-to-sail sport­boats with a sim­plic­ity exceed­ing expec­ta­tions by new. With a lenght of 6.096 m and weight of 520 kg, the Melges 20 sail­boat class is the eas­i­est sport­boat to sail on the mar­ket today and has become the bench­mark for small keel­boats nowa­days. Gaas­tra Sports­wear wishes all par­tic­i­pants chal­leng­ing days!