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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!

Gaas­tra Les Voiles de St. Barth 2011, Kurt Arrigo Pho­tog­ra­phy, Copyright

Cruises or ski­ing hol­i­days belong to the clas­sic vaca­tions dur­ing win­ter sea­son: One sail­ing jour­ney trend becomes increas­ingly pop­u­lar: The active sail­ing trips. Most notably on the Canaries and sail­ing par­adise Caribbean, begin­ner sailors and sail­ing expe­ri­enced sailors find per­fect con­di­tions while win­ter and couches dom­i­nate our regions. Those, who rather want to swap for a cata­ma­ran, will surely be in good hands on an active sail­ing trip!

A spe­cial and par­a­disian sail­ing route leads from french Mar­tinique, called Isle of Flow­ers (Madin­ina) by the locals, over St. Lucia to St. Vin­cent to the Tobago Cays. Turquoise blue water, colour­ful coral reefs and the for the region typ­i­cal trade winds drive the cata­ma­rane: On this sail­ing jour­ney you can dis­cover nature and get to know the other crew mem­bers as well. For within the active sail­ing trips, the per­sonal togeth­er­ness and team spirit are to the fore at the same time. The caribbean trip cata­ma­ranes own usu­ally four crew cabs, one skip­per cab and a big salon, for eight guests alto­gether – for recre­ation in the sun and active sail­ing as well of course! Wheter as a fam­ily, a smaller group, cou­ple or sin­gle – all uni­fies the pas­sion for sailing.

A two week caribbean sail­ing jour­ney start­ing at Mar­tinique offers for exam­ple the ger­man expe­ri­enced Kaya Lodge sail­ing jour­neys. You will sail on a cata­ma­rane Belize 43, sail­ing knowl­edge is not absolutely nec­es­sary. Dif­fer­ent dates you can book on the Kaya Lodge Web­site also for the Canary Islands, Croa­tia, Sar­dinia and much more des­ti­na­tions. A spe­cial note you must make in your sail­ing cal­en­dar 2012 as well will be from april 2–7 – since this time, the sec­ond edi­tion of the renowned Gaas­tra spon­sored caribbean Les Voiles de St. Barth 2012 will take place! Selected fash­ion from the Gaas­tra VIP-Collection 2011 you can still save online at present, that will pro­vide caribbean winds under­neath the Christ­mas tree!

Nau­tic Boat­show Paris 2011, Naish Stand Up Pad­dle Paris Cross­ing Event

The 51st edi­tion of the Salon Nau­tique de Paris, the Nau­tic Boat Show Paris 2011, takes place this year from decem­ber 3^rd to 11^th at Porte de Ver­sailles: The inter­na­tional boat and water sports rendez-vous for pub­lic and trade vis­i­tors at the Paris boat trade show cov­ers the world of sail­ing, motor boats, tourism and equip­ments. With 1200 exhibitors, 1400 boats like Beneteau, Jean­neau and Dufour spread­ing on 180.000 m² and with more than 230.000 vis­i­tors, the Salon Nau­tique Paris 2011 will be the inter­na­tional place to be for the yacht– and sail­ing busi­ness world and lat­est inno­va­tions for ten days. As a pre­lude to the french boat show 2011, the Seine métro­pole will get refreshed with a spe­cial Paris event in decem­ber: The Nau­tic Stand Up Pad­dle Cross­ing Paris 2011!

The sec­ond edi­tion of the NAISH SUP Seine surf event takes place on decem­ber 4th start­ing at 8H30 am at the Seine East, lead­ing to the Bib­lio­thèque Nationale de France to the final des­ti­na­tion Quai de Javel in the west, pass­ing famous Pont Neuf and Notre Dame as well. The NAISH France SUP Surf in the City Tour con­cept was launched in 2010 with the first Paris Stand Up Pad­dle Edi­tion in 2010. The idea of the events is to pro­mote and open surf­ing sport to a wider pub­lic – this way, the con­cept sup­ports the redis­cov­ery of one’s own urban envi­ron­ment in a chal­leng­ing way. This years NAISH SUP Surf Events 2011 took place in Mar­seille, Bor­deaux, La Torche and Hawaii. Get to know more about the NAISH SUP Tour Events and present Stand Up Pad­dling World Cham­pion 2011 Kai Lenny! So, enjoy surf­ing in the city and the Salon Nau­tique Inter­na­tional de Paris by sav­ing your Nau­tic Boat­show Tick­ets 2011 eas­ily online in advance!

Royal South­ern Yacht Club with Gaas­tra as Sup­port­ing Part­ner — 175th Anniver­sary in 2012

The his­tory of the Royal South­ern Yacht Club began in 1837 with Queen Vic­to­ria as its royal patron: Orig­i­nally formed under the name of ‘Royal Southamp­ton Yacht Club’ in Southamp­ton, the splen­did Club house still stand­ing oppo­site the Royal Pier Southamp­ton dat­ing from 1846, can be still mar­velled at. More than one cen­tury later, due to the grow­ing of the Southamp­ton port and the con­se­quent yacht­ing cut­ting off from its sail­ing waters, the Club moved in 1947 to Ham­ble where it is located with its sail­ing home­base since then — with the patron­age of HRH Prince Philip Duke of Edin­burgh for the last 59 years. In 2012, this spe­cial royal british sail­ing club his­tory will cel­e­brate its 175th Anniversary!

Gaas­tra is proud of sup­port­ing the Royal South­ern Yacht Club as one of its exclu­sive part­ners: The 175th Anniver­sary pro­gramme comes up with many key events and UK sail­ing regat­tas 2012 as the 50th edi­tion of the Cowes-Deauville Race and the host­ing of the British Open 12 Metre Cham­pi­onships and as a spe­cial sail­ing event pre­miere: The Bis­cay 2012! A newly launched off­shore yacht race for mono­hull ves­sels, cov­er­ing about 950 nau­ti­cal miles with start and fin­ish in the Solent, Isle of Wight — with Eng­lish yachtswoman Sam Davies as its Ambas­sador. Gaas­tra chills already the cham­pagne and wishes all Royal South­ern Yacht Club mem­bers and sailors of the open­ing edi­tion of the Bis­cay UK regatta 2012 bright and suc­cess­ful prospects with Gaas­tra Sports­wear and Gaas­tra Pro Sail­ing Gear – See you next year!

The Royal South­ern Yacht Club, 175th Anniver­sary in 2012!

Barcelona Boat Show 2011, Salon Nau­tico Inter­na­cional cel­e­brates its 50th jubilee — Gaas­tra says ‘Salud’!

From 5–13 Novem­ber 2011, the Barcelona Inter­na­tional Boat Show cel­e­brates its 50th edi­tion — as the biggest boat show in Spain and one of the most impor­tant boat exhi­bi­tions in Europe, the pres­ti­gious boat trade show will be the bench­mark for the nau­ti­cal sec­tor anew. At the Gran Via and the On-Water Port Vell exhi­bi­tion cen­tres of the Fira Barcelona, the jubilee edi­tion of the Salon Nau­tico 2011 will shine more brightly than ever fea­tur­ing the full range of new prod­ucts and inno­va­tions of the vary­ing world of water sports in five theme areas: Inno­va­tion zone, Fun Beach, Tra­di­tional Sail­ing, Fisherman’s zone and Marine Zone. Open for pro­fes­sion­als and the gene-ral pub­lic, the Barcelona Boat Show 2011 will set sails afresh for its main objec­tives it had when the first edi­tion took place in 1963: Pro­mot­ing the nau­ti­cal indus­try and its eco­nomic impor­tance as well as encour­ag­ing inter­est in nau­ti­cal sports for the public.

Going from motor­boats and sail­boats, ‘Menorquina’ boats, fishing/recreational boats, elec­tronic, jet-skis and wave-runners, nau­ti­cal ser­vices, tourism and nau­ti­cal cloth­ing: You can dis­cover the huge deck with inno­va­tions and water sport trends at the Barcelona Jubilee Boat Show 2011 Mon­day – Thurs­day open from 10.00 – 19.00 and on Fri­day, Sat­ur­day and Sun­day from 10.00 – 20.00. Don’t miss the 50th Anniver­sary Boat Show Gala as well, when five decades of span­ish boat show his­tory will be cel­e­brated with many promi­nent guests and exhibitors. Gaasta Blog says ‘Salud’!

Folk­boat at a sail­ing regatta at Laboe, wiki­me­dia, author Voll­w­ert­BIT, Cre­ative Com­mons License

Swe­den, late sum­mer 1941: The Royal Swedish Sail­ing Asso­ci­a­tion (Skan­di­navisk Sei­jler­for­bund) pub­lishes the final draw­ings and build­ing reg­u­la­tions for the Nordic Folk­boat. In total, 59 design drafts have been sub­mit­ted – a num­ber non-expected to attend – the jury made their choice on. The basic idea for a ‘scan­di­na­vian unity-class’ moved into gear already 1939 through C.G. Fast, mem­ber of the Gothen­burg Sail­ing Asso­ci­a­tion on the Scan­di­na­vian sailors day. Chal­lenges which have been made on the Nordic Folk­boat, were a rel­a­tively advan­ta­geously priced pro­duc­tion, made of local lum­bers, and afford­ing a bed­room and liv­ing space for three to four people.

Today the all­rounder Folk­boat has an inter­na­tional fan­base from Europe to the USA with more than 4000 by now built boats. The Ger­man Folk­boat Asso­ci­a­tion is firmly estab­lished in the Nordic Folk­boat cul­ture and counts a proud num­ber of about 800 mem­bers. For all, who would like to respire this his­toric airstream, we rec­om­mend you the oncom­ing hanse­boot boat­show 2011 at Ham­burg. With a spe­cial exhi­bi­tion area on 200 square metres in fair hall B4 (open­ing 29 octo­ber, 16 pm) with boats of 7 decades and the pre­miere of a spe­cial edi­tion, the 70th Folk­boat birth­day will be cel­e­brated on the 52. boat­show edi­tion of the hanse­boot 2011. Fit­ting, nautical-solid ele­gance for Men and Women on– and off­shore offers you the lat­est Gaas­tra Basic Col­lec­tion with all­rounders per­fect to com­bi­nate like Gaas­tra shirts, blouses polos, pullovers and win­ter­jack­ets. Ahoy and Happy Birthday!

Gaas­tra rec­om­mends hanse­boot 2011, inter­na­tional boat show ger­many hamburg

On sched­ule to the end of sea­son, the biggest and most vary­ing water sports– and boat-exhibition in north­ern Ger­man region opens its doors: On deck of the inter­na­tional boat show hanse­boot 2011 with 75,000 square metres and the pop­u­lar in-water har­bour, about 700 exhibitors from about 30 nations will present their lat­est trends and inno­va­tions of the world of sail­ing, motor­boats and trend sports. Dis­cover the most recent yachts, cata­ma­rans, tri­marans, cruiser-racers, quicken your pulse in the exhi­bi­tion hall B6 and in the in-water har­bour at impos­ing lux­ury motor­boats, as well as smaller and mid-level ones on 16,500 square metres in the motorboat-exhibition area, or get advised by experts about best sail­ing routes and areas and in plan­ning your next trip.

A Ger­many Pre­miere will be at this year’s Ger­man boat exhi­bi­tion hanse­boot inter­na­tional Boat Show Ham­burg 2011 the moto­ry­acht ‘Sun­seeker Man­hat­tan 63′ with a lenght of 21,07 metres. With 1200 horse­power and exquis­ite inte­rior, the in british Poole con­structed dreamy­acht will be the most pre­cious on the Ger­man boat show hanse­boot 2011. Gaas­tra Blog rec­om­mends: Spot the lat­est future water sports– and sail­ing trends and the vary­ing pre­mieres in sail­ing, motor­boats, trend­sports as well as char­ter and travel! The inter­na­tional boat show ham­burg 2011 runs from 29 octo­ber to 6 novem­ber, and will will be open from 10 am – 6 am and on Wednes­day from 10 am – 8 am. We rec­om­mend sav­ing your tick­ets online and dress­ing the refresh­ing nau­ti­cal way in the Offi­cial Gaas­tra Online Shop with world­wide deliv­ery!

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 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!

Les Voiles de St. Tropez 2011, Gaas­tra rec­om­mends the Cote d’Azur sail­ing event

Nine days, more than 300 mod­ern and tra­di­tional yachts, as well as breath­tak­ing Wally-Yachts and an unique mediter­ranean atmos­phere: Les Voiles de Saint Tropez 2011 will meet inter­na­tional pro­fes­sional sail­ing teams — with about three thou­sand crew mem­bers — and sail­ing enthu­si­asts this week at the promi­nent French Cote d’Azur.

Organ­ised by the Soci­ete Nau­tique de Saint-Tropez, the already 12th edi­tion of the glitzy regatta, marks this year as well the final of the mediter­ranean regatta sea­son. Exclu­sive yachts, sail­ing beau­ties and pure nau­ti­cal pas­sion with chal­leng­ing races, that will be held from mon­day on, sig­nalises Les Voiles de St. Tropez as a must go in the sail­ing cal­en­dar 2011. And if you’re still keep watch­ing for the match­ing mar­itime St. Tropez fash­ion out­fit for this top-class sail­ing event, we rec­om­mend you our rich assort­ment of promi­nent Gaas­tra Sail­ing Fash­ion for Women and Men and Gaas­tra Pro Sail­ing Gear – nat­u­rally in your Offi­cial Gaas­tra Online Shop!