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Royal Cork Yacht Club (RCYC) Ire­land, burgee

The Royal Cork Yacht Club was founded in 1720 in Cork, Ire­land, and is the old­est in the world. Accord­ing to his­toric lore, King Charles II of Eng­land con­tracted a pas­sion for sail­ing while being in exile in the Nether­lands, where the idea of sail­ing started to develop already in the early 17^th cen­tury. On return­ing to Eng­land in 1660, the year of his restora­tion to the Eng­lish crown, he began sail­ing on the Thames and many of his courtiers, includ­ing Mur­rough O’Brien, 1st Earl of Inchiquin, fol­lowed his exam­ple. Due to the King’s encour­age­ment, the pas­sion for sail­ing quite pos­si­bly cre­ated a stir over the whole island to Irish Cork. There, in 1720, the ‘Water Club of the Har­bour of Cork’ was founded, that became today’s’ Royal Cork Yacht Club (RCYC) in 1831 after receiv­ing a royal char­ter from King William IV.

Today, the most pres­ti­gious yacht club of Ire­land has a total num­ber of mem­bers of about 1500. It is renowned for its inter­na­tional Cork Week, the biggest sail­ing regatta Ire­lands, tak­ing place every two years. This sum­mer, time has arrived again: The Cork Week 2012 will be held from 7^th to 13^th july attract­ing con­tes­tants from all over the world! Apro­pos: The Royal Cork Yacht Club today based in Crosshaven in the sail­ing area Cork, has been awarded quite recently in feb­ru­ary with the 5 Gold Anchor Award of the Yacht Har­bour Asso­ci­a­tion (TYHA), the pres­ti­gious rat­ing scheme for mari­nas. Royal Cork is thus the first yacht club in Ire­land being awarded with this title. And if you’re look­ing for excel­lent sail­ing fash­ion: Set sail to the offi­cial Gaas­tra Online Shop!

Gaas­tra Stripes Fash­ion 2012, Top Peaklake

The striped look is reported off and on as the lat­est fash­ion trend: At Gaas­tra, it sim­ply belongs to our nau­ti­cal tra­di­tion. At the cur­rent Gaas­tra sum­mer fash­ion 2012 col­lec­tions, the striped sail­ing fash­ion look is again firmly fixed and sets sail freshly inter­preted by the Gaas­tra design­ers. Whether striped polo shirts or t-shirts, striped dresses or tops: The wide choice of Gaas­tra cloth­ing ranges from mul­ti­coloured stripes fash­ion to broad and ele­gant bre­ton stripes.

The new Sum­mer Fash­ion 2012 not only shines with Gaastra’s orig­i­nal striped design: Fur­ther­more, the fresh Gaas­tra fash­ion for women and men pleases the skin due to high-quality mate­ri­als. The Gaas­tra dress Peak­lake for exam­ple seduces made of soft cot­ton jer­sey with stretch for com­fort­able wear­ing. Broad stripes fix the fash­ion course in the Gaas­tra Women Polo Jus­tine and the Gaas­tra Men Polo Katz of the sportive Antigua Col­lec­tion – each made of valu­able cot­ton piqué with stretch for free move­ment on deck and on shore. Dis­cover now your favourite Gaas­tra Striped Look 2012!                                                

Gaas­tra Polo shirt Katz, grey

Gaas­tra Polo shirt Jus­tine, skyblue

Gaas­tra Dress Peak­lake, coral

Gaas­tra Polo shirt Pilot, marine

Tro­feo SAR Princesa Sofia MAPFRE, ISAF Sail­ing World­cup, Photo Nico Martinez

Mel­bourne, Miami and now Palma: The third ISAF Sail­ing World Cup 2011-12 regatta will start next week! The Euro­pean open­ing will be made by the tradition-rich Tro­feo SAR Princesa Sofia MAPFRE 2012 Palma. The Span­ish Mal­lorca sail­ing regatta in the pop­u­lar bay of Palma, cel­e­brates its 43^rd anniver­sary – as the third of alto­gether seven olympic ISAF sail­ing regat­tas this sea­son. Already for the fourth time now, the pres­ti­gious Tro­feo Princesa Sofia has been elected as an ISAF event for the olympic teams. The Palma sail­ing regatta organ­ised by the Real Club Nau­tico de Palma, with whom Gaas­tra is hav­ing a strong part­ner­ship, marks Europe’s sail­ing sea­son start with about one thou­sand sailors from 53 nations. The high point each one is steer­ing on: The award­ing of the ‘Tro­feo Princesa Sofia’ tro­phy, nor­mally presided over the Span­ish King and Queen Sofia of Spain (to be on view in Gaas­tra Copa del Rey Fash­ion of last year here).

All win­ners of the 42 edi­tions are engraved on the tro­phy and it will be awarded this year anew to the best sailor of all classes dur­ing the majes­tic prize­giv­ing cer­e­mony. Who will head this year? Per­haps a boat named ‘For­tuna’? On board of the so called boat, Prinz Don Juan Car­los together with the Duke ofAr­ión and Félix Gancedo won at least in 1973, 1974 und 1975. But trust­ing to luck, is not enough at the demand­ing Tro­feo Princesa Sofia regatta by expe­ri­ence. For all those, who do not leave one’s fash­ion­able per­for­mance to chance, should take a look at the lat­est Gaas­tra Sail­ing Fash­ion Col­lec­tions 2012. Gaas­tra blog wishes all teams Good speed!

Gaas­tra Polo shirts Voiles de Saint Barth 2012: Trend colours new in stock!

For the begin­ning of spring, the exclu­sive Gaas­tra Les Voiles de St. Barth 2012 Col­lec­tion radi­ates in new, espe­cially airy pas­tel colours: Ele­gantly in vanilla, gen­tle light pur­ple, sum­merly corail, fancy pis­ta­chio or freshly in mint­green. The broad­ened assort­ment of Gaas­tra Polos for Women and Men, as well as Gaas­tra shirts and fem­i­nine polo dresses in the new season’s trend colours is from now on avail­able at your offi­cial Gaas­tra Online Shop! The nau­ti­cal fash­ion col­lec­tion breathes the spirit of the shim­mer­ing Caribbean sail­ing regatta Voiles de Saint Barth 2012 at the French West Indies extravert­ing the lifestyle of the lux­ury island St. Barth (alias Saint-Barthélemy or St. Barts). Amongst inter­na­tional celebri­ties, the French Caribbean island is still an open secret: The Swedish royal cou­ple, Pené­lope Cruz, Richard Gere, Mariah Carey, Arnold Schwarzenegger…the guest list is long. Kate Moss and Bill Gates even own their houses on Saint-Barthélemy. In the first week of upcom­ing april, Saint Barth will be in the spot­light of inter­na­tional sail­ing crews and the lat­est Gaas­tra fash­ion dur­ing the top-class Saint Barth sail­ing regatta with Gaas­tra as the offi­cial part­ner this year anew on deck.  

With the new St. Barth colours, our Voiles de Saint Barth Face­book Game 2012 has started: Play the game and win a trip for two per­sons to the 2013 edi­tion of Les Voiles de Saint Barth!                                                                                              

Gaas­tra Polo Dress Van­imo corail

Gaas­tra Polo Valen­cia light purple

Gaas­tra Shirt Vevet pistachio

Gaas­tra Polo Vinzey vanilla

Kick-off for the most beau­ti­ful time of the year: It’s the first day of spring! Get in the right mood by step­ping on board of our Gaas­tra Spring/Summer Fash­ion 2012 photo shoot­ing. Directed by the renowned pho­tog­ra­pher Kurt Arrigo, the Gaas­tra mod­els Sarah Nix, Dorian Isaac­son, Phoebe Par­son­age, Chris­t­ian Jor­gensen, Genevieve Mor­ton and James Crab­tree went on a sunny and refresh­ing jour­ney on deck of a lux­ury High­land Breeze Yacht.

Many sport­ing pic­tures have been taken: With the ultra-light and breath­able Gaas­tra jack­ets of the lat­est Antigua Sports­wear Col­lec­tion upgrad­ing this sea­son with spe­cial nau­ti­cal shades of blue, white and red. Just as roman­tic mediter­ranean pic­tures shin­ing in the trendy Ital­ian Riv­iera Lifestyle Look 2012 of the Gaas­tra blouses and shirts from the Portofino Clas­sic and Capri Regatta Col­lec­tion – Dolce Vita at its best! Fur­ther­more, the brand-new Gaas­tra Footwear for this sea­son prove anew max­i­mal grip on board – thus even more so on shore. You will find all shoot­ing high­lights at the offi­cial Gaas­tra Online Shop in the cur­rent Gaas­tra Spring Sum­mer Mag­a­zine 2012. ‘Action!’ for the Gaas­tra Fash­ion Trends 2012!

Free Gaas­tra shoe bag worth 39,95 € for Gaas­tra shoes priced at 89.95 and above

Whether sporty mar­itime Gaas­tra boat shoes, solid sail­ing shoes, casual sneak­ers or ele­gant men’s low shoes, trendy slip­pers and women’s bal­leri­nas, pre­cious Gaas­tra boots and clogs or sum­merly san­dals: In the Gaas­tra Online Shop you get an exclu­sive, not avail­able in stores Gaas­tra shoe bag worth 39.95 € for free at present – for Gaas­tra shoes priced at 89.95 € and above as a free gift on top to your order!

This spe­cial bonus with its casual design does not only look well, but is the per­fect com­pan­ion on jour­neys, at sports and on every sail­ing trip. Choose now your per­sonal Gaas­tra women’s shoes, Gaas­tra men’s shoes or Gaas­tra kid’s shoes for this sea­son from the lat­est Gaas­tra shoe trends 2012 – and bag this lim­ited Gaas­tra free gift addi­tion­ally! Only while stocks last and only for orders in the offi­cial Gaas­tra Shop. Whether ashore or on your cruise: Gaas­tra shoes stand world­wide for spe­cial wear­ing com­fort, pre­mium pro­cess­ing and par­tic­u­lar mate­ri­als tested in sail­ing sports pro­vid­ing secure foot­ing at every time. In short, mar­itime shoes and sail­ing shoes, brav­ing the weather in all its forms and look­ing refresh­ingly spe­cial on all occa­sions. We wish a sporty-smart season!

Gaas­tra Voiles de St. Barth 2012 Sports­wear Lim­ited Edi­tion Col­lec­tion, Photo: Kurt Arrigo

In the exclu­sive har­bour of Gus­tavia, the most beau­ti­ful maxi– and clas­sic yachts will berth dur­ing the shim­mer­ing Caribbean sail­ing regatta Les Voiles de St. Barth 2012 run­ning from april 2^nd to 7^th. For the sec­ond time in a row, Gaas­tra is the offi­cial spon­sor of the regatta off the French Antilles VIP-Island in the sail­ing– and hol­i­day par­adise Saint Barth and presents exclu­sively to the pres­ti­gious Caribbean sail­ing event, the lat­est Gaas­tra Les Voiles de Saint Barth Col­lec­tion 2012. For the first time, the Lim­ited Edi­tion is avail­able this year in two fash­ion lines: Sports­wear and Breton.

Today, we would like to intro­duce the Sports­wear Col­lec­tion to you: Being steeped in the nau­ti­cal and sportive Gaas­tra spirit, the sports­wear com­bines highly func­tional fash­ion with fresh lifestyle design inspired by the Caribbean beauty St. Barth. High-tech mate­ri­als tested in the tech­ni­cal Gaas­tra Pro Sail­ing Gear have been man­u­fac­tured in the St. Barth sports­wear line, as in the func­tional jack­ets pro­tect­ing you world­wide and on every Caribbean sail­ing trip while being well turned out at any time — both by sea and by land. You know this is espe­cially major on the exclu­sive celebrity island Saint Barth! Berry, coral, turqouise, laven­der, light pur­ple and spe­cial shades of blue: The Fash­ion Trend Colours 2012 most notably appear in the Gaas­tra St. Barth Poloshirts espe­cially airy, bright and fruity and reflect the sweet Savoir Vivre on Saint-Barthélemy. Con­trast­ing vel­vet prints and embroi­deries as well as mar­itime, dec­o­ra­tive details as strik­ing Gaas­tra badges, give the sports­wear line its unique and sportive look. Richly coloured St. Barth polo shirts, func­tional jack­ets and vests, fash­ion­able Gaas­tra blouses and shirts up to vogu­ish polo dresses for women and acces­sories as caps and bags. Dis­cover now the large assort­ment of Gaas­tra Sports­wear Fash­ion for St. Barth Women, St. Barth Men and St. Barth Juniors from the Lim­ited Edi­tion – the count­down for Les Voiles de St. Barth 2012 is already running!

Capri Italy Marina Grande, credit: http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2001700771

The scent of lemon trees per­fume the island, dark green pines con­trast with the white rocks of the island of lime­stone and uncount­able shades of blue indulge the senses both on sea and by land: Italy’s island Capri seduces for hun­dreds of years. And Capri is in fash­ion, every sea­son afresh! But what is the never-ending fas­ci­na­tion with the not more than 10,4 qm2 large island Capri and the pop­u­lar Ital­ian sail­ing area, extend­ing from Amalfi, Sor­rent, Neapel to Ischia? For one thing, the leg­endary Capri attractions:

The mes­mer­iz­ing Blue Grotto (‘Grotta Azzurra’) with its beyond descrip­tion blue shades, the renowned Capri Faraglioni lime­stone rocks pro­ject­ing above sea (and being the island’s land­mark as well), the 1350 m long switch­back paved foot­path ‘Via Krupp’ at the south face’, hewn in the rocks of the ‘Monte Cas­tiglione’ and Capri’s high­est moun­tain, the ‘Monte Solaro’ with its amaz­ing panorama. But Capri is more than a tourist– and an exclu­sive jet set mag­net: The Ital­ian island is myth, place of long­ing and power at the same time. Already in the nine­teenth and twen­ti­eth cen­tury, the island attracted many writ­ers as Oscar Wilde, Nor­man Dou­glas, Thomas Mann, artists, philoso­phers, entre­pre­neurs as Alfred Krupp and also the famous actress and singer Gra­cie Fields also known for her world-wide hit song ‘Isle of Capri’ from 1934, owned a villa on Capri. To the present, Capri enchants. Espe­cially in the evening, the highly fash­ion­able Capri presents with its inter­na­tional VIPs. As a Capri sail­ing trip, the route Nisida to Capri is to be rec­om­mended, you can land either at the Marina Grande at the north side of Capri, there you’ll find also the Yacht Club Capri, or at the Marina Pic­cola in the south. And if you’re still look­ing for the per­fectly match­ing, mar­itime Fashion:

Dis­cover now the brand-new Gaas­tra Capri Regatta Col­lec­tion 2012!

Gaas­tra Blue, Fash­ion Pre­view 2012/13, new Denim Collection

Kick­ing off late sum­mer 2012, Gaas­tra goes on deck with a new col­lec­tion: At the Gaas­tra Show­room Ham­burg, your Gaas­tra blog team already took a look (or rather sev­eral) on the new exclu­sive ‘Gaas­tra Blue’ Denim Fash­ion Col­lec­tion.

The nau­ti­cal his­tory of Gaas­tra, that took its course 1897 in the Dutch town Sneek as sail­mak­ers, is in the spot­light as well in this trendy col­lec­tion, stand­ing out due to its accented casual style – what is most notably com­ing into effect in the highly diverse and spe­cial blue colours. Com­pared to other col­lec­tions, Gaas­tra Blue presents more dis­creet in the use of logos, patches and appli­ca­tions – and is con­vinc­ing in its pure design, pre­mium mate­ri­als and exclu­sive man­u­fac­tur­ing in Italy. Gaas­tra Fash­ion and Denim Friends can be curi­ous about late summer!

Sealan­der, Float­ing Car­a­van, Photo: Kevin Skusa

In sep­tem­ber 2011, the first two pro­to­types of the Sealan­der float­ing car­a­van have been exhib­ited at the Car­a­van Salon Düs­sel­dorf, Ger­many: From the begin­ning of 2012, the car­a­van with amphib­ian char­ac­ter­is­tics, that won the first place in the cat­e­gory inno­va­tion at the Ger­man ‘Grün­der­Cup Kiel Region 2011′, went into pro­duc­tion. The jury jus­ti­fied its deci­sion due to the ‘com­bi­na­tion of car­a­van and boat, cou­pled with a very ele­gant design and high qual­ity’. The swim­ming car­a­van designed by the indus­trial designer Daniel Straub, opens up new per­spec­tives: Sun­bathing by day on the lake, cast­ing the fish­ing rod, avoid­ing crowded camp­ing sites and watch­ing the stars at night – whether on land or on water. With the Sealan­der, a jour­ney doesn’t stop lakeside!

Onhore, you sim­ply hitch it like a car­a­van to your car and arriv­ing at the water, the Sealan­der can be let into water with­out the need of a boat slip or trailer sys­tem due to its inte­grated water­proof chas­sis. The amphib­ian car­a­van for inland waters is pow­ered by a low-emission elec­tric motor and that’s why it even per­mits license free access. Even onshore, you can drive the car­a­van with­out a trailer license based on its nar­row mea­sure­ments and its light weight of 380 kg. Nat­u­rally, the float­ing car­a­van can not be seen as a boat – rather as an inno­v­a­tive mobile home for every­body seek­ing bound­less free­dom. Accord­ing to its equip­ment, the Sealan­der is avail­able from 15.000 Euro includ­ing elec­tric motor. Get to know more in the Sealan­der Video!