SailingPR - Sailing & Regatas

Sao Paolo, November 13 2007 - After Torben Grael stepped onboard last
month as the skipper of Ericsson’s international crew for the next
Volvo Ocean Race, the team now announces Brazilians João Signorini
and Horacio Carabelli as new crewmembers.

The 2008-2009 race will be the second time around for Signorini and
Carabelli. The sailors finished third in the latest edition of the
race under Torben Grael’s command. João Signorini, in Brazil known as
Joca, spent most part of his career competing in the Laser class
before moving to Finn in 2002. Only a few months later he was
qualified to the Athens Olympics and ended up in the 10th place at
the Games. A doctor’s son, Signorini was also the medic onboard
Brazil 1 during the last race.

“It is an honor to join the Ericsson Racing Team for the next Volvo
Ocean Race. I have had a chance to see the great structure they put
together for the race and I look forward to facing this new
challenge. It is great to have another chance of racing with Torben”,
said the 30-year old sailor.

Born in Uruguay, Horacio Carabelli has been living in Brazil for more
than 20 years now. The naval constructor was the technical director
of the Brazilian project boat for the last Volvo Ocean Race and
earned his spot in the crew due to his solid sailing background.
Carabelli is two-time Snipe world junior champion, competed in Seoul
Olympic Games in 1988 and last year added an America’s Cup campaign
to his career.

“I am very happy to be a part of such a strong team. I would not go
for another shot at this competition in any other way. I want to
collaborate as much as I can and help the team achieving its goal”,
said Carabelli.

Announced as the skipper of the international boat last month, Torben
celebrates the arrival of two countrymen onboard.

“It is a great joy to welcome two great sailors like Joca and Horacio
on the team. They are both extremely talented and my good friends. We
worked together in the last race and I am sure they will do a good
job again. I believe they will fit very well with the strong team
already in place”, commented Torben.

The Ericsson Racing Team is currently based at their training base in
Puerto Calero, Lanzarote, Spain. The team will participate with two
boats in the next Volvo Ocean Race. One will have an international
crew and the other will be all Nordic. The two crews will compete on
an equal basis. Both boats are being built by Killian Bushe next to
Ericsson’s headquarters in Kista, Stockholm. Two competitive crews
will allow Ericsson Racing Team to train efficiently before the start
of Volvo Ocean Race in Alicante, Spain, in October, 2008.

Ericsson’s participation in the Volvo Ocean Race is a platform for
driving sales. The race gives the company an unrivalled opportunity
to reach customers around the world, spend quality time discussing
joint opportunities and challenges, as well as showcasing how
Ericsson’s solutions can help them develop relationships with
enterprises and consumers.

With the new race course taking the fleet to stops in the Middle
East, India and China, Ericsson will be able to reach further into
these important growth regions.

Notes to Editors
For updates and pictures on the Ericsson Racing Team’s participation
in the Volvo Ocean Race, please visit www.ericssonracingteam.com.
Broadcast material with interviews and the latest footage of the team
sailing is available for download on:
www.thenewsmarket.com/volvooceanrace

Ericsson is shaping the future of Mobile and Broadband Internet
communications through its continuous technology leadership.
Providing innovative solutions in more than 140 countries, Ericsson
is helping to create the most powerful communication companies in the
world.

Read more at http://www.ericsson.com/press

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:

Ola Rembe
VP Communications, Ericsson Racing Team
Phone: SE SE +46 730244873 Call
Email: ola.rembe@ericsson.com

Mats Olsson
Ericsson Racing Team
Phone: SE +46 706336130 Call
Email: mats.olsson@ericssonracingteam.com

This press release was brought to you by Ericsson Racing Team.

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22 November 2007

The first week of the Barcelona World Race was a challenging one for the teams, but perhaps not for the reasons they may have anticipated. Instead of facing tough conditions in a late autumn Atlantic, the teams were plagued by light winds in the Mediterranean and unusually benign winds after the Gibraltar gate.

Following an extraordinary start off the city of Barcelona, where over 600 boats paid tribute to the fleet by lining the borders of the race course, the nine-boat fleet settled into its first night at sea, where extremely light conditions posed innumerable problems.

“A great start but a painful awakening,” was the comment from Sidney Gavignet on Delta Dore on the first morning at sea. ” This weather is quite testing. I can’t say we feel at home on the boat just yet, it is going to take a while, and we will probably have to wait until we get past Gibraltar.We are waiting for a little more wind but it’s still doubtful.”

The first to get caught in the light conditions was Educación sin Fronteras who fell off the back of the fleet after being stuck in a win dless patch for much of the night. By the time the first position report was issued the next morning, skippers Albert Bargués and Servanne Escoffier were already dozens of miles off the pace.

Through the Mediterranean, the positions were shuffled time and again, but by the first scoring the gate - the Estrella Damm gate - near Gibraltar, it was Jean-Pierre Dick and Damian Foxall on Paprec-Virbac 2 who would sneak past PRB to claim the first stage of the race and the 60 cases of Estrella Damm beer. (No doubt their shore crew was as happy as they were!)

“Yesterday, upwind in the last stretch of the Alboran sea, we were following PRB and positioned ourselves right behind them for the last tack off Malaga - trying to catch a shift close to shore,” explained Paprec Virbac 2’s Damian Foxall. “That’s where we were able to overtake them…”

Into the Atlantic, the skippers would have been hoping they’d left the light airs behind. But that wasn’t to be the case. F ickle conditions continued and the best route down south towards the Canary Islands was far from obvious.

In third and fourth place into the Atlantic, Estrella Damm and Temenos II would fall victim to the wind gods over the coming days. Sailing a course that was between the two extremes of the west (like Veolia Environnement, Delta Dore and Hugo Boss) and the east, like Mutua Madrileña, the two would see boats race around them on both sides on the way to the Canary Islands gate.

By the time the fleet reached the Canary Islands, Paprec Virbac 2 and PRB still were at the head of t he fleet, but Delta Dore and Veolia Environnement, along with Hugo Boss, had made great strides to get back in the race challenging the leaders. In fact, Delta Dore would win the second stage for having the fastest elapsed time between Gibraltar and the Canary gate - incredibly, they were just one minute faster than Paprec-Virbac 2.

Following the Canary Islands gate, the fleet would have hoped to pick up the Northeast trade winds nearly immediately. Unfortunately for the sailors, this wasn’t the case. For race fans however, the unpredictable conditions provided another few days of tactical drama as the fleet pursued different options to get down south.

“We are sailing along the African coast in some light wind less than 5 knots. We didn’t have too many options from the Canaries,” said PRB skipper Vincent Riou, from his second place position. “Not all of us had the same wind.this is not magic, when you’re in this high pressure area you have to set your own objective which is your way out and you do your best with the conditions you have.”

The big winner in this game appears to be Veolia Environnement who took the most westerly route compared to the fleet. This has allowed them to shoot up to third place, and dramatically close the gap with leaders Paprec Virbac 2 and PRB who, like most of the fleet, sailed close to the African coast.

Finally overnight Wednesday night, the leaders hooked into the trade winds, as a relieved Damian Foxall on Paprec Virbac 2 reported.

“We’ve been fighting through light winds for the past two days to get where we are and more importantly to be the first to get into the trade winds and dive south. We managed, amazingly, with just a slightly different option to PRB, we’ve come out from two days of light and variably winds to come out with almost the same lead we had before. They’re also in the trade winds now and this morning this is now a case of trajectory and speed. We’re sailing in the trade winds now, 20 to 24 knots of wind and we’re doing about 17 or 18 knots of speed.”

The race to the next obstacle - the doldrums - is on. They’ll have to navigate this famed obstacle before reaching the next scoring gate at Fernando de Noronha off the coast Brazil.

Audio, video and still photos from the race are available at www.barcelonaworldrace.org

To sign up to receive daily updates, go to the subscription page here.

Contacto:
Comunicación
Barcelona World Race
media@barcelonaworldrace.org
International Press:
OC Events
Lou Newlands
info@ocevents.org

Day 11: Estrella Damm remains philosophical in the face of bitter-sweet news

On the dawn of Day 11, Estrella Damm was met with both good and bad news when the morning position report came through on her on board computer. While skippers Guillermo Altadill and Jonathan McKee had closed the gap on the leaders they had slid down on the leaderboard into seventh overall, a bitter-sweet result after a hard night of sailing.

Overnight Estrella Damm took 10 miles off her distance to leading boat Paprec Virbac 2 but lost a position to Veolia Environnement who rocketed into third overall after sailing far west in a successful bid to gain places.

While Estrella Damm has lost a place, she is bunched in a pack and with less than 30 miles separating the fourth to seventh placed boats, any one could gain and loose places in the coming hours. Today has been a day of stop-start sailing with all teams spending time in windless areas, drifting along while the rest of the fleet pushes forward.

Jonathan McKee explains Estrella Damm’s rocky passage through the Canary Islands: “We had nice sailing on Tuesday, upwind in 15 to 20 knots approaching the Canary Islands. It seemed like we were sailing pretty well, but as we got close to the gate the wind went totally crazy, which is no surprise given that we were in the lee of a huge volcano. Somehow our approach wasn’t as good as we thought. Even though we left it really wide, we got stuck in the lee for about 1 1/2 hours. Very frustrating! Finally we got through and suddenly it was blowing 25 knots. We struggled to get the big genoa down, to put a reef in and then a second reef as the wind picked up to over thirty knots. Temenos was right behind us through all this, and eventually passed us this morning. We were trying lots of things to keep ahead, but they slowly pulled away to a two-mile lead by sunset. It has been upwind for nearly three days now, when we normally would be running in trade winds. We are actually quite close to the African coast.

“We are trying to remain philosophical about everything. We are still learning the boat, we are still improving our navigation and so on. The guys we are up against are the best in the business. It was a very pleasant day today, we are a little closer to sailing around the world, and we are learning a lot, with lots of racecourse left to practice in.”

As the nine-boat fleet descends into the Atlantic, a change in the weather is expected tonight with the wind turning from the west to the NW then settling north at 15 knots tomorrow. Further south, a ridge is still present on the route of trade. The ridge should move toward the west during the night, allowing a recovery of the trade winds almost at the same time for the western part of the fleet.

Official positions (16:00 GMT)

1 Paprec Virbac 2 / 23,032
2 PRB / +28
3 Veolia Environnement / +44
4 Delta Dore / +84
5 Hugo Boss / +96
6 Temenos / +101
7 Estrella Damm / + 114
8 Mutua Madrileña / +126
9 Educación Sin Fronteras / +384

For more information about Estrella Damm, Guillermo Altadill and Jonathan McKee please visit http://www.estrelladammsailingteam.com

To view the latest videos, images and to hear the skippers in their own words visit http://www.estrelladammsailingteam.com

For the official event website and to view the current boat standings visit http://www.barcelonaworldrace.com

Three and a half hours after the start of the Rolex Fastnet Race today, Spanish skipper Guillermo Altadill and American co-skipper Jonathan McKee officially announced their retirement from the race, prologue of the Barcelona World Race.

At 1100 BST hours this morning, the Rolex Fastnet Race organisers fired the gun to free the IMOCA Open 60 fleet. For all the Barcelona World Race competitors, including the Estrella Damm Sailing Team, this was the first opportunity to race against each other before the big event that will start from Barcelona on 11th November.

Alex Thomson’s Hugo Boss was first to cross the start line while Estrella Damm along with Véolia Environnement, Mutua Madrilena and PRB chose a northerly option when the rest of the fleet remained closer to the shore . Estrella Damm were first to tack and lying in fifth position at the Needles when problems arose.

A fault in the electronics controlling the keel motors was detected, effectively easing the keel from its canted position. Both men re-started the keel control system without success. With some uncertainty as to the cause of the problem, the duo decided that given the strong weather forecast ahead, there was no other choice than to retire from the Rolex Fastnet Race.

Guillermo Altadill reported: “We are suffering from teething problems which is quite normal when you have a boat as new as ours, and especially with these very technical boats that are the IMOCA Open 60s. We didn’t start the race very well, but gained some of our lost miles very quickly. Estrella Damm was very fast and we were very confident with our strategy.

“We caught up with the second leading group and our performances kept us progressing in the fleet. A few minutes later, the keel went leeward and we couldn’t get the electrical switch that blocks the hydraulic circuit of the canting keel to work.

“We will now check the system thoroughly and our plan is to leave on our qualifying sail in 48 hours.”

Jonathan McKee confirmed: “An hour in the race, we were going good with the other guys and had a good pace and good conditions. I think we have a great boat and we are happy with what we’ve got and will aim to set sail again next Wednesday afternoon.”

The Rolex Fastnet Race 42nd edition will see its strongest fleet ever take the start on Monday 13th August with 300 boats on the start lines. Steeped in history, the Rolex Fastnet is ran biennially since the 1930s except for a break in the 1940s, and is a legendary 608 mile long run from Cowes, Isle of Wight to Plymouth via the mythical Fastnet rock, south of Ireland.

For the Open 60 IMOCA class, the Rolex Fastnet this year adds to the challenge by being double-handed rather than crewed and is the prologue of the Barcelona World race, double-handed round the world race that will leave Barcelona on the 11th November.

Spanish skipper Guillermo Altadill onboard Estrella Damm will be joined by American co-skipper Jonathan McKee. Both men have just won the Artemis Challenge on Wednesday and are now looking forward to race against their future competitors in the Barcelona World Race.

“The Rolex Fastnet Race is for us a formality as it is the prologue of the Barcelona World Race. It will be a good opportunity to test the boat and the systems as the boat is still very new. We must keep in mind that our goal is the Barcelona World Race and we have three months left to prepare for it. That is the main thing and we are working very hard to make sure we are in good shape on the start line in Barcelona in November with real chances of winning.” Commented Guillermo Altadill.

“I am very happy to race with Jonathan on our first double-handed race. I respect him, he is a very nice person and a very talented sailor. I can say that we have clicked and are on the same wavelength. The Rolex Fastnet will be very good for us as we need to sail and race together. My thinking is that we will find a multiplier effect, not just an add effect.” He added.

Jonathan Mc Kee has raced in the Fastnet once before and is looking forward to race the boat in double-handed configuration. He stepped onboard Estrella Damm just a few days ago and is very excited about getting started: “It will be our first opportunity to race in real conditions and against the BWR competition. I am very much looking forward to it now that we have seen the potential of the boat, we’re eager to see how she compares to the other new generation Open 60s. It will definitely be one of the most exciting ocean races ever.” Explained Jonathan.

The 16 strong IMOCA Open 60 class will be the first class to start at 11 o’clock on Monday 12th August off the Royal Yacht Squadron in Cowes, Isle of Wight.

Following a meeting at the Cowes Yacht Club this afternoon, the race committee of the Rolex Fastnet Race that was meant to start today at 10:00 local time has announced the postponement of the start by 25 hours (one day and an hour to suit the tide requirements). A low weather system with 50-knots strong winds in the Atlantic and the Irish sea is forecast and will keep the fleet in harbour until Monday.

An extremely high level of security is required for this legendary race that reached this year its record number of entries with 300 boats expected on the start line. And with the 1979 dramatic edition of the Fastnet where numerous lives were lost, caution is the key word.

Recently launched and still in the testing phase, the Estrella Damm Open 60 will get a bit more time for the final preparations for the race. After the announcement, Guillermo Altadill was optimistic: “I’m optimistic and you must look at the bright side of things. We get more time to finish the preparation and give the continuous attention that a “new born” requires. It would not have been so bad to face a storm as it would have been a good test but I can understand their decision.”

For Guillermo Altadill and Jonathan McKee, the Rolex Fasnet Race is their first chance to sail together offshore and that will give them time to train for the Barcelona World Race. American co-skipper Jonathan McKee commented later today: “This will be our first opportunity to sail together in real racing configurations and against the Barcelona World Race competition. We are anxious and excited to check Estrella Damm’s potential and to compare her to the other new generation Open 60s.”

At the end of the Rolex Fastnet Race, Estrella Damm will continue sailing to complete the necessary 2800 miles to qualify the duo to the Barcelona World Race.

Will Greenwood MBE joined the Estrella Damm crew yesterday to race in the Artemis Challenge. Will has been a professional rubgyman for ten years and has announced his retirement in 2006 after 55 England English rugby union caps and 31 tries.

To read all about his exciting racing experience onboard Estrella Damm and watch the video of his participation, please visit:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/main.jhtml?view=DETAILS&grid=A1YourView&xml=/sport/2007/08/09/sosail109.xml

The 2007 edition of the RORC’s Rolex Fastnet Race will also be used as the official prologue to the two-handed Barcelona World Race. The Barcelona World Race duos will be racing in the same two-up format for the 608-mile race that starts this Sunday, 12th August. The Barcelona World Race now counts nine official entries, following the announcement of the all-Spanish crew of Mutua Madrileña and the Franco-Catalan duet aboard Educacion Sin Fronteras who have joined this highly competitive fleet.

And then they were nine! The Barcelona World Race organisers are delighted to officially announce the participation of two new Spanish teams: Javier Sansó and Pachi Rivero will be lining up onboard Mutua Madrileña (Mike Golding’s former Ecover 2), while Albert Bargués and Servane Escoffier are currently carrying out the last preparation phase of Ellen MacArthur’s former Kingfisher. Both duos will take the start of the Rolex Fastnet next Sunday (12th August) in Cowes.

Mutua Madrileña – Sansó / Rivero

©
Spaniards Javier Sansó, and Pachi Rivero have confirmed their entry in the Barcelona World Race. Javier Sanso Widmann, 38, is no stranger to the Open 60 class. He has competed in two Transat Jacques Vabre races – 2001 onboard SME Negoceane, finishing 4th, and 2003 onboard Objectif 3. Sanso was co-skipper of 4th place Gartmore in the EDS Atlantic Challenge in 2001, and also competed in the 2001/01 Vendée Globe but unfortunately had to retire. He has done 18 transatlantic crossings, and was the 2001 Spanish sailor of the year.

Pachi Rivero, aged 43, father of two is also one of Spain’s most accomplished sailors, with two America’s Cup under his belt as crew member in the Spanish team Desafio Español in 1992/1995 and having competed in more than 20 World Championship regattas in the Maxi and Swan class. He was also part of the winning crew onboard Caja Madrid Open 60 in the Regata Cadiz-La Habana in 2000, and won this race in 2006 onboard the Volvo 60 Cantabria Infinita.

The two men have completed the majority of their Barcelona World Race qualifying passage, onboard the very competitive Owen-Clarke designed Ecover (today Mutua Madrileña), which finished 3rd in the 2005 Vendée Globe, and won The Transat in 2004. After finishing the Rolex Fastnet Race they will have completed the total 2800 miles required for the qualification.

Educacion sin Fronteras – Bargués / Escoffier

©
Albert and Servane will sail onboard the ex-Kingfisher, now re-named ‘Educacion sin Fronteras’ (Education without Frontiers). While ‘Educacion sin Fronteras’ will sail for the Calella de Palafurgell Yacht Club and the Fundació Navegació Oceànica Barcelona (FNO), it has been agreed that if FNO attract other sponsors for the team, some of the funds will go towards the ‘NGO’ (Non-Government Organisation) programme which have among their priorities, creating schools and education programmes for children in developing countries. Albert Bargués, aged 47, from Barcelona has an impressive sailing CV as an ocean sailor including the 1985/6 Whitbread Round the World Race onboard Fortuna Lights, the 1997 Transat Jacques Vabre onboard Budapest Open 60, two Mini-Transats in 1987 and 1999. He has also worked on the shore team of several IMOCA Open 60 campaigns including PRB in 2000 and more recently Sill-Veolia last year, as project manager.

Female French sailor Servane Escoffier, aged 26 from Saint-Malo, also has a very respectable list of accomplishments to her name including podium positions in the 2006 Route du Rhum and 2005 Transat Jacques Vabre, and winning the 2006 Record SNSM onboard her previous boat, the Open 50 Vedettes de Bréhat. Servane has had some valuable experience working behind the scenes on IMOCA Open 60 campaigns including being part of Nick Moloney’s shore team for his 2004 Vendée Globe onboard Skandia.

First confrontation!

These two new teams alongside six other Barcelona World Race IMOCA 60s will be taking part in the famous Rolex Fastnet Race, which this summer doubles as the official Barcelona World Race prologue. This mythical event, organised by the Royal Ocean Racing Club and established in 1925, starts Sunday, 12th August from Cowes, Isle of Wight. In total 17 IMOCA Open 60 Boats, each of them having a media person onboard, will line up on the start line along with close to 300 other boats who will race the 608-mile course via the Fastnet Rock finishing in Plymouth.

© A major event on the IMOCA Class calendar, this year’s edition will see several new-generation monohulls compete against each other for the first time. Recently launched Alex Thomson’s Hugo Boss and Guillermo Altadill’s Estrella Damm, both future Barcelona World Race adversaries, will be closely observed following the initial foray in the Channel Race. And if Vincent Riou and Seb Josse, onboard PRB, are clearly the ‘team to beat’, all the entrants know they should fear the fast Delta Dore while Roland Jourdain’s Veolia has been thoroughly optimised this winter and is making her major comeback and the duo of Dominic Wavre and Michèle Paret on Temenos II have already proved themselves competitive!

Unfortunately for Jean-Pierre Dick and Damian Foxall, Paprec-Virbac is not able to compete in this Rolex Fastnet Race due to keel problems, but this Barcelona World Race prologue promises to be an exciting first race test for the campaigns all looking to get the psychological advantage before the 11th November start of the non-stop,two-handed Barcelona World Race.

Roland Jourdain, Veolia Environnement
“All the great boats sailed that course. It’s one of those races that have become mythical. We will of course observe the boats which will be our rivals on the Barcelona World Race, but most of all we’ll check out how Veolia Environnement behaves. The boat has been re-launched last week, and we’re not going to push her hard for the first outings. We have to learn her new subtleties.”

Jérémie Beyou, Delta Dore
“This race has an unequalled aura. For the IMOCA 60 monohulls, it will be the match of the year. During the Calais Round Britain Race, we were able to examine the potential of the boats. During the Fastnet, the potential of the crews is what will be put to the test. We’ll try and obtain a result of course, but the boat is now optmised for a round-the-world race, not a coastal course.”

Alex Thomson, Hugo Boss
“I look forward to lining up against some of the world’s best sailors in a fiercely competitive fleet on Sunday. This will be my first race with Capey, my co-skipper for the Barcelona World Race, and our first offshore race on the new HUGO BOSS. We want to learn as much as we can about this new boat in order to optimize her performance in preparation for the Barcelona World Race. The Rolex Fastnet Race will be an ideal training ground and we will certainly be keeping a close eye on the other competition.”

During the Rolex Fastnet Race, the Barcelona World Race organisation will be testing several new systems due to be used during the round-the-world event. All information, including live tracking, will be available on the ‘race ready’ website which will go online for the start of the prologue on Sunday.

Today has been a satisfactory day for the Estrella Damm Sailing Team. As part of their preparation and training, Spanish skipper Guillermo Altadill and American co-skipper Jonathan McKee have taken the start this morning of their very first race together, the Artemis Challenge.

Part of Skandia Cowes week, the race saw a fleet of seven IMOCA Open 60 head for the start line as Dame Ellen Mac Arthur shot the gun at 10 o’clock from the Royal Yacht Squadron. Each boat was racing for a charity and Estrella Damm was competing for Africa Viva, a charity based in Barcelona and working on development programmes in Burkina Faso in Western Africa.

Estrella Damm sailing in the Artemis Challenge - 8th August 2007
© Mark Lloyd
With a crew of seven including Brian Thompson, Nick Moloney and England rugbyman Will Greenwood MBE, Estrella Damm took thelead early on and kept her position firmly until the finish line was crossed. Over the pone during the race, Will Greenwood reported: “I have been the winch man which is unbelievably hard but it has been amazing!”

The Artemis Challenge has been raced in mild weather conditions but has unfortunately seen the dismasting of fellow competitor Mike Sanderson onboard his brand new Pindar early on in the course.

At the prize giving ceremony, Will Greenwood delivered his comments about his first sail ever: “In terms of physical endurance, it was as tough a session as I have done for a long time. We took the lead, nearly messed it up but we were determined, everyone pulled their weight and we have won a great trophy and donated a lot of Money to charity.”

Jonathan McKee thanked Artemis for a great event as well as his team for their hard work over the past few weeks, followed by Guillermo Altadill’s summary of the race: “It was a great day for us but we are sorry for Mike and the Pindar crew. We made a small mistake just before the Needles and were having a good race with Pindar before the accident. The race was a good and intensive race with lots of sail changes. Will did a good job on the winch and got to see how tough this sport really is. It is a great race to win and we are pleased to give the money to Africa Viva where it will go to people who need it far more than us.”

For further information about Africa Viva, please visit http://www.africaviva.org/

Final podium:
Estrella Damm – Guillermo Altadill and Jonathan McKee
Roxy – Samantha Davies
Akena Vérandas – Arnaud Boissières

Neustadt located in Holstein, Germany, on the sheltered western side of the Bay of Luebeck is more than a renowned sailing centre. Set picturesquely at the end of a fiord-like harbour on Schleswig-Holstein’s Baltic coast, the town will host the 4th edition of the Rolex Baltic Week from 17 to 23 August.

Cultural variety is a key value for Neustadt, and this European town in the Holstein region will welcome visitors from all over the world with high-class music, arts and sports. The Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival concerts, opera performances in Eutin’s castle park and an arts and crafts fair in Cismar’s cloister, the European Folklore Festival, the Europe running contest, and of course international sailing regattas such as the European Championships of the international Melges 24 class and the final series of the Farr 40’s European Circuit at the 2007 Rolex Baltic Week.

Since 1986, the surroundings of Neustadt have hosted the renowned Schleswig-Holstein Musikfestival (SHMF) every year. This year’s SHMF focuses on Hungary, and the festival will once again attract a number of international artists to the East Holstein district (Ostholstein). From 14 July to 2 September, more than 135 concerts, six music festivals in the country-side and two children’s music festivals will take place at 75 attractive venues between the North Sea and Baltic coasts.

Among these SHMF locations are the manor and barn of the Gut Hasselburg estate near the Bay of Neustadt, the sailing area of the Rolex Baltic Week. The Hasselburg estate is an outstanding example of a complete and excellently restored 18th century building. Its gate-house is the biggest and most elegant of its kind in Schleswig-Holstein. Guided tours of the manor and the private collection of historic keyboard instruments from the 17th and 18th century can be attended during cultural events at Hasselburg.

Every three years over the past 50 years, the market place of Neustadt sees an international gathering of folklore fans at the Week of Traditional Dresses (Trachtenwoche). Neustadt’s European outlook is rooted in this event, which has brought the town and its citizens much acclaim in Germany and abroad. The festival takes place from 28 July to 4 August this year. And there is also the Europe running contest, near the time of the Rolex Baltic Week in August.

There are plenty of events to enjoy with all senses: In July and August, the opera festival attracts more than 40,000 visitors to the tranquil “city of roses” of Eutin. The capital of the Ostholstein district is only 20 minutes by car from Neustadt, so attending great opera performances such as this season’s “Aida” by Verdi, or operettas such as Strauß’ “A Night in Venice”, as well as gala performances of beautiful voices, are all within easy reach to visitors in Neustadt. The open air performances on the “green hill” near the ducal castle on the lake shore do not need acoustic amplifiers. This image has brought much acclaim to the “Opera in the Castle Park” festival (Oper im Schloßpark), which was founded in 1951 in honour of one of the city’s great sons, composer Carl Maria von Weber.

In the 18th century, the castle park had been one of the most extensive baroque gardens in Schleswig-Holstein. The Eutin castle was re-opened to the public after lavish restorations a few years ago. Its’ four red-brick wings with baroque windows and two balconies enclose a Mediterranean-style courtyard.

The venerable brick cloister Cismar, a few miles northeast towards the seaside resort of Groemitz, is an important cultural centre. In the summer, the cloister presents high-class art exhibitions. The Cloister Festival Cismar is known well beyond Schleswig-Holstein as a high-level nostalgic arts and crafts market. On the second weekend of August, about 150 stalls lure up to 80,000 visitors to Cismar.

But the surrounds of Neustadt also offer glimpses of quite a different lifestyle. Timmendorfer Strand, only a few kilometres down the coast towards Luebeck, is the jet-set refuge and definitely worth a visit. To see and to be seen is the motto at the so-called “Café Important”, officially named “Engelseck”, right in the centre of the trendy resort. Leaning back with a coffee latte, guests may watch extravagant cars of all kinds and from all over. Of course there is shopping too. High-end brands abound in the shops lining Timmendorf’s fashionable pedestrian zone.

Last but not least, Neustadt would not be hosting the renowned race week of the Norddeutscher Regatta Verein (NRV) Hamburg, if it were not a true sailing paradise. The town harbour at the end of the fiord-like sea arm with the ancora Marina at its entrance is a popular water sports base and logistics centre. Sailors find all they need here from general equipment to speciality yachting accessories, including a sail-maker’s shop. With 1,400 berths, yachts up to 35 metres can visit the Rolex Baltic Week from the sea. The Marina has been received several awards for its ecological design.

Ten kilometres of fine white sand and shallow waters make the Bay near Neustadt a Mecca for windsurfers. For several years, the area has also become very popular with kite-surfers, who indulge in their spectacular and very “hip” sport in front of awed onlookers. But with a long southward facing beach, a true rarity on the German Baltic coast, everyone will find a perfect spot to simply enjoy the wind, the water and the waves.