Les Voiles de Saint-tropez to reboot the racing calendar
Eight-time Volvo Ocean Race skipper Bouwe Bekking and the Volvo 65 Childhood 1 were on standby in late June to set a benchmark time for a new 775mile offshore Round Denmark Race to be held in 2021.
The mainland of Denmark is not, of course, an island, so this is more a race around its coastline and easternmost islands. It can be sailed either clockwise or counter-clockwise, but typical low pressure passages will likely favour the clockwise route. “Records have always been surrounded by a certain mystique and the Round Denmark Race course has the potential to become one of the mythical distances,” says Bekking. Top Danish sailors Jens Dolmer and Olympic Bronze medallist Katja Salskov-iversen will form part of Bekking’s crew.
The record attempt will be a time trial, with a starting line position in the North Sea off the island of Rømø. From here, the course goes north past Denmark’s westernmost and northernmost points before returning south down the east coast into the Baltic and to a finish line in Aarhus. Aarhus is one of the stopovers for the Ocean Race in 2022.
Morten Brandt, founder of the popular short-handed Silverrudder Race, established the new event with Sailing Aarhus and the Aarhus International Sailing Centre. Brandt hopes the record attempt will help revitalise offshore racing in Denmark and northern Europe, and says that from 2021 the Round Denmark Race will be sailed as a regular race starting from Aarhus, an event for solo, double-handed and fully crewed yachts.