Between them the combination of North Sea Week and the Pantaenius Rund Skagen marathon pack in a lot of sailing... and for a lot of sailors

The 89th North Sea Week attracted over 130 boats and 1,000 sailors to Helgoland in May. With a total of 15 races and one of the most varied and toughest offshore long-distance courses in Europe, the series, with its many faces, celebrated a furious final.

The North Sea and Baltic Sea, German Bight, Skagerrak and Kattegat: there is no other longdistance race like this one: the Pantaenius Rund Skagen challenges, tests and rewards its participants in as many ways as a crew could wish for. This year the legendary 510-mile regatta became a summer night's dream for 42 yachts, even though some innocently fell into the final lull traps.

First held in 1932, resumed after World War II in 1950 from Bremerhaven and starting again every two years off Heligoland since 1953, the Pantaenius Rund Skagen is the best-known and most exciting offshore race in German waters. At the same time it marks the showdown of North Sea Week, which was held for the 89th time around the Red Rock of Helgoland in May.

The 2024 Pantaenius Rund Skagen gave life to the motto ‘There is no better way to Kiel’. It reliably challenged its participants in three very different arenas, defining the character of the marathon: on the one hand the North Sea with shallow waters and rough seas, on the other the deceptively calm, moody and equally demanding Baltic Sea, which likes to throw nasty bludgeons between the legs of its challengers in form of flat phases and counter currents. In between is the Skagerrak with deep waters of up to 1,000m and treacherous bays on Jutland's coast, such as the Jammerbucht. To the delight of the sailors, the latter lived up less to its name “Ailing Bay” than in stormy years.

The record for the German longdistance queen will be more than a quarter of a century old at the upcoming edition of the Pantaenius Rund Skagen 2026. The fabulous 43 hours and 46 minutes for the legendary horseshoe-shaped course from Helgoland around Jutland and to Kiel, in which UCA, owned by the German Employers Federation president Dr Klaus Murmann and helmed by Walter Meier-Kothe, ploughed through the North and Baltic Seas after the turn of the millennium in 2000, has been unbeatable for so long. The record could not be beaten this year either.

‘We are a little proud that we are still defending the record. It's a shame that Klaus Murmann cannot experience this anymore,’ said Walter Meier-Kothe, who once again watched the sailing marathon, which is held every two years, closely from land. In his youth a multiple German long-distance kayak champion, later an internationally successful sailor and world-renowned Baltic representative in Germany, Walter Meier-Kothe knows all the tricks of the trade. He saw what the Rafale crew also knew early on: ‘This time they had a long beat past Hanstholm on the North Sea side. That cost them the opportunity to set the record. We were the fastest back then.’

However, the record-breaking journey in the year after the turn of the millennium was no walk in the park, says Walter Meier-Kothe: ‘We also put up a good fight! We had a really good crew together. Christopher Paschke was the navigator. Our bowman was at the mast in a lot of wind and took the halyard down to set the spinnaker. These are things that can cost a lot of time – or they work perfectly. Just steering the boat down the waves at night was a real challenge in the strong winds. The whole crew worked excellently.’

Although Henri de Bokay's crew on the fast Elliott 52ss Rafale also had the manpower and what it takes to set a record this year, the long beat towards the end of the first half of the North Sea part of Pantaenius Rund Skagen instead of the required reaching conditions prevented a new record despite a furious final push:

‘We are still super happy. We had already suspected at the beginning that the record would not be achieved. The 13-hour upwind passage from Hanstholm to Skagen didn't help. But in ideal weather conditions, the boat would definitely be able to break the record. Under her former name Outsider, she had already come close once with Tilmar Hansen, Bo Teichmann and crew…’

This year Rafale reached the finish line after 47 hours, 44 minutes and eight seconds. The crew led by skipper Malte Päsler and navigator Robin Zinkmann was three hours, 58 minutes and eight seconds short of the record. The best offshore crews will continue to bite their teeth out at this record.

This classic German offshore race, which is held every two years and has been strongly supported and jointly shaped by the yacht insurance specialist Pantaenius since 1994, is likely to attract more fast racers like Rafale to the starting line again in 2026.

Her formidable performance this year earned Rafale the prize for the best boat of the Pantaenius Rund Skagen based on ORC corrected time in the overall rakings. The coveted Skagen Prize is a bronze sculpture of an ancient Viking ship created by sculptor Herrmann Noack. The well-known Berlin artist who among many achievements became famous for his recreation of the Quadriga on the Brandenburg Gate, is also well known as joint winner of the Admiral's Cup in 1983. At the time his Sabina formed a successful team with Willi Illbruck's Pinta and Tilmar Hansen's Outsider for the second of a total of four German Admiral's Cup victories between 1973 and 1993.

Before this ultimate test of the North Sea Week, crews on more than 100 yachts had already enjoyed the Nordseewoche sailing festival in 14 very different feeder races and beautiful racing around the Red North Sea Rock. The best offshore crews competed for titles and top placings in two classes at the International German Offshore Championship: In ORC A, the Rafale crew competing for the Club Seglerhaus am Wannsee and the Norddeutscher Regatta Verein in Hamburg won the combined score of the results in the classic Capitell-Cup Round Heligoland and the Pantaenius Rund Skagen. Dirk Clasen's Humphreys 39 Gingko sailed to silver ahead of Gerhard Clausen's Maxi Dolphin 75 Calypso. Daniel Baum's beautiful one-off Tison 38 Elida narrowly missed out on the championship podium after a 10th place in the Round Helgoland race despite a strong second place in the Pantaenius Round Skagen as fourth boat.

In ORC Group B the two 2022 Doublehanded World Champions Jonas Hallberg and Till Barth, together with Luca Leidholdt and Jannis Holthusen on the fast JPK 10.30 Hinden, sailed straight to the title in their first participation in an International German Championship. Kai Greten's one-ton quintet on the aged Oromocto took second ahead of Jan Müggenburg's Swan 371 La Diana. The winning yachts also demonstrated the wide range of ORC boats, which, depending on performance and conditions, showed that the formula does not just create one-sided chances of winning.

This early summer edition of the North Sea Week was painted by a mostly blue sky, a few handfuls of white fair weather clouds and predominantly light to medium winds. More than 1,000 sailors enjoyed a picture-book edition of the North Sea Week this year. First held in 1932, it was like a summer fairytale with Caribbean flair in the far north. ‘We had booked sunshine for the North Sea Week – and got it,’ summarised Jonas Hallberg from the Kiel Yacht Club.

The North Sea Festival with Baltic Sea finale kicked off with races from Wedel, Cuxhaven, Bremerhaven, Hooksiel and from Hallig Hooge. With the Garmin Cup from Wedel to Cuxhaven, the Glück Early Bird series including night-time ‘sundowner fun’ on the Helgoland course, lots of regatta fun around the Red Rock in the exciting North Sea area of German Bight and the Pantaenius Rund Skagen finale, the North Sea Week experienced a memorable Whitsun festival under sails two years after its 100th anniversary. Top sailors of international calibre, dedicated regatta amateurs and family crews enjoyed it together. However, at the end of the blissful days, the almost perfectly happy sports director Albert Schweizer still had one wish: ‘We would like to see more international participation in the future. We are convinced that we can revive the golden multinational heyday of the North Sea Week of the 1980s and 1990s.’

After a total of 15 races, Marcus Boehlich, head of North Sea Week Organisation, who led a dedicated team of 50 volunteers, summed up the event as sunny as the weather itself: ‘The atmosphere on Heligoland was unbelievably good! We had pure sunshine with great sailing conditions. Those who took part in this week will report back home. And those who tell the story as experienced will bring at least 10 new sailors with them next year. Then it’ll get really crowded on the Red Rock.’