Sports officials are calling for equality, and World Sailing - concerned about the Olympic future - delivers. For the Mixed Two Person Keelboat Offshore discipline, which was decided just a few weeks ago with a view to the Games in Paris 2024, the Finn dinghy has been rejected without further ado. Since then, national associations and clubs have been trying to build a stage for the new discipline.
Sailing arena in the city: Hamburg's Outer Alster
The North German RegattVerein has already become active. After the great success of the HelgCup this summer, the world's largest women's keelboat regatta, the club on the Hamburg Outer Alster, together with its bustling promoter Sven Jürgensen, also wants to organize a mixed race next year. Jokingly, one speaks of a kind of "pre-qualification" for the Olympics. Otherwise you shouldn't imagine the format completely free of fun, although it will certainly get down to business on the water. The name of the event speaks for this. Based on the HelgCup, the Regatt is to be called Helgahard Cup, a word created from the first names of the two sponsors who were already involved in the HelgCup: HelgStrelow and Eberhard Wienholt
The concept has some parallels. It is a kind of "HelgCup for mixed teams", should "enable spectator-friendly sailing on provided boats with a focus on tactics and crew performance" - "motivated, fair and sporty". At the Helgahard Cup from August 30 to September 1, 2019, up to 48 mixed crews will compete against each other on the Outer Alster. Sailing takes place in the tried and tested short format "everyone against everyone", this time in two fleets of eight boats each on Laser Bahia, a modern and easy-to-use dinghy made available by Laser Germany dealer Ziegelmayer
Long before the entry list was opened, several well-known sailors had already expressed their interest. Among others, Constanze Stolz, Frank Schönfeldt, Silke Basedow, Andreas Willim, Tobias Schadewaldt, Marcus Baur and Florian Haufe want to take part. However, they have not yet been set. The teams can only register for the Helgahard Cup from January 12th at 12 noon on manage2sail.com. The fee for the regatt is 100 euros, the deposit to be deposited on site is 300 euros. "We hit a nerve with the HelgCup and are very much looking forward to the new edition in 2019 as the top 10 event in the city of Hamburg. With the Helgahard Cup, we are now starting a new project that has similar potential," says club manager Klaus Lahme. "The first discussions with interested sailors met with a very positive response. Let's see if Mixed is also received that way!"