Victorious: the "North German Fortune Hamburg"
This year's competition for the renowned Ansgar chain has been decided: yesterday the Hamburg yacht reached Reykjavik. The competitor "Bank von Bremen" had previously given up.
The Ansgar chain, which has been sailed on regattas every year since 1967 between the befriended clubs Segelkameradschaft Das Wappen von Bremen (SKWB) and Hamburgischer Verein Seefahrt (HVS), which is currently owned by the people of Bremen, goes to Hamburg this year. It will be handed over to the skipper of the victorious yacht in a traditional act at the ocean sailing evening in Bremen's town hall in early November.
The two ocean-going yachts started on June 27th in Bremerhaven. They covered around 1,680 nautical miles to Iceland.
Inferior: the "Bank of Bremen"
After an initial calm in the North Sea, thick fog in the North Atlantic and stormy seas in the Denmark Strait between Greenland and Iceland, the regatta unexpectedly ended in a calm five hours after circumnavigating the northwest corner of Iceland for the Bremer yacht. In an unfavorable position, about 130 nautical miles from the destination and at the time about 35 nautical miles behind the “Norddeutsche Vermögen Hamburg”, the “bank” gave up. The weather services had not forecast any wind for the near future.
Both teams experienced a sporty, fair competition at the highest level in an extremely large effort, according to the organizers.
The Ansgar chain
Reports from on board the two yachts can be found at www.skwb.de in the “Round Iceland Race 2009” section.
There will also be a detailed report in the next issue of YACHT (issue 17/09). YACHT author Matthias Beilken sailed on the "Bank von Bremen".