Displaying items by tag: Baltic Sea Race

7th April 2024

RORC Promotes Second Baltic Sea Race This July

The second edition of the Baltic Sea Race will start in Helsinki, Finland, on 27 July 2024.

This new 635nm offshore race is attracting a diverse range of boats eager to take on a new challenge, racing to win The Baltic Trophy for the best corrected time under IRC.

Passion for the sea is ever present in Finland’s capital, Helsinki, with centuries of seafaring tradition. The sea is prominently featured in Finland’s folklore and literature; the Finns are fanatical about the Baltic Sea. The Roschier Baltic Sea Race is organised by the Royal Ocean Racing Club and supported by the City of Helsinki, as well as the major yacht clubs and racing organisations in Finland: Nyländska Jaktklubben (NJK), Finnish Offshore Racing Association (AMP), Helsingfors Segelklubb (HSK), FINIRC and the Xtra Stærk Ocean Racing Society.

Carkeek 52 Rán Photo: Tim Wright

Niklas Zennstrom’s Carkeek 52 Rán (SWE) is confirmed for the 635-mile Roschier Baltic Sea Race. Zennstrom hails from Sweden and will also race in the 350-mile Gotland Runt, which takes place three weeks before the Roschier Baltic Sea Race. The two races provide a thousand miles of offshore racing in the Baltic summer.

One of Rán’s main competitors will be Infiniti 52 Tulikettu (FIN). One of the world’s most advanced grand-prix racing yachts, Tulikettu sports DSS side-foils and all carbon-fibre build. Team Tulikettu’s primary goal is to be the first all-Finnish crew to win RORC’s important offshore races.

Arto Linnervuo Photo: Pepe Korteniemi

“The Roschier Baltic Sea Race is unique, a new experience for many sailors from overseas,” commented Tulikettu’s Finnish owner Arto Linnervuo. “Teams will experience racing on a new course which goes around three lighthouses. There are plenty of affects from the land, and as we saw in 2022, the gradient wind can be anything from really light to strong. The race is attracting professional teams racing high performance boats and also the amateur teams racing production yachts, the race is really important to promote racing in The Baltic. In Finland there is a huge amount of passion for sailing, and I am sure everyone who races this year, will feel that embrace!”

Published in RORC

Tagged under

About the 29er Skiff Dinghy

The 29er is a one-design double-handed, single trapeze skiff for youth sailors.

There is an active class in Ireland, just one of the 38-countries from across all continents now racing the high-performance skiff.

The 29er is one of the latest dinghy classes to arrive in Ireland and has a 50/50 split between boys and girls.

The class like to describe the boat as "The most popular skiff for sailors who want to go fast!".

Derived from the Olympic class 49er class and designed by Julian Bethwaite the 29er was first produced in 1998.

Two sailors sail the 29er, one on trapeze.

The 6.25-metre high rig features a fractional asymmetrical spinnaker; a self-tacking jib decreases the workload of the crew, making manoeuvres more efficient and freeing the crew to take the mainsheet upwind and on two-sail reaches.

The 15.00 m2 spinnaker rigging set-up challenges crews to be fit and coordinated, and manoeuvres in the boat require athleticism due to its lack of inherent stability and the high speed with which the fully battened mainsail and jib power up.

The 74kg weight hull is constructed of fibreglass-reinforced polyester in a foam sandwich layout.

The fully battened mainsail and jib are made from a transparent Mylar laminate with orange or red Dacron trimming, while the spinnaker is manufactured from ripstop Nylon.

The mast is in three parts - an aluminium bottom and middle section, with a polyester-fibreglass composite tip to increase mast bend and decrease both overall weights, and the capsizing moment a heavy mast tip can generate. Foils are aluminium or fibreglass.

About the ILCA/Laser Dinghy

The ILCA, formerly known as the Laser, is the most produced boat in the world, with 220,000 units built since 1971.

It's easy to see why the single-handed dinghy has won the title of the most widely distributed boat of all time.

The Laser is a one-design dinghy, the hulls being identical but three rigs that can be used according to the size and weight of the sailor.

The class is international, with sailors from 120 countries. The boat has also been an Olympic class since 1996, being both the men's and women's singlehanded dinghy.

Three rigs are recognised by the International Laser Class Association (ILCA):

ILCA 4: sail of 4.70m2

ILCA 6: sail of 5.76 m2

ILCA 7: sail of 7.06 m2