blu26 - International Class Association

Last week, 20 - 22 August, the lake of St. Moritz was in the hands of the blu26 sailing class with 3 days of intensive and exciting sailing. The fleet race battle Engadin is one of the top events on the blu26 sailing agenda. The list of favorites participating in the 10^th edition of the blu26 Cup St. Moritz was long.

Alongside the present Swiss Champions, team ‘Hazel’, all in all 14 crews from Switzerland, Germany and Denmark had signed up. “We are extremely pleased about the size and quality of this very strong field of participants”, said Thomas Grob, president of the blu26 class. 

It is Friday morning. All participants traveled to St. Moritz with light luggage, as the blu26 boats are already on site. During the morning, the 6 boats got prepared for the races. The skipper meeting has just ended and the Maloja wind starts to ripple the lake. The sails are getting rigged eagerly in anticipation. The 10^th edition of the fleet race battle in St. Moritz starts with remarkably great conditions, thanks to the arriving Maloja wind, breathtaking mountain scenery, and the warm late summer sun. 

The clue is the race rotation mode 

What makes this event especially attractive for blu26 sailing cracks is the dynamic rotation scheme. The 14 teams rotated across the 6 boats. And so, on Friday and Saturday 28 qualification runs took place overall as scheduled (with 12 races per team), thanks to the strong Maloja wind with up to 4 bft. The exceedingly intensive runs across a relatively short up-and-down course were very demanding for the sailors. 

The social gatherings on the terrace of the club restaurant in between races, around the “Piöda” Dinner on Friday, and Pasta Buffet on Saturday have meanwhile become valued and highly enjoyable traditions. Although it didn’t get very late this time, as the teams needed time to recover from the intense sailing! 

On Sunday, the gold, silver, and bronze fleets competed in 8 runs with lighter wind to begin with, which then intensified again during the afternoon. 

Amateurs, sailing almost like pros

The strong Maloja wind was a challenge for many, if not all. The on-water jury boats were unremittingly at the pulse of the action. Samuel Ramp, chair of the jury, confirmed fair sailing with nearly ‘green flag days’ overall. The big advantage with on-water umpiring is that protests can be judged right on site and potential penalties executed in a timely manner making for exciting and very fair racing. 

The winner of the 10th fleet race battle Engadin is team ‘Jacqueline’ with skipper Lukas Looser, followed by team ‘Bombay‘, with skipper Matthias Keller second, and the local team, ‘Giachen Duas’, with skipper Christa Kuster, third. Our very engaged partners allowed for a great prize giving ceremony, offering prizes with a total value of CHF 10’000. 

This year two youth teams were at the starting line with eight young sailing talents that benefitted and got support through the blu26 “Rookie Initiative”, which included upfront training sessions to help them prepare. 

The team behind the scenes did an amazing job. The blu26 class thanks the regatta committee including Christian ‘Blumi’ Scherrer and Marc Knöpfel, the jury team on the water, the many helpers on site, and our loyal sponsors. A special thanks goes to the Sailing Club St. Moritz for the ever so generous hosting. We’ll be back next year! 

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