Teams Getting Organised In Boltenhagen Ready For The Europeans

Its another rather overcast day here in Boltenhagen but spirits are high as the teams make their final preparations and get ready to take part in the European Championship practise race and the annual Childhood Charity Race which raises much needed funds for the World Childhood Foundation.

Founded in 1999 by Her Majesty Queen Silvia of Sweden, the World Childhood Foundation’s work is aimed at the most marginalized children around the globe, the ones most often ignored and forgotten. Childhood focuses especially on girls and the main target groups are street children, children living in institutions, young mothers and sexually abused children.  For the seventh consecutive time the Dragon Childhood Race will take place according to the motto: “Top class sailing for children in need”. Dozens of companies, including automobile partner BMW, will pledge their support for CHILDHOOD on the spinnakers.

Despite yesterday’s heavy rain registration has been going really well and the majority of teams are now either fully registered or well into the process.  Uli and Manuel Libor and their regatta committee have brought their huge experience with the annual German Dragon Grand Prix to bear on this event and as always everything is immaculately organised and the venue looks fantastic.

Special thanks as always must go to the sponsors of the event.  In particular presenting sponsor Transbunker, official automobile partner BMW and official supplier Marinepool. You can find out more about our wonderful sponsors by clicking here.

For presenting sponsor Transbunker this is the latest in a line of most generous sponsorships supporting Dragon regattas and we are delighted to have them onboard again.  Transbunker is an international company whose operations include transport, storage and trading with oil.

BMW‘s support for the event includes tow cars that have been moving the boats from the preparation area down to the crane and then returning the trailers to the storage sheds, a fleet of courtesy cars which ferry competitors and officials around the site and to and from the airports and train station, and a fleet of vehicles exclusively available for test drives.  Immediately outside the Regatta Centre is the BMW village where competitors and spectators can inspect both the BMW cars and bicycles.

Marinepool has supplied the regatta clothing including caps, beautiful traditional cotton polo shirts for the competitors in the Childhood Race and technical polo shirts for the European Championship competitors.

While we are getting ready for the racing to begin there are plenty of things happening to keep everyone entertained.  The Regatta Centre offers excellent hospitality facilities and there’s even entertainment laid on to ensure we never get bored.  We’ve just enjoyed watching one of German’s top professional stunt cyclists demonstrate his skills to the crowd on the dock.

This evening after racing the crews will enjoy the Opening Ceremony with drinks and snacks presented by Transbunker.

Stav and I will be bringing you daily video reports plus news and gossip as often as we can here on the IDA blog so do keep watching.  There are also two other sites to follow for further news and information:-

The Norddeutscher Regatta Verein Site where results and official competitor announcements will be posted

and

The German Dragon Grand Prix site where offical news, photos, videos, etc, will be posted.

Here’s to a great regatta and thanks for following us.

Fi