Hi Everyone,
Wow what a week it’s been since the Sail GP, I’ve been trying to find the words to describe how much we onboard enjoyed the 50th Anniversary celebrations of Baltic Yachts. The 4-day Baltic yachts event brought the corners of the yachting industry together to celebrate 50 years of excellent boat building, craftsmanship and sailing capability.
I had the privilege to sail with and learn from some of the industry's most talented sailors, from ex-Volvo Ocean sailors, the 7C Rigging team, North Sail's representatives, Judel/Vroljik yacht design and an America's Cup team Captain.
A training day on the water for all the yachts to gather for some good sailing, building crew spirits, and familiarisation with the sailing area, was the beginning of the event. Baltic put on an extraordinary social calendar as well as time spent on the water. With welcome drinks and photos of the day in their events tent. The beauty of this occasion was the ability to connect with friends old and new, and celebrate the one thing that brought 27 yachts together, "A love of Sailing":
It was a pleasure to catch up with my very talented friends at Tide Magazine who excellently covered the event https://tide-magazine.com in order to Celebrate https://www.balticyachts.fi/baltic-yachts-rendezvous/
The First day of racing, brought some light breeze which meant the opportunity to get out our spinnaker and get into some hoists and drops, which was good fun and interesting to do on a 45m sail yacht. Doing a manoeuvre such as Jibing a Spinnaker of 1675 square metres isn't for the faint-hearted or a solo sailor, it takes teamwork, organisation and good communication. Our sail plan for the day for upwind sailing was full Mainsail and blade (Headsail) and then deploying the Spinnaker for Downwind action.
We took the time on the water to share our knowledge of the boat and learn from the professionals how we could improve our systems, sail safer and optimise how we sail the yacht on a day-to-day basis.
Day one was exhilarating, educational and a little exhausting…
Once back on the dock, the excitement didn't stop. The competition was fierce amongst the crew taking part in the paddle boarding competition, it is safe to say we didn't win the final but by god, a German, an Irish and two South Africans tried their best. We won the heat but couldn't handle the heat in the final as a certain vertically challenged Irish lady (Me) struggled to get back on the board in the second lap of the relay. For a good laugh give this a watch, the " I'm trying" is me yelling at my first officer who's yelling at me!
Note to self... Get on the board where you can still stand!
Like any good super-yacht event, the rosé was flowing after a fantastic day on the water with Apres sailing and a rundown of the day's successes from team Baltic.
It's never boring when you get a bunch of sailors in one room, talk about the day sailing and add vino to the occasion.
On that note, I will wrap up the first two days of this incredible event with a series of stunning photos, taken by the team at Tide Magazine, Oli Riley, Mikey DeTemple, the Team at Baltic Yachts, myself and the crew on board SY Path.
For rendezvous action check out Part 2. As always keep laughing, Smiling and loving the sea xo
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