news

Team VELUX achieved 6th place in the King's Cup, the Mediterranean's most traditional and prestigious yacht race. In tough competition with 32 other boats in the IMS 670 class, Team VE-LUX fought back to the top after being hit by incredibly bad luck and disqualified in the impor-tant long-distance race. For Team VELUX the King's Cup was a tour de force that will be long remembered by the eight members of the crew.

There was excitement up to the very last race when Team VELUX participated in the World Championship for X-99 this week off Grömitz on the German Baltic coast. After lying in second place for most of the week, Team VELUX made its move on the last day. The team astonished onlookers with three completely perfect races in sovereign style, thereby gaining its sixth World Championship in seven years.

It looks like being a tremendous race when Team VELUX seeks revenge in the World Championship for X-99 in the coming week. After having won the World Championship five years in a row, their victorious series was broken last year in the World Championship on Lake Boden in Switzerland, but now Team VELUX is determined to regain the World Championship.

Team VELUX has its sights set on a fifth win in the Danish X-99 Championship. The team has planned its tactics, and it will almost be a case of home-ground advantage when Team VELUX does battle for the Danish Championship for X-99 over the weekend of 10-13 June, which will be held on the Great Belt. The event is being organised by Korsør Yacht Club.

Team VELUX unfortunately only managed a 4th place in the weekend's racing. So there were no medals at this year's Around Smaaland Waters.

Although, over the years, Team VELUX has won both World Championships and Danish Championships, it has not yet succeeded in winning Smålandsfarvandet Rundt (races held round the islands of Zealand, Møn, Falster and Lolland. Recently, Team VELUX celebrated an international triumph by winning the prestigious Prinsesse Sofia Trophy in Spain.

The Danish crew won all the races in the Princesa Sofia Trophy

In the year's first races in Spain (IMS in Malaga at the beginning of April), Team VELUX surprisingly achieved a 3rd place in tough competition with the large yachts in the IMS 600 class.

The team has been invited to participate in the season’s first Spanish race in the X-37 boat class. The race will be held in the Mediterranean in the waters off Malaga, where the ”IMS yachts” are meeting for the first time in 2005.

During the winter Team VELUX has worked on the new boat, the X-37. They have been in Palma de Mallorca a few times to prepare for the first race which is part of the IMS Championships in Malaga on the 14th April.

Team VELUX has got off to a good start in their new boat. The won their run in the year’s last race, Mouton Cadet Cup 2004, on the Øresund.

Our new boat, an X-37, entered her first regatta at the weekend.
Team VELUX sailed in the Jameson Cup.

The new VELUX boat christened The new Team VELUX boat, an X-37, was christened by Lise Bruun, assistant in the focus groups, whose areas of responsibility include Spain. The christening took place at Vedbæk Harbour yesterday, and the boat was named VELUX.

Things went well for Team VELUX in Friday's first race. They gained a second place and gold was within reach. In the second race, they got a black flag. Team VELUX and 15 other boats were out of the race.

As expected, the fourth day of the World Championship brought a little wind in the morning. Unfortunately for Team VELUX, they came in 30th in the day's first race. They got off to a bad start, and in the very light breeze (2-4 m/sec) and did not manage to get completely free of the other 52 boats.

Finally, on the third day of the World Championship, no fewer than two races took place! Team VELUX came in sixth in the first race but won the second convincingly. Overall, they are in second place.

After seven hours with grey weather and rain but no wind, the judge gave up. Not a single race could be completed on the second day of the World Championship either. The judge did not even try to start the races.

It was a very disappointed Flemming Fjord that reported about the wind conditions on Lake Constance: "There has been no wind at all today, and they have not promised much wind tomorrow either." When there was wind the other day, it change direction more than 30 times in just a 10-minute race. It is the mountains round Lake Constance that cause the changes in direction and makes the lake so difficult to sail on.

"Today I have tried something for the very first time. The first 15-20 minutes in a storm with 12 m/second. We considered sailing only with our foresail, but then the wind dropped completely and the race had to be abandoned," Flemming Fjord tells us from Lake Constance.

The World Championship starts with tune-up races so that the crews can spend the first few days practising on the water and in the wind conditions. Everything takes place in accordance with normal racing rules.

Team VELUX is ready to sail to victory in the World Championship, which is being held on Lake Constance in Switzerland this year. The team's expectations are sky-high, but it is going to be a tough battle. World class is not something you simply are, but something you really want to be. And it takes a lot of hard work.

In all, 26 boats competed in this year's Danish Championship, which took place on Funen. Bogense Yacht Club, which was celebrating its 50th anniversary at the same time, was the organiser. There were boats from both Germany and Sweden, whose crews were eager to train against Team VELUX before the battle for the World title.

Team VELUX started this sailing season with an impressive first place at the North Minolta race in Vedbæk Harbour on 2 May. There was hardly any wind so the team had to throw in all their expertise and cooperative skills. And everything ran smoothly - even after a long winter on firm ground.