The Allianz Regatta is one of the two World Cup races of ‘World Sailing’. The 37th edition of this top sports event, which is part of the Dutch Water Week, will take place this year from May 31 to June 4. The event will be held for the second time in Almere and Lelystad. A total of 280 athletes from 44 countries are participating.
Almere and Lelystad
At the second Allianz Regatta, most of the competitors will compete in the men’s 49er class and in the kitefoilers, in both men’s and women’s classes. The athletes in the 1 person dinghy (ILCA 6 & 7) and Skiff (49er) will sail from Almere. The Windfoilers (IQFoil Men) and kitesurfers (Formula Kite Men + Women) will start from the beach near Lelystad.
Allianz Regatta quality improvement on several levels
During the second edition of this tournament in Almere and Lelystad improvements were made on several fronts. Both in terms of content, sustainability and the quality of the competition water. Arno van Gerven, general director of the Watersports Association explains:
“All additional power supplies we run this year on hydrogen generators in combination with battery packs that we recharge with hydrogen generators. We are working with a unique combination of three parties that we as a federation have linked together;
Gen Power, Mission H2 and Watson.”
“We are also quite proud of the fact that for this edition of the Allianz Regatta we are deploying many more robot buoys. These self-propelled buoys use GPS technology to get and stay in the right place. As a result, we need fewer people and especially fewer boats to lay out the buoys. In short, we promise as Allianz Regatta that we have realized all the extra steam facilities in a sustainable way.”
Van Gerven continued his talk about the quality of the race management. “This year for the first time we have an International Race Director, a so-called Principal Race Officer (PRO ed.). David Brookes comes from Australia and is directing all the race courses this year. Then we also have a representative of that PRO at each track. This is what all coaches have been asking for for a long time and what we have now realized together with World Sailing. This should also become the new standard for all World Cup races. In short, we are doing the maximum as a sport to get it right. We are not there yet, but this is a serious quality improvement.”
The much-discussed fountainweed also comes up. Van Gerven explains. “This year we have much less trouble with Fountainweed because it has been a much colder spring. And as it looks now, also thanks to the arrival of the Allianz Regatta, next year we will have permission from all parties involved to mow the fountain weed, in the area of the race courses.”
