The participants
Anyone who’s ever had anything to do with yacht racing in their lives knows Kékszalag, and even those who only watch the elegant sailing boats from the shore will surely have heard of the famous Balaton regatta. The first ever Kékszalag race was held 81 years ago, in 1934, which makes it one of Europe’s oldest and most prestigious regattas.
It’s perhaps less widely known in Hungary that Kékszalag is not the only such race in Europe. Lake Geneva’s regatta called Bol d'Or Mirabaud, which isn’t much shorter than Kékszalag with its 160 km, took place for the 77th time this year: sailors had to navigate a 123-km distance on the lake known for its weather that's similarly capricious as Balaton's.
The 65th Rund Um regatta was held on Lake Constance, aka Bodensee, earlier this year – interestingly, the race is held during the night, which makes the task of sailors particularly challenging and exciting. Like Rund Um, Lake Garda’s Centomiglia will celebrate 65 year at the beginning of September. Every year, hundreds of sailors put themselves to the test at these regattas, covering distances of at least 120 km, which can last long into the night. The races are usually accompanied by festivals on the shore, including grand award ceremonies where sailing teams are presented with their trophies. During these days, the streets of the towns are full of cheering crowds, food and drinks vendors and various performers.
Striving for the win, even abroad
The idea of somehow connecting these four prominent European regattas first emerged in the 60s and later in the 80s, but the first few attempts of the organizing sailing clubs soon turned out to be unsuccessful. Perhaps these failures were due to the lack of efficient telecommunication, or the difficulties of traveling and transporting the boats, but we’ve all seen the massive progress these areas have achieved over the past 30 years. Many sailing teams have traveled to neighboring countries to enter local races for a long time, and the four major regattas have always been appealing destinations thanks to their popularity and the great number of participants.
In previous years, the Hungarian team of the libera Raffica often participated at all four races, always making headlines with their adventurous trips: they’ve won every race except for Kékszalag at least once, and they’ve capsized at all of the regattas – last year, they had a night-time bathing session lasting a couple of hours at Rund Um. Farkas Litkey won Kékszalag on several occasions in the 00s, sailing a libera called Clan Des Team. The boat he borrowed from Lake Garda has been an active participant at Centomiglia ever since.
This year, the teams taking part in Kékszalag saw a foreign unit take home the grand prize: the crew of the Swiss catamaran Safram arrived at Kékszalag after a stormy Bol d’Or, and emerged victorious from a race that was hardly complicated by strong winds.
Interlakes, aka everyone goes everywhere
Communication among the four lakes has not been without precedent, but a few years ago the thought of an official cooperation was raised again by Attila “Rozsda” Nagy (the skipper of the Black Jack team, which came in third at last year’s Kékszalag), and the concrete steps are now starting to take shape as well. Negotiations have been going on for a while, and the first ever Interlakes Regatta, together with a bunch of side events taking place on the shore, will be held for the first time next year.
The aim of the cooperation is to allow foreign sailing teams to get acquainted with our local attractions and sailing communities, as well as our cultural and gastronomical specialties; in exchange, we’ll get the chance to learn about the regional sailing scene in Switzerland, Germany and Italy. When we Hungarians go on a beach holiday, we tend to prefer seas, as we don’t have our own sources of salt water, but anyone who’s ever stood by the foot of the cliffs towering 300 m above Lake Garden knows how exciting fresh water can be. (If you’ve tried salt water sailing, and have felt the salty sea burning your eyes and lips, you can perhaps appreciate the smoothness of fresh water even more.)
Interlakes regatta is a series of regattas, a competition in a competition: teams have to enter as many races and snatch up as high-ranking positions as possible to be eligible to win the valuable prizes of Interlakes. The organizers are already in the process of harmonizing the competition rules and devising the point system, and all the questions pertaining to the different classes competing on the various lakes will be soon resolved as well. Another aim of the Interlakes team is to make traveling easier for the participating units, who’ll have at their disposal a multilingual information office, and reasonable prices in terms of berth rental and craning fees and accommodation. Renting a boat for the races will also be pretty simple.
The joint initiative of the four lakes will not benefit sailors alone: the shore will be teeming with visitors to Interlakes Festival. Balatonfüred is always full of bustling crowds both day and night during Kékszalag. This year, a wine and a guitar festival guaranteed entertainment for those wanting to stay on dry land, but don’t be surprised if next year you’ll hear lots of foreign conversations as you sip on your glass of Italian wine on Tagore Promenade. In a similar fashion, Hungarian wineries, gastro establishments and performers will travel abroad with our sailing teams, setting up shop at the other regattas – it’s time for the world to finally find out about lángos with cheese and sour cream and the famous Welschriesling of Csopak.
If you cannot enter the race, but you’d be up for some exercise, you’ll have plenty of options to choose from. There are excellent rocks to climb near Lake Garda and Lake Geneva, and both lakes have top-notch bike trails running around them as well. No wonder that Lake Garda is the venue of Triple Deca Ironman, the world’s most grueling triathlon race, where participants have to complete 30 Ironmans over 30 days. For a less challenging time, try hiking the nearby hills, which have an unbelievable view of the lake. The lakeshores are lined with grassy and pebbly beaches with access to the water that’s deeper and consequently much cooler than Balaton.
Next year, Lake Geneva, Lake Constance or Lake Garda could be the perfect destination for a long weekend in the summertime. Boat or no boat, everyone is guaranteed to have a good time, especially if you decide to visit during any of the renowned races. Here’s when you should go to catch them:
- Bol d'Or June 10-12, 2016
- Rund Um June 3-5, 2016
- Centomiglia traditionally held on the first weekend of September
- Kékszalag always at the beginning of July
