Sunny weather, good wind, competitive participants, plenty good sailing manoeuvres (some that missed other boats by only a whisker), excitement at the finish line, happy winners and overall a great day outdoors – there’s not much more to wish for when it comes to a sailing regatta on Sydney Harbour. On Friday, 29 March all these elements aligned and resulted in a very successful 4th German-Australian Chamber & Qatar Airways Sailing Regatta 2019.
At 12pm the first eager sailors arrived at the Sydney by Sail Festival Pontoon in front of the Maritime Museum in Darling Harbour. The participants received matching polo shirts and caps and enjoyed drinks and sandwiches while more and more guests arrived. Once all teams had gathered, Lars Mehlan, Director – Events & Marketing at the German-Australian Chamber welcomed all guests and thanked Premium Partner Qatar Airways for being a generous partner to the Chamber and a consistent event partner for the Sailing Regatta. He also welcomed Premium Partners & Executive Members in attendance and then continued to introduce this year’s regatta participants: DB Schenker, Schaeffler Australia, PwC, and of course Qatar Airways. Since a number of tickets had been purchased by individuals this year, the Chamber contributed another contender: the AHK yacht. With a total of five boats on the water and the contenders hungry for victory, the regatta promised to be a heated competition.
After introducing all participants, Lars handed over to the event’s Principal Partner Qatar Airways, represented by their new Commercial Manager Cassandra Kerr. Cassandra welcomed everyone on behalf of Qatar Airways and concisely presented a selection of new products and services that clients can expect from Qatar when flying with them.
Then, Lars announced a special guest who was able to join the event and shed some light on the life of a professional sailor and sailmaker. Julius Raithel, from Hamburg, Germany participated the past two Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Races and shared some anecdotes about his experience with our guests. After this, everyone seemed to be even more eager to get on board and compete for the trophy (even if the trophy would not be quite as prestigious as the Tattersall Cup of the Sydney Hobart Yacht Race…).
It was now time for the teams to be allocated to the boats and the skippers started their safety briefing. It wasn’t long till the yachts headed towards Shark Island where the race started. A few practice manoeuvres were undertaken and off they went! The scenery of the beautiful Sydney Harbour, good wind conditions and a sunny day made for a fun race full of tactical cleverness, sleek manoeuvres, tight line honours and overall great sportsmanship! Back at the pontoon, line honours and handicap were calculated before the winner was announced: PwC won the perpetual trophy of the 4th German-Australian Chamber & Qatar Airways Sailing Regatta 2019! Congratulations to PwC Partner Christian Holle and his crew! As in previous years, also each skipper had the opportunity to nominate a special crew member who was the ‘star performer’ of the crew due to outstanding performance (not necessarily only related to sailing). This year’s winners of the ‘Star Performer’ trophies were: Zain Alzawahreh from Schaeffler Australia, Johan Sandahl from DB Schenker, Andreas Dammann from uvex (crew member on the PwC yacht), Ralf Mueller from DB Schenker (crew member on the AHK yacht), and Tanja Ghahraman from QBT Travel (crew member on the Qatar Airways yacht).
After the prize ceremony it was time to turn to the BBQ that was awaiting our hungry sailors on the pontoon. While the sun set against the horizon and the day slowly came to end, guests enjoyed food and drinks while sharing their sailing stories about the adventures they had experienced while out on Sydney Harbour.
For four years in a row now Qatar Airways has been a great supporter of the German-Australian Chamber and the Sailing Regatta on Sydney Harbour. We are very thankful for their continuous support and hope to continue this great relationship in the future.