Facebook

Login

Support Sailonline

If you haven't already - join the SAILONLINE YACHT CLUB!

Please also consider making a donation - all amounts are greatly appreciated!

25 January 2018


For the eighth consecutive year, Sailonline is delighted to be associated with Promote Shetland for the running of the 2018 virtual race to the annual Up Helly Aa fire festival in Lerwick.

Shetland is a group of about 100 islands off the NE coast of the British mainland, as close to Norway as they are to Aberdeen in Scotland. The islands have been inhabited for about 5000 years and have to this day retained many of the traditions and customs of those who lived there over the centuries. Little is known about the original Pictish people as they appear to have been displaced when the Vikings arrived in the 700s. Over many years there was a strong Viking and Scandinavian influence until the islands were given to Scotland by Norway in the 15th century as part of a royal dowry.

The fire festivals, however, are not so ancient, being dreamed up in the 19th century to serve a dual purpose of raising spirits in the long dark winter and of reminding folk of historic Viking influences. These days Up Helly Aa in Lerwick has become a fairly riotous and colourful fire festival involving almost the entire community, when the streets fill with "guizers" - groups of people in themed disguise - and the Jarl Squad (the Vikings) and a livestream of the event is broadcast over the internet enabling everyone around the globe to join in!


Up Helly Aa: Shetland's Fire Festival Season

About Up Helly Aa
Shetland Webcams

Sailonline’s Race:
Sailonline will be racing Elan 410s from Aberdeen to Lerwick, starting on Monday, 29 January @1100utc. Our route is unchanged from previous years and takes us past Inverness, a mark in the Moray Firth, past Fair Isle and then around several of the islands of Shetland to the finish in Lerwick Harbour. The timing this year is intended to encourage an even bigger virtual participation than before in the festival of Up Helly Aa on the evening of 30 January. The race will open for practice on Tuesday, 24 January at 1100utc.


Comments are closed.

Comments have been closed for this post.

Races

Next Race: 00d 00h 00m


Current Races:

Tall Ships Races 2025 - Le Havre to Dunkirk


Welcome to the first of four virtual Tall Ships Races in European waters which are concurrently being organized in-real-life by Sail Training International . The course for this first race is between the French ports of Le Havre and Dunkirk; circa 125nm in Sailonline’s magnificent 90m Barque.
NOTE: Starts and Finishes in tall ships racing are always offshore to avoid conflict with shipping and shipping lanes; online and real-life may not match exactly.
Race #1923
INFO by brainaid.de
Barque 90m PARTICULARS
WX Updates:
0430 / 1030 / 1630 / 2230
Ranking: TS - SYC
Race starts: Jul 07th 16:00 Registration Open!
▶ Flash
GO TO RACE

Red Eye - Key Lime Pie-gatta 2025

Opposite the Bahamas at the tip of the Florida peninsula, we find the Florida Keys, a honky-tonk arpeggio of islands, where another SOL classic, the Key Lime Pie-gatta, so-called after the famous local condensed-milk-based tart speciality, awaits to be navigated once again. We’ll race its “Red Eye” 180nm in very-American Santa Cruz 52s, ignoring such artefacts as bridges, causeways and piers joining the keys one to the other and to the mainland!
Race #1846
INFOby brainaid.de
Santa Cruz 52 PARTICULARS
NAM_AWIP WX Updates:
0245 / 0845 / 1445 / 2045
Ranking: SYC - RED
Race starts: Jul 02nd 12:00 Registration Open!
▶ Flash
GO TO RACE

Sail Around Turkey 2025


Welcome to the 11th running of one of Sailonline's most iconic races, where our fleet races the length of the Turkish coastline from Hopa (the easternmost harbour on Turkey’s Black Sea coast) to Iskenderun (the easternmost harbour on Turkey’s Mediterranean coast). It’s a 1,372nm race and aboard our classic, 1st decade of the 21st Century, version 2 IMOCA 60, you should be able to get around the course in less than a week. That is if, of course, once you get out of the Black Sea you don’t stop to enjoy the sights or a BBQ or two in the Golden Horn, or on the Marble Islands, now land-locked Troy or Gallipoli or any of the myriad Aegean islands, that you shall have to carefully navigate past.
Race #1930
INFOfrom brainaid.de
IMOCA 60 v2 PARTICULARS
WX Updates:
0430 / 1030 / 1630 / 2230
Ranking: SYC
Race starts: Jun 27th 15:00 Registration Open!
▶ Flash
GO TO RACE

Go to race archive

SYC Ranking

  1. Sailonline Yacht Club Member CriticalHippo
  2. Sailonline Yacht Club Member KaSToR
  3. Sailonline Yacht Club Member WRmirekd
  4. Sailonline Yacht Club Member FreyjaUSA
  5. Sailonline Yacht Club Member rafa
  6. Sailonline Yacht Club Member Kipper1258
  7. Sailonline Yacht Club Member rumskib
  8. Sailonline Yacht Club Member BRENTGRAY
  9. Sailonline Yacht Club Member Patrick70119
  10. Sailonline Yacht Club Member CollegeFund

View full list

Series

Mobile Client

SYC members have the benefit of access to our mobile/lightweight web client!

The mobile client