Garmin Round Denmark Race 2026 is underway

After an enjoyable Thursday evening with a skippers’ meeting, dinner and plenty of socialising within the Garmin Round Denmark Race community, the atmosphere changed on Friday as the racing began.

The starting signals sounded from Aarhus International Sailing Center, and this year’s race around Denmark is now underway.

The weather provided ideal conditions for the start, with sunshine and a light westerly breeze of around eight knots.

Singlehanded fleet first to start

At 10:00, the singlehanded sailors were sent on their way. The boats left Aarhus under spinnaker, and after approximately an hour and a half of racing, the fleet passed Sletterhage Lighthouse.

XAR was leading at this point and continued to head the fleet northwards. After rounding Sletterhage, the sailors were able to continue on a broad reach.

At 14:25, XAR passed Grenaa at a speed of approximately eight knots.

The Beast had to turn back north of Grenaa and is currently heading back to Grenaa due to a technical issue. However, The Beast, skippered by Jan B. Hansen, had not retired from the race as of 20:30 on Friday evening.

High speeds in the second start

At 14:00, the doublehanded and fully crewed boats started in the same favourable weather conditions.

The catamaran TRI was the first boat from this start to round Sletterhage Lighthouse, at approximately 15:25. Around an hour later, TRI passed Grenaa at a speed of 13.2 knots.

During the afternoon, the wind increased to between 15 and 20 knots from approximately 255 degrees. This meant that, after passing Grenaa, the boats faced close-hauled sailing on their way north towards Skagen.

Status at 20:30

By Friday evening, the leading boats were making good progress towards Skagen:

·       Singlehanded: XAR had approximately 40 nautical miles remaining to the waypoint at Skagen.

·       Doublehanded: Epoxi had approximately 91 nautical miles remaining to the waypoint at Skagen.

·       Multi-hull: TRI had approximately 72 nautical miles remaining to the waypoint at Skagen.

·       Fully crewed: Palby Marine had approximately 76 nautical miles remaining to the waypoint at Skagen.

Garmin Round Denmark Race is now well and truly underway, and the participants face their first demanding hours and days on the course around Denmark.