Race report ·
When Liberté was still called Teekanne
Two wins over the long distances, the overall series title — and a boat that still carried a different name.
Photos from this post
© Gert SchmidleitnerFour races, one ranking
The Long Distance Challenge combines the long-distance races of the Union-Yacht-Club Attersee into a single season ranking. In 2021 it was held for the sixth time and consisted of four races: the Attersee Grand Prix, the twelve-hour race, the 24 hours of Lake Attersee and the Long Race. With 138 ranked helms, the Challenge is regarded as the largest grassroots sailing event in Austria.
Two wins over the long distances
In 2021 we sailed all the way to the top. After eighth place at the Grand Prix on 10 July, a week later came two wins: the twelve-hour race and the 24 hours of Lake Attersee. That settled the overall title before the Long Race. The final tally was 1,232.2 points, ahead of Johannes Fisch on a Dolphin 81 and Robert Höllermann on a K 30.
© Gert SchmidleitnerThe finale on 7 August
The series closed with the 93rd Long Race: 97 boats and 220 sailors. The gun went at seven at the UYCAs starter’s tower, and in the morning sun the lake lay almost glassy. Some boats were left becalmed before the mark at Burgau; only then did the thermal breeze slowly fill in, the wind known on Lake Attersee as the Rosenwind.
The course ran 34.2 kilometres to Burgau, on to Kammer and back to the club. The fastest boat on elapsed time was the 18-foot skiff of Günther Zieher and his sons Moritz and Felix, in 4:39:41; the Burgau Trophy on corrected time went to Alexander Wiesinger on an Akros. Our own result was 64th on corrected time. It did not count: 2021 was the first year with a discard, and the series had already been decided.
© Irene SchandaA different name on the hull
Anyone looking at the photographs from 2021 will read a name on the hull and in the mainsail that is no longer seen today: back then, today’s Liberté, a Libera A, raced under the name of her sponsor — Teekanne.
In one of the shots, though, the spinnaker already carries “ZeitamSee.at” — the name the team sails under today, in the same frame as the sponsor lettering on the hull. The name has changed; the boat is the same.
© Irene SchandaThe oldest entry is the best one
In our Long Distance Challenge record, 2021 comes first — and at the very top. The years that followed brought second places, wins in individual races and, in 2024, the national title; this is still our only overall win in the Long Distance Challenge. That it was won under the name Teekanne changes nothing about it.
The figures in this report come from the salzi.at account of the 93rd Long Race and from the series final standings.
