The Middelfart Sailing Festival took place at Kulturøen in the heart of the city. In addition to the start of the sailing season and the introduction of new teams in the Danish J/70 Sailing League, there were kayak trips and match races and 350 local school children on the water during the festival. The week started with 350 local school children from five different schools trying to sail match races on the fleet of J/70s. The event was organized by Match Racing Denmark and even though the weather was not quite perfect, it was a huge experience for the kids. The conditions in the harbor were exceptional; the sailors were challenged from Thursday’s first start to the last sailings on Sunday. The current was sometimes stronger than the wind, and it presented challenges for both Race Committee PRO Peter Lübeck and the sailors. It was incredibly entertaining to be a spectator, as the tracks were laid close to land. There was live play-by-play commentary with Sofie Borbiconi and Thor Malthe Andersen all four days. Despite the conditions, the racing ended very close. It was ultimately pure first places that decided the close race between the match race team Borch Racing from Roskilde and Hellerup High Flyers, followed by the Bandholm Eagles in the first division. The second division was at least as exciting in every way. Saturday offered six races for most teams. But, when the wind suddenly disappeared, the last group on the water had to sail in after only one race. The sailors themselves started on the water on Sunday, and then sailed a total of nine races just like the other groups. Despite the difficult conditions, it was the Youngsters Team that took the lead by winning the tie-breaker over the women’s Team Salt-WOW from Aarhus. Third was another women’s WOW Team from KDY (Royal Copenhagen YC). The winning Youngsters Team skipper Rasmus Lumbye exclaims how the strong currents made the victory extra difficult, “We had a lot of close races, and there was excitement until the last race, so we are really happy with the victory. It was especially challenging to make good starts in the strong current, and we had to fight hard to get back in the races where we got off to a bad start and we are going backwards!” For more Danish J/70 Sailing League information, visit http://sejlsportsligaen.dk/.