On Thursday, hundreds of sailors took to the waves of Lake Balaton at Balatonfüred to test themselves on one of the most popular sailing regattas in Europe, the Kékszalag (Blue Ribbon). The competing sailors have 48 hours to complete the journey back to the city. This year, the RSM2, governed by Róbert Vándor, was the first sailboat to cross the finish line of the 52nd Blue Ribbon Raiffeisen Grand Prix on Friday morning after an extremely windless race.
The RSM2 catamaran reached Balatonfüred at 2:52:57 a.m. on Friday on the slowest Kékszalag race of the last ten years. Other members of the crew of the winning ship were Zsolt Kalocsai, Péter Lange, István Bali, Botond Margitics, and András Fekete. According to the race website, this year’s fastest boat completed the approximate distance in 17 hours 52 minutes 57 seconds.
photo: György Varga/MTI
For the first time this year, the Minister of Justice Judit Varga, also set off to compete at the Kékszalag. Varga was circumnavigating Lake Balaton on the team of the president of the Hungarian Sailing Association, Lajos Kollár, in a classic Tabu 40 Cruiser in the competition.
This year’s Blue Ribbon was nominated by 535 ships in 27 ship classes.
photo: György Varga/MTI
photo: Tamás Vasvári/MTI
photo: György Varga/MTI
photo: György Varga/MTI
photo: György Varga/MTI
featured photo: György Varga/MTI