OSTAR – Competitors

Krystian Szypka  –  Hallelujah

Krystian:  (born 1972, Polish) – finisher of OSTAR2013 (3rd in Jester), experienced single-handed sailor, yacht master and sailing instructor (sea safety and navigation expert). Organizer of Battle of Gotland single-handed race – one of most difficult regattas on Baltic Sea and co-founder of project Ocean Team supporting many challenging Polish ocean projects. Besides sailing: helicopter pilot, scuba diver, father of 2 sons and husband of fantastic woman. Occupation: manager in automotive industry.

Some details about off-shore races:

2010, 2011, 2012 – Singlehanded races Polonez Cup – 200nm nonstop on western Baltic Sea – best result: 3^rd in Open Class

2012, 2013, 2014 – Singlehanded races Battle of Gotland – 500nm nonstop on east-central Baltic Sea – twice 1^st, once 2^nd position (and still owner of time record for boats below 60ft)

2013 – OSTAR – 3^rd in Jester Class

Over 30.000nm sailed off-shore including about 9.000nm on solitaire

Hallelujah: type: DELPHIA 46DS, designed and built in Poland (2011) by Delphia Yachts (designer Andrzej Skrzat). Ocean going cruiser with LOA of 14meters and 120sqm of basic sails. Class A. GPR hull and aluminum mast, sloop rigging with furlers and independent storm sails. Central cockpit and deck saloon give a lot of comfort and safety. Boat well equipped for shorthanded navigation as well as for solo sailors. Full safety equipment. Even not designed for races quite quick especially for long distance passages both upwind and downwind (with additional 150sqm asymmetric spinnaker).

For ocean passage the boat is equipped with: diesel power generator, wind power generator, desalinator, heating system, satellite communication and doubled navigation system,

For singlehanded race: doubled autopilot, radar, active radar reflector and other gadgets including aggressive alarm clock to be sure that the short sleeping will be controlled.

Of course, such things like SOLAS life raft, grab-bags, EPIRB, PLB, AIS-SART and other safety staff is on board. Boat meets all WS OSR demands for category Mo1.

Richard Lett  –  Velocity Girl

Richard 

details to come

Velocity Girl 

details to come

Markus Moser – Lifgun

Markus. I was born in 1966 and grew up in landlocked Switzerland. I live in Zurich and work as an architect. My father owned a boatyard: thus I spent my weekends sailing on Lake Zurich rather than hiking in the Swiss Alps.

What followed was a classic sailing career: at the age of five Optimist, at 12 Europe Dinghy, and at 16 Finn Dinghy.

Sailing has always been an expensive sport. When I was 14 I worked as a sailing teacher and accompanied sailing trips as a deck hand. I spent my summer holidays in Danish coastal waters, regularly taking part in races.

Boats at that time were larger (Matcher 31 and similar), with a Luffe 4004 finally being ordered and built in 2008. There then followed four years’ intensive sailing in Baltic waters. In 2011 the decision was taken to move over to a Luffe 45 which was then delivered the following year.  What a different world that introduced: many ever longer sailing trips would follow!

Oslo – Inverness – Oban – Stromness – Copenhagen – Gulf of Bothnia – Stavanger etc.

In 2017 and 2018 solo sail around Africa: Valencia – Cape Verde – Cape Town – Richards Bay – Suez – Didim (Turkey).

Lifgun, a Luffe 45, now has enough experience to take part in an Ostar race. It has mastered many difficult situations, and is ready for what the North Atlantic has to throw at it – as is its skipper.

Lifgun. Lifgun is a Luffe 45 designed by Oluf Jørgensen and built in his small boat manufacture in Kolding, Denmark. She is hull number 5 and finished in spring 2012. She is built out of Epoxy (Hull and Deck). Carbonfibre mast, Carbonfibre boom. 9/10 rigg with 2 spreaders, standing on keel. Rigging ECsix carbon. I sail Lifgun since she was new and logged until now 35’000 nm. Right now, she’s berthed in Turkey but she saw a lot of places in the world already. Lifgun is sailing under Swiss flag. By the way – Lifgun has nothing to do with guns – it comes from Iceland and the meaning is (re)activate a hidden place….(Endurlífgun).

Kass Schmitt – Zest

Jacek Chabowski – Blue Horizon

Jacek: Born in 1970 in Gdansk, Poland. Under sail since 1982. Some racing successes – Polish Sea Sailing Champion 2015. Winner of the South Baltic Cup in 2014. Winner of the Polish Sea Sailing Cup 2014. Three times winner of the L.Teliga Solitary Regatta Award. Repeated participant of the most difficult solo regatta in the Baltic Sea – Battle of Gotland. Skipper Polled Sailing Team. Many other racing successes achieved with the Polled Sailing Team. Surrounded areas: Baltic Sea, North Sea, Bay of Biscay (4 times, including once alone), Atlantic Ocean, Mediterranean Sea, Adriatic, Saronic Bay.
Owner of a sailing school and yacht service – Sailing Factory (sailingfactory.pl).
Total sailing experience about 40.000 NM.
Father of Maciej and Kinga, husband of wonderful woman, Alinka.

Blue Horizon:
Type: Delphia 47 (sloop)
Year of construction: 2010
Length 47 feet, yacht of the ocean class (A).
Designed by Andrzej Skrzat, produced in the Polish yacht shipyard Delphia.
The yacht is well equipped and adapted for solo sailing, including oceanic sailing.

Neil Payter – Cariberia

Details to follow

Mihail Kopanov – Krone One

Mihail: Mihail Kopanov was born in 1965 in Bourgas, Bulgaria. A father of two daughters and a husband to a lovely woman. He started sailing in the optimist class as a child. Then he moved to different olympic and national classes, class Finn as well. At the age of 15 he started sailing keelboats. Since then he is a regular participant in various sailing races.

He participated together with Dian Zaykov in Twostar 2017 but did not finish. Their boat Furia collided an unidentifiable floating object near the Canadian coast and began taking in water. The crew was professionally rescued by the ship Thor Magna. The same year the owner of the sunk boat, Rumen Kotoff bought Krone 1, a Faurby 396, launched in 2010 and they both decided to participate with that boat in the Twostar 2020. Unfortunately, an unexpected health problem prevented Rumen from participating, and they both decided that Mihail Kopanov will take part with the same boat in the Ostar instead.

Krone One: The sailboat Krone One is a Danish production sailboat, manufactured by Faurby Yacht. The model is Faurby 396 Jesper Bank Edition, designer Niels Peter Faurby. It is CE certified as class A sailing yacht with carbon mast and boom and roll-reef genoa.

Keri Harris – Rumour

Details to follow