Building on last year's successful customer sailing event in the Baltic, DNV Poland and DNV Software this summer again invited our customers to join us for trimaran racing with ACADEMY, the Norwegian entry in the Nokia Oops Cup with skipper Knut Frostad.

As a sponsor of ACADEMY, the Norwegian entry in the Nokia Oops Cup, DNV Software along with DNV Poland invited our customers in Poland and the Baltic region to join us in Sopot for this sailing event of the year. ACADEMY is a Formula 60 trimaran capable of reaching speeds exceeding 30 knots.

Skipper Knut Frostad with his crew for the day

On Friday 8 July we participated in the Pro-Am regattas with team ACADEMY, racing against the rest of the Nokia Oops cup sailing teams. Both our customer teams, with representatives from eighteen different companies, performed very well and finished winners of their respective races, receiving their Nokia gold medals during lunch and prize giving ceremony. On the following day, two new customer groups were able to enjoy high-speed sailing with team ACADEMY reaching speeds of almost 30 knots in the good conditions and beautiful summer weather in Sopot.

The sailing on Friday was followed by a software seminar at our local DNV office in Sopot where we presented our software products for shipbuilding and shipping industries. The main focus was on:

• Nauticus Early Design – a newly launched solution from DNV Software. A complete package for early design of
  ship hull structures that closes the gap between traditional draftsmen, structural engineers and naval architects
• Hull Life Cycle Manager – a solution from DNV Software for shipowners to manage inspections and capture detailed hull condition data consistently fleet-wide
• VerIT4Net – a cost-effective and secure IT infrastructure, on board and in the office

The software seminar was followed by a barbecue on the roof terrace of the Sopot office, where we could enjoy more informal discussions around software and sailing until well after sunset.

After leaving Sopot with a second place in the cup so far, ACADEMY set sail for the last race to St. Petersburg fighting to regain the lead. With extremely high temperatures and limited water supply, Knut Frostad and Team ACADEMY led most of this race, but were unable to hold off Stena Sovcomflot in the end when the winds increased. ACADEMY finally came in only 50 minutes behind the winner and secured their 2nd place in the Nokia Oops Cup 2005 – a great achievement with the oldest boat!

Congratulations and thank you for fantastic days in Sopot!