The MBA Global Sailing League

The Alumni Business Cup will be held in Kiel, Germany on 25-27 August 2023. This edition is being hosted by the Kieler Yacht Club and the team from WHU business school.

http://www.abcup.org/

Created in 1992 by alumni from INSEAD, the Alumni Business Cup (ABC)  is open, upon invitation, to the alumni of some of the best-known US and European business schools. Depending on the selected one-design fleet, the crews usually may comprise 5 to 8 persons, 75% of each crew, including the skipper, must be alumni, faculty or students, and husband or wife of the former.

One of the key features of the ABCup Regatta is that the fleet (typically 9 to 12 boats) is alway a one-design fleet, with great attention brought to boat performance and homogeneity.

Another feature is that the ABCup visit a different location each year. The list is rather impressive: The ABCup has been in 4 different places in Brittany, 3 different places in the Solent; In Italy, it has visited successively Rimini, Trieste, Venice (2011) and Chiavari (2017), Croatia and Portugal were also visited as well as some splendid locations in the French Riviera. In 2016, the ABCup ventured as far as St Petersburg!

The regatta was traditionally in May or June. Boats are usually available for practice sailing on the Wednesday, whilst races start on Thursday and are intense until the last leg on Saturday afternoon.

The onshore programme is essential to the culture of the event, with contests and crew presentations which provide for hilarious moments and contribute to the final ranking.

The event is usually all-inclusive (hotel accomodation, dinners, lunch packs, photos etc…).

The ABC is supervised by the Alumni Business Cup Association, a non profit organization registered under the French law. On a case by case basis, the local coordination can be handled by alumni of one of the participating schools (Alumni from INSEAD, HEC, LBS, CRANFIELD, BOCCONI and MIP have all managed one or several ABCup Regatta).

marc@abcup.org

Photos