Fun Facts about the faculty: The Kapsejladsen Regatta

This year, the engineers won the battle for ‘Det Gyldne Bækken’ at the annual Regatta in the University Park. Today, the Regatta is Northern Europe's largest student-run event, but this was far from the case at the first race about 30 years ago, when two of the faculty's student organisations started the competition. Did you know that...

The Regatta’s first year caught on softened VHS tape by Milo Kirk or Shahram Khorami, who represented the dentists' student organisation 'Klubrådet'.

5 May 2022 by Lise Wendel Eriksen

... 20 to 30 spectators attended the very first Regatta between the medical doctors and the dentists on a foggy day in 1991?
It was members of the two student organisations Umbilicus and Apollonia – at the time known as 'Klubrådet' – who fought against each other, just as in the competition between the universities in Oxford and Cambridge. The two student organisations started the competition because they wanted to get to know each other better – and allegedly because the medical doctors were eager to join the legendary parties on the Aarhus School of Dentistry. The rowing competition was originally nothing but a small event to kick-start the big party with beer ad libitum held at the Aarhus School of Dentistry.

... a young man from public health sciences is still the fastest on the lake?
It may well be that Umbilicus, with 11 official victories, is the most successful student organisation in the history of the Regatta. Nonetheless, Niklas Munstgaard Berg from SIFFOS set a record in 2017 with the fastest ride across the lake – i.e. rowing over, drinking a beer, snufting around the bottle, and rowing back. He spent a total of 35.33 seconds, and that time is not yet beaten.

... the fire brigade was called to the Regatta in 1992?
The medical doctors had a hard time accepting that the dentists won the Regatta the first year. Therefore, it quickly became an unwritten rule that the medical doctors should win, no matter who rowed the best or quickest. For the next many years, the Regatta resembled the Wild West, and it was actually more about sabotaging each other than about getting first across the lake. The second year, Umbilicus therefore teamed up with the aarhus Majorettes to do a magnificent intro show and with the Aarhus Fire Brigade, which hosed down the dentists' boat, bringing it out of course rowing back and forth. 1992 was also the year in which ‘Det Gyldne Bækken’ was introduced as challenge trophy. ‘Det Gyldne Bækken’ was purchased from the Hjælpemiddelcentralen, a place where you can buy everything in aids for the elderly and for the disabled, and each year 'Det Gyldne Bækken' is gilded by a car painter.