After 290 miles of racing around Zealand island in challenging stop-start conditions, the fleet of 31 entries have finished and champions are now crowned in the ORC Double-Handed European Championship 2023, hosted by Helsingør Seljklub.

Leading the pack around the course throughout the race was Karl and Maren Book from Norway, racing their Landmark 43 WHITE SHADOW. Their elapsed time of 50H 50M 15S was fast enough to yield a corrected time victory margin of 6 hours over reigning ORC DH World Champions Anders Dahlsjo and Martin Stromberg from Sweden in their Z30+ ZEUS. Finishing after 70 hours of racing and 1.5 hours back in corrected time for third place was Kristian Jerpetjon and Andreas Tinglum from Norway racing their Figaro 2 TETRAKTYS, who finished as the top Corinthian entry as well.

“It was a long race,” said Karl Book, “with some frustrating periods of stops and starts, but everyone had this too. In the beginning the race was fantastic, but the first night was quite tough. In the end it was about keeping the focus and I think we achieved this.”

 This was the first long distance DH race for the Book’s, but they had no lack of offshore experience: they had raced on a full crew entry in the 2225-mile Transpac race to Hawaii, and afterwards returned the boat to California double-handed. Their situation in this week’s race was made even more challenging by having an inoperative autopilot, requiring both he and Maren to be on deck when sail trim and maneuvers were needed.

For the father-son team of Jorgen and Rasmus Rosengren from Sweden on their J105 ROSE OF SWEDEN, their margin of victory in Class B was much closer: only 42 minutes after over 60 hours of racing. In fact, their closest rival, the Farr 30 GARANTUM (shown below) raced by Lars Bergkvist and Michael Wahlroos also from Sweden, crossed the finish line at Helsingør castle just 10 minutes ahead of them. Third in Class B was Michael Hoefgen and Jasper Marwege from Germany on their JPK 10.30 LIGHTWORKS.

“We are really surprised at our win,” said Rasmus, an accomplished young talent from Sweden in several classes. Yet his father Jorgen said this race was not easy. “The race had many challenges with many changing wind conditions, choosing where to go, current – it was not just speed, everything was on this race. We like these complicated sailing.”

And in Class C racing their First 34.7 LETHE, Øyvind Knudsen and Mortin Knudsen from Norway had a similar dominant win as WHITE SHADOW with a 3-hour corrected time victory over runner-up MRS FRECKLES, a Corby 33 raced by Swedes Lena Having and Eivind Boymo-Malm. They are also the top Corinthian entry in the class. Finishing in third were Finns Kim Jääskeläinen and Turo Nummi racing their Mat 1010 GOODIO.

"As our first-ever ORC Double Handed European Championship, we are very pleased with the enthusiasm shown by both the organizers and participants," said Bruno Finzi, Chairman of ORC. "We are happy we can help support the growth and strong interest in this important sector of the sport and that the ORC rating system is working well - 9 different types of boats were on the podium in three classes!"

 As an added bonus to their European Champion titles, winners today will receive Wild Card invitations to compete in select events on the Marina Militare Nastro Rosa Tour. This tour of competitive Double Handed races features four events in the Mediterranean held in June, July, October and November.