Beau Geste, Essentia44 & Sugar 3 are 2022 Orc world champions

After five days of competitive sailing with a long offshore and six inshore windward/leeward races, three new ORC World Champion teams have emerged here at the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda. Each of these teams rose above tough fields of competitors in races that were contested in a wide variety of wind and sea conditions - from today's light air to the blasting breezes of Days 4, 5 and at times in the long Offshore race - and thus are truly worthy ORC World champions in their respective classes.

In Class A Karl Kwok’s (HKG) TP52 BEAU GESTE, driven by Ken Read (USA) and guided by tactician Gavin Brady (NZL), were among the early favorites but had not raced in an ORC Worlds since 2018 when they won Class A in that year’s Worlds. The 9th place earned in the non-discardable Offshore race was due to a filling breeze that favored the slower boats in the class, but the remainder of their scorecard was impressive with 3-1-1-1-1-2 in the inshore races. This pushed them out on top of the standings where they stayed – in fact, they had the title already decided before they even sailed the final race.

“We really liked racing here,” said Brady, “the Mediterranean flavor to this event was superb, Porto Cervo is fantastic. We also like racing in the northern European venues as well and we hope to go to next year’s Worlds regatta in Kiel. The flavor of sailing is different there, with cooler heavier wind, and it’s just a different style, but we like both.”

Besides Brady and Read, the BEAU GESTE team included Tom Cheney, David Brooke, Cameron Ward, Carrington Brady, Nathan Ellis, Simon Daubney, Ryan Houston, Edward Davison, David Sweet, Chris Cowan, Sam Bell, and Matt Kelway.

The Silver medal in Class A got awarded to Fernando Chain (ARG) and his team on his Swan 45 FROM NOW ON, and the Bronze medal will go to Andrea Pietrolucci’s (ITA) and his team racing the Mylius 14E55 MILU’ III.

The top three Corinthian teams in Class A were, respectively, MILU’ III, Claudio Terrieri’s (ITA) Swan 45 BLUE SKY, and Alberto Magnani’s (ITA) Swan 45 TENGHER.

In Class C there was a similar dominance by one team, who were also past ORC World Champions. Ott Kikkas’s (EST) Italia 11.98 SUGAR 3 won the 2019 Worlds in Sibenik, Croatia with this boat and were runner’s up in last year’s Worlds in Tallinn, so they too were favorites coming into the event. A second place finish among six well-sailed sisterships was not a bad start, but after that having all first on the scorecard was impressive indeed.

“This was not as easy as it looked, the competition was very tough,” said Kikkas. “We were good, but also lucky.” Sorry Ott, but we don’t believe you: six bullets earned in a competitive class in a World Championship and a consistency of excellence in performance in ORC racing is more than luck!

In addition to Ott, the Sugar 3 team winning Class A Gold medals are Sandro Montefusco, Simone Ferrarese, Maurizio Loberto, Matteo Polli, Paolo Bucciarelli, Marjaliisa Umb, Siim Ots and Karl-Robert Trink.

The top three Corinthian teams in Class C were, respectively, Corrado Annis’s (ITA) Italia 9.98 LADY DAY 998, finishing in 9th place, followed by D’Andrea Massimo Licata’s (ITA) First 35 SOUTH KENSINGTON – MODES, and Frederico Stoppani’s (ITA) J-112 IL PINGONE DI MARE IIII.

Class B was arguably the most competitive class in the fleet, with close points margins and the podium positions not certain until the conclusion of the seventh and final race in the series. Watching the standings alone would be deceiving: even though Catalin Trandafir’s (ROU) Grand Soleil 44P ESSENTIA44 started strong with a second place earned in the long Offshore, followed by a 4th and 1st on the first day of inshore racing, the team’s rivals were not far away and could wrest that lead away should there be a mistake or slip in performance. After all, most were well-seasoned teams on the Swan 42 circuit who knew their teams and their boats very well.

Trandafir said himself before the series started “These Swan 42’s are going to be tough. They are faster than us and could be really hard to beat.” Another past ORC champion loomed as a threat too: Mati Sepp’s (EST) X-41 TECHNONICOL, until they were DSQ’d in the non-discardable long Offshore race, effectively taking them out of the competition.

Yet beating every class member them in every race was not necessary: just like all strong class racing, maintaining top-five finishes and staying out of trouble is often the pathway to success. This is precisely what the ESSENTIA44 team did today: sailed their discard 6th in the day’s first race but kept their cool to finish 5th in the next race, good enough to earn the ORC Worlds Class B crown for the second consecutive year.

Trandafir’s international team from 4 countries included Afonso Domingos, Jolbert Van Dijk, Hugo Rocha, Piotr Przybylski, Joan Navaro Guiu, Eduard Guta, Andrei Teodorescu, Jochem Antoine-Schoorl and Lars Zeger Koridon.Earning Silver medals were the team members on Andrea Rossi’s (ITA) Swan 42 MELA and Bronze medals for the crew of Aivar Tuulberg’s (EST) Swan 42 KATARIINA II.

The top three Corinthian teams were Pier Vettor Grimani’s (ITA) X-41 SIDERACORDIS in 10th place, followed by Valentin Oeru’s (ROU) Swan 42 SET SAIL and Giacomo Dell’Aria’s (ITA) IMX-45 SD TETTA.

At the prizegiving, ORC Chairman Bruno Finzi said “We want to thank you all for competing in what was a very tough championship. You prepared your boats very well and we had no measurement issues. We think our VPP is doing a good job now, since the racing was very close, but we are also always looking for feedback to improve. We hope we see you at the next edition of our World Championship next year in August in Kiel.”