Teams from around the world head to the Åland Islands for 2024 ORC European Championship

Teams are gathering now at Mariehamn, the Åland island venue near Finland that is hosting the 2024 ORC European Championship. Organizers for this event held over August 9-17 include the Finnish Offshore Racing Association and Åländska Segelsällskapet (ÅSS) under the authority of the Finnish Sailing Federation under the overall authority of the Offshore Racing Congress (ORC).

Soon at this bucolic setting in the Baltic Sea there will be 57 teams hailing from 9 nations in Europe and one team from Hong Kong to compete for podium positions in three ORC classes: Class A, Class B and Class C.

After Registration and Inspections held over Friday - Sunday August 9-11, racing will start with a non-discardable 24-36 hour Long Offshore Race held over Monday-Tuesday August 12-13, followed by two days of Inshore windward-leeward Races held on Wednesday-Thursday August 14-15, a 10-12 hour Short Offshore Race held on Friday August 16 and a final day of Inshore racing followed by Awards on Saturday August 17.

Prizes for the event include ORC European Championship medals for the top three teams in each class. Recognition is also given to the top all-amateur Corinthian team and the top all-female crew in each class as well.

Class A will consist of 8 entries ranging from the fastest-rated - Karl Kwok’s TP 52 BEAU GESTE (HKG) - to Johannes Wackerhagen’s Judel/Vrolijk 49 DESNA (GER). As the only TP 52 and the reigning ORC Class A World and European champion, skipper Gavin Brady says they will be out ahead of the others and sailing their own races, but are still keen to push hard to keep their team tuned up.

"ORC events are well run in our experience, and we're confident the rating system and scoring will produce fair results."

Besides BEAU GESTE, another recent ORC European champion is Jens Kuphal, who won his class in Hanko, Norway in 2022 on his Landmark 43 INTERMEZZO (GER).

“We had a good start to our season this year at the Maior regatta in Kiel,” said Kuphal, “followed by an overwhelming Gotland Runt where we are happy with the result given we are optimized more for inshore than offshore racing. The new CDL grouping [this year] now puts us into a new competitive surrounding, and we have to see how this will work.”

While ORC ratings and scoring equalizes the performance potential among a wide variety of boat types, 15 of the 23 entries in Class B are of three design types: X-41’s (8), Italia 11.98’s (4) and J112E’s (3). All have shown the potential to win with the right team, including Harles Liiv with this J112E SHADOW (EST), who won 3 races in last year’s highly-competitive ORC Worlds in Kiel and finished as the runner-up in this year’s popular Moonsund Regatta in Estonia. He too is adapting to the new CDL class splits.

“This will be a completely new experience for us,” Liiv said, “transitioning from being the fastest boat in Class C to the smallest and slowest in Class B. This shift necessitates entirely different tactics and race strategies, particularly for the inshore races. Positioning on the starting line will be crucial, as the larger boats will quickly begin to overshadow us. It would be ideal if the group of X-41s could stay level to provide mutual cover rather than exposing us.

“In the longer offshore races, we will have a better opportunity to sail to our boat's rating. We have had some great races this year at the Baltic Offshore Week and the Moonsund Regatta, but we still lack experience with a larger fleet of big boats.”

As is usual in European ORC championship events, Class C is the largest group in the event, with 26 teams entered consisting of mostly old and new production cruiser/racer designs. Favorites in this class include Estonian pro-am past European and World champion teams, such as Aivar Tuulberg’s Arcona 340 KATARIINA II and Ott Kikkas’s Italia 9.98 SUGAR, along with Patrik Forsgren’s all-amateur Swedish team on his modified First 36.7 TEAM PRO4U.

“We have had great success in the past several years, but have a new team this season,” explained Forsgren. “Except for myself, the rest of the crew is between 25 and 30 years old, and most have participated in an offshore clinic at the Royal Swedish Yacht Club. I’m so happy and proud of the all-around competence and racing spirit, that this clinic seems to give our young sailors!

“Our team has been training together since last fall, both in manoeuvres and in speed, as well as some longer offshore races this past month. Now we will focus on getting to know our new racing sails. We look forward to an exciting and challenging event with a lot of tight racing in a big fleet!”

KATARIINA II skipper Tuulberg has a different experience, with little or no training time available with his team prior to the season’s start of racing. However, this is a deep and highly-experienced team that competes on both this boat and his Swan 42 in the Med, and he says his team knows this boat well.

“Our competitors are very strong,” Tuulberg says. “This includes SUGAR, PRO4U and also [Estonian Margus Zaravljov’s First 36.7] AMSERV TOYOTA ST, who won the Moonsund regatta ahead of us. Surely somebody else will surprise us. As for expectations, life has taught us that we don't think, predict or calculate before and during races. We have to race our race as well as we can, and we’ll see the results afterwards.”

“With a few hours to go to the European Championship, the organization, the city of Mariehamn, and our event partners are excited to welcome sailors to ASS and Mariehamn,” said the regatta's Head of Organization and CEO of the Finnish Offshore Racing Association Noora Westerlund. “We have been building an international organization that supports the best race organizers from mainland Finland and invites local ocean lovers to participate in the arrangements. We are proud to have secured the historic ship Pommern as the venue for the opening ceremony and building a beautiful venue for the docks of ÅSS and the event center in the Badhus Pavilion by the seaside.”

"We're very pleased to see a great turnout and diversity of teams at this ORC European Championship in Åland," said Bruno Finzi, Chairman of ORC. "This will be a good test of our new class formats, and we wish the organizers, the sponsors and all teams to have a great regatta."