Winners declared in Long Offshore Race at the 2024 ORC European Championship

The fleet of 56 entries in the 2024 ORC European Championship has just completed their first and arguably most important race of the event: the Long Offshore Race, which is non-discardable in the final scores. This race was an appropriate test of offshore sailing skill, with conditions that varied widely from 25 knots and big seas in the first long upwind leg to gradually taper down to being more moderate last night and even quite light for some areas of the course this morning.

According to PRO Eckart Reinke, devising the course compositions for each class in this race was not straightforward and very much relied on his team of Åland-based locals who know the area well.

“After looking at routing solutions based on the weather forecast and the fastest and slowest boats in each class, one of the first proposed courses looked good to me until I was told about some uncharted rocks that could be a problem. So their input was really important,” he said.

“The other balance we needed was based on the weather: there were strong winds and big seas forecasted for the start, so we postponed 2 hours to help reduce the time the fleet was to face this. Yet we could not delay longer or have the race take too long because the forecast suggested a drop in wind to very light conditions by the middle of today and we might have been in danger of having boats stranded in no wind. We did consider shortening the course due to this prediction, but I think in the end we found the right balance.”

First boat to finish around the 186-mile Class A course was Karl Kwok’s TP 52 BEAU GESTE (HKG) with an elapsed time of 19.25 hours. Helmsman Gavin Brady explained that even though they had no direct rivals with their size and speed, the race was still a significant challenge for the team.

“This was a pretty tricky race because we had to go upwind for 6-7 hours in pretty windy conditions and quite steep waves. This was a bit of asset management because we needed to [be conservative] to get the boat around the top mark in one piece. After this and with the conditions moderating we got into a more pure race mode to sail the boat hard.”

These initial tough conditions took their toll on a Class A rival: Jani Lehti’s GP 42 MERCEDES BENZ (FIN) broke their rudder and was forced to withdraw about 1 hour into the race. Lehti’s team said this was a new rudder that cracked and they are now exploring the option to re-install their previous rudder in order to complete the series.

This race demonstrated the power of Weather Routing Scoring (WRS) to acknowledge the rated speed differences due to changing conditions during the race. For example, the winning and runner-up teams in Class A were the slowest-rated boats in the class, even with them spending time in a light air patch at the south end of the course late in the race. Ola Sandell’s Swedish team on his MAT 1220 KARUKERA emerged victorious, but only 49 seconds in corrected time ahead of the runner-up team from Finland, Sampsa Vehkamaki’s Landmark 43 MADAME GRAY.

Class B was also affected by this light air patch just before the final leg to the finish in their 164-mile race. Harles Liiv’s Estonian team on his J-112E SHADOW managed to play the course perfectly, winning over fellow Estonian Tiit Vihul’s modified X-41 OLYMPIC by a corrected time margin of 1 hour 3.5 minutes.

This outstanding result for SHADOW is even more remarkable given their misfortunate before the start of the event: on the delivery to the venue SHADOW struck an uncharted submerged rock 2m below the surface, imparting serious damage to the keel bulb. Liiv explained that were it not for expert local-based help to affect a repair in only 2 days the team were prepared to have to withdraw from the event.

Based on the results in Class C the close level of competition among the multiple past champions in this class is a presage of what is to come in the next few days. After 21 hours of racing on a 135-mile course the reigning ORC Class C World Champion team on Ott Kikkas’s Italia 9.98 SUGAR (EST) managed to win by a margin of 11.5 minutes over runner-up Per Ovren’s sistership MADONNA (SWE), but the next 2 places in the standings were separated by less than 2 minutes in corrected time.

“It was the best offshore race course I have been sailing at the ORC title events,” said Margus Zuravljov on his modified First 36.7 AMSERV TOYOTA ST (EST) who finished third in this race. “It was very well considered for each class. The first leg was upwind, which means safe sailing for the boats compared to downwind sailing in high seas and strong winds. After rounding and sailing back, the conditions got milder and downwind during the night, which was pleasant to sail. And it was really nice to sail back to the harbor downwind and under blue skies and sunshine.”

After a well-deserved rest tonight the teams will re-assemble tomorrow for a Skippers Briefing at 1100 local time, followed by the planned 1400 start of two inshore Windward-Leeward races.

The 2024 ORC European Championship hosted by ÅSS Marina is a combination of offshore and inshore racing held daily until 17 August and is organized by 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).