ORC World Championship wraps up successfully in Porto Cervo

The ORC Offshore Sailing World Championship, organised by the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda in collaboration with the Offshore Racing Congress drew to a close today, with a further two windward-leeward competitions bringing the total number of races held to seven.

A light wind from the east, which increased from an initial 6 knots to 10, allowed the Race Committees on both courses to successfully complete an ORC World Championship that had offered competitors every possible type of wind condition.

With a first and second place today, the TP52 Beau Geste from Hong Kong, owned by Karl Kwok, claimed the title in Class A, replicating their success in 2018. Silver went to From Now On, the Swan 45 owned by Argentinian Fernando Chain (with a 2-3 scoreline today), who after winning the opening offshore race, defended himself well against Beau Geste's comeback well, achieving consistent results in the windward-leeward races. The third step on the podium and Corinthian victory in Class A went to Milù III, a Mylius 14e55 owned by Andrea Pietrolucci.

In Class B victory went to the reigning World Champion, the Grand Soleil 44 Essentia, owned by Romanian Catalin Trandafir (5-6, with the final result discarded). In second place, three points behind, was the ClubSwan 42 Mela, owned by Andrea Rossi (4-3 today), with another CS42, Estonia's Katariina II relegated to third place. The Corinthian victory in this class went to Sideracordis, owned by the President of the Compagnia della Vela di Venezia, Pier Vettor Grimani, who sailed right around the Italian peninsula to participate in the World Championship with an amateur crew of friends and club members.

The Estonian Italia Yachts 11.98 Sugar 3, owned by Ott Kikkas, was assured the win in Class C with a race in hand, thanks to a series of five first-place finishes and a second in the long offshore race. Sugar 3 did not take part in the final race, discarding that score since they had already clinched the World Champion title. The podium was completed by two more IY 11.98 boats: Scugnizza, owned by Vincenzo De Blasio and To Be, owned by Stefano Rusconi. Victory among the Corinthians in Class C went to Lady Day 998, owned by Corrado Annis, Vice President of the Yacht Club Adriaco in Trieste.

Michael Illbruck, YCCS Commodore: "It has been a truly intense week, the weather brought us a wide range of conditions which kept the Race Committee busy and put the skills of all the crew on the 69 participating boats to the test. On behalf of the YCCS I would like to congratulate each of the ORC World Champions in their respective divisions and all the sailors who took part in this high-level international competition, making it a special event. My thanks go to the ORC, the Race Committee, the International Jury and the entire staff of the YCCS for their great professionalism. The month of June couldn't have concluded in any better way, now we'll start preparing for our traditional September regattas."

During the prize giving ceremony, the Italian Sailing Federation's Offshore Representative, Donatello Mellina, presented awards to the three Corinthian winners in their respective classes and thanked all the competitors on behalf of the Federation's President, Francesco Ettorre.

ORC President Bruno Finzi: "It's been a very challenging World Championship, both for competitors and the Race Committees and the Jury, encountering winds of 0 to 30 knots in six fantastic inshore races, plus an offshore race that all boats finished within the time limit. The calculation of the handicaps and the distances between the boats once again demonstrated the validity of the ORC system which was able, in such varied conditions, to accurately identify and predict the performance of the boats at various points of sail, even producing tied results after more than an hour of racing. I want to thank all the competitors for their tenacity in facing such a difficult championship and the professionalism of the YCCS in running this event. See you all in Kiel next August for the next edition of the ORC World Championship 2023."

Gavin Brady, tactician on Beau Geste: "We had a challenging championship, with the most diverse conditions, worthy of a real world championship. That's also why Porto Cervo is one of the best places to race and we are delighted to have won here in the Mediterranean after the success in the Netherlands in 2018. Unfortunately, on this occasion our owner Karl Kwok could not be on board, but he was following us on the tracker from Hong Kong and is very pleased with this victory. I'd like to thank him for the project and to congratulate the whole team for the excellent work, this was a special victory for me also because I won with my daughter Carrington as part of the crew, an extraordinary emotion."

Catalin Trandafir, owner-driver on Essentia 44: "We did it, we defended the title we won last year, it was a tough fight, I'm very pleased with the result and with the team. I'm happy to have shown that the Grand Soleil 44 is a great boat, well designed and with great performance, we ran our race looking to get away from the scrum with the CS42s – which are very fast - straight away, it's never easy to manage situations with a lot of traffic."

Simone Ferrarese, tactician on Sugar 3: "Our race results don't fully reflect the battle that went on at sea, it was not an easy victory despite having won with a race in hand. Congratulations to the other competitors and in particular to Scugnizza. For my part I want to thank the Estonian owner Ott Kikkas and the helmsman, Sandro Montefusco, a sailor with an Olympic past who is also my uncle."