It was worth waiting until the last boats crossed the finish line to celebrate the winners: although the large VO 60 "SEB" crossed the finish line first on Thursday as expected, Jens Kohlfahl's small Nicholson 31 "Tramontane" turned the tide on Friday afternoon. The yacht, which is just under ten metres long, crossed the finish line off Kiel as the last of a total of 46 boats. Nevertheless, the team won the ORC Club 3/4 classification as well as the overall ORC Club classification and even the mixed classification including those ORCi yachts with an ORC Club measurement certificate on the long-distance Pantaenius Rund Skagen. A strong performance, especially in view of the first stormy night of this edition of the demanding German offshore classic, in which winds of 30 to 35 knots and a rough and irregular wave up to five metres high decimated the field by a total of 15 yachts.
Some had not even set sail for safety reasons in view of the storm warning, others were struggling with seasickness and exhaustion, others again with material problems, which even forced Jan-Gerd Kröger's "Elch" from Bremen to make an emergency call due to a crack in the floor assembly. The "Peter von Seestermühle" was the first to arrive, followed by the customs cruiser "Borkum" and the rescue cruiser "Minden" from List, which accompanied the yacht, which was still manoeuvrable despite taking on water, to the port of Rømø. A total of a quarter of the fleet of 61 yachts on the results list did not reach the finish line.
The predicted storm at the start was followed by calm conditions: In partly flat conditions, the teams battled their way through the North Sea and Baltic Sea around Skagen, heading for Kiel. In ORCi 1, Sven Wackerhagen's Knierim 49 "Desna" won ahead of Christoph Avenarius Roger's 46 "Shakti" and the "Haspa Hamburg" with helmsman Christian Woge. In the meantime, the "Desna" had caused a lot of excitement ashore because its epirb buoy had gone overboard unnoticed. Initial rescue measures were initiated accordingly and helicopters even took to the air until the all-clear was given. A Danish helicopter later picked up the buoy.
In ORCi 2, Bernhard Ihnken's Dehler 35 "Ree" came out on top ahead of Klaus Meier's Comfortina 42 "Aloha Mare" and Hans Christian Wulff's Centurion 40 S "Sparta III". The X-332 "Dogmatix" won the ORCi 3/4 classification and also the overall ORCi classification.
The results lists for yachts that started according to ORC Club were noticeably longer - the trend is clearly moving towards this measurement, which was originally developed primarily for fully equipped cruisers, but is now attracting more and more racing yachts. Such as the J/V45 daysailer "Leu" with helmsman Albert Schweizer, which won ORC Club 1, or the runner-up Class 40 "Red" of Mathias Müller von Blumencron. In ORC Club 2, Jochen Denkena's small Sun Fast 3200 "Arrabiata" won ahead of Thomas Reinecke's First 36.7 "Easy" and Harald Baum's Swan 48 "Elan".
The winner in ORC Club 3/4 was ultimately the one to return home with the most pots: "Tramontane" completed the 510 nautical mile classic in three days, 21 hours, 44 minutes and 22 seconds at the slowest pace and was still the best in the end! Owner Kohfahl said: "The first night wasn't so dramatic for us, as we have a sea-going ship and had to bite our way through it. The next day we experienced really fast sailing under spinnaker. The fact that the weather conditions turned out in our favour in the end really took us by surprise."
Tatjana Pokorny
Sports reporter
