104 boats at the ORC World Championship in Tallinn! German crews open ORC World Championship strong

The first three winners of the 2021 Alexela ORC World Championship in the Estonian waters off Tallinn have already been announced: Michael Berghorn's Mills 45 Custom "Semi-dry 4.5", Catalin Trandafir's Grand Soleil 44 P "Essentia44" and Eero Pank's Salona 38 IBC "Credit 24 Sailing" have won the opening long-distance race in their respective A, B and C classes. The 200 nautical mile opening race for the largest boats is simply scored, but cannot be cancelled. It challenged the 104 crews in the largest regatta week ever held in Tallinn, with plenty of wind up to more than 20 knots, but also flat fields at the beginning, which slowed down some of the favoured teams at times. There were also periods of rain and thunderstorms.

The offshore race began on Monday for the eight boats in category A, 33 in class B and an incredible 63 in the smallest group C and ended on Tuesday. The best German boats made it straight into the top three in Class A, which had a small but exciting field. In Class B, the teams on "Intermezzo" and "Sportsfreund", who were among the favourites, had to lose a few feathers in the doldrums, but were able to make up ground again.

"The race was fun," said "Outsider" skipper Bo Teichmann in the evening in Tallinn, "we experienced an average wind of around 15 knots, and sometimes 20 to 24 knots in squalls." After 23 hours and 43 minutes at sea, Tilmar Hansen's fast TP 52 took the line honours in the long distance, but Michael Berghorn's crew on the "Halbtrocken 4.5" won the race by calculated time and took the lead after the first two days of the World Championship. Holger Streckenbach's crew on the TP 52 "Imagine" sailed to third place, 27 minutes behind the leaders after the first test of strength.

The two best German racing yachts in Class B struggled on their 170 nautical mile long-distance race, but were able to make up ground after the doldrums. The "Sportsfreund" crew in particular had to let almost the entire field pass them on the first day, apart from a handful of boats, but then made a fine comeback and a conciliatory tenth place in the intermediate classification. "We really worked hard for it and are therefore reasonably satisfied with the result. It was a real race to catch up and a very, very intense race overall. The rain reminded us of the European Championships in Gdansk," said mainsail trimmer Bertil Balser. "Now we're looking forward to the races in the coming days. The boat is fast, the crew is good and we just want to have a good week of racing."

Jens Kuphal's "Intermezzo" found itself in ninth place after this opening race, just ahead of its sporting friends. The two leading Grand Soleils after the long distance in particular surprised not only the German sailors with their performance. Catalin Trandafir's Grand Soleil 44 P "Essentia44", which starts under a Romanian sail number but is essentially sailed by Spaniards such as top tactician Nacho Postigo, took the lead just ahead of Seppo Sjöroo's Grand Soleil 45 "Seanna" from Finland. "ORC pope" Matteo Polli has once again put his successful signature as a designer to work for her. "The Grand Soleils opened the World Championship much stronger than expected," said "Intermezzo" mainsail trimmer Max Gurgel. In their own team, the Ocean Race-experienced Brit Anny Lush in particular provided calm and an overview of the course and the well-coordinated Ocean Race Europe winning team with Robert Stanjek and Phillip Kasüske played out their experience. "We had ups and downs and also a lot of fun," says Gurgel, "we want to be among the front runners."

There are no German starters in World Championship Class C. The World Championship will possibly continue on Wednesday with only a short programme, if it can be sailed, in what is expected to be very light winds.

Click here for the results (please click!).