358 boats launched in the 10th Silverrudder edition: The solo adventure for title hunters and dream catchers is underway

The tenth anniversary edition of the Silverrudders is underway. From 14 starters in the inaugural year 2021, there are now 359 boats sailing around Funen for titles and solo dreams. The first starting signal was given on Friday morning at 10 a.m. for the keelboats in the "Mini" division, in which Olympic 49erFX silver medallist Susann "Sanni" Beucke is also celebrating her first solo outing in the Silverrudder. With moderate winds and counter-current, the majority of participants crossed the start line with some conservative respect well after the starting shots. There were no major start dramas at first, although some skippers had to complain about slight groundings. Susann Beucke crossed the southern Danish coast on her small Seascape 18/Beneteau First 18 SE early on Friday afternoon in 37th place in the field of the smallest boats, heading for the Storebælt Bridge. Beucke knew before she started: "It will be a huge challenge, but I'm really looking forward to it." Four and a half hours after the start, two Melges 24 skippers led the field of mini keelboats: The Dane Jørgen Mohr Ernst and his "Bølge Baronessen" were just ahead of the co-favourite Anders Bastiansen with the "Bostik Bad Boys" in this initial phase. The German-Dane Bastiansen is on a special mission: he has already competed in the Silverrudder once in all divisions before the current edition. The only thing missing was the start in the mini keelboats. That is now underway.

The two top favourites immediately took the lead in the small keelboat field. Oliver Schmidt-Rybandt took the lead on his Dehler 30 OD directly ahead of his strongest challenger Max Gurgel with the "Play Harder" - also a Dehler 30 OD. In third place, Dirk Manno with his "100-MannOMann" also opened the race around Funen strongly after a remarkably good start. The favourites in the Medium keelboat class were also quickly in the lead. Jan B. Hansen's Beneteau Figaro 2 "The Beast", Tomasz Odzioba's "Black Caravela" and Jonas Halberg's "Hinden" initially formed the top trio. Behind Jonas Johansen's JPK 10.30 "Belauga", Rasmus Töpsch with the JPK 10.30 "Sharifa" and Michael Hoefgen with his JPK 10.30 "Lightworks" in fifth and sixth place have created a good starting position for the rest of the race. At the same time, Wolfram Heibeck with his well-known Open 40 "Black Maggy" lived up to his role as favourite in the Large keelboat division in the initial phase of the adventure around Funen, as did Jan Møller on his German-Frers 39 single "Dream on" in the XL keelboats. Jan Andersen's "Black Marlin" and Peter Lang's "Diam 24" took command of the multihulls in the Large and Small groups for the time being.

The race was over far too quickly for Tobias Eichenauer on the Sigma "Kwatscheule". The skipper lost his mast on Friday afternoon. Others, such as the Swede Per Svanberg, who was co-favourite in the Medium class, was unable to compete at all after an unfortunate and irreparable breakage on board his Fareast 31R GRP the day before the regatta. The fastest boats are expected back in the currently empty harbour of Svendborg on Saturday morning. Click here for the tracker with the intermediate results (please click!).