8th RORC Transatlantic Race: Imoca baptism of fire passed: Berlin sailors at the Transat finish

It wasn't enough for a top place, but it was "a lot of fun, pushing the limits and a very intense experience": Berlin-based Frank Sturm reached the finish line of the 8th RORC Transatlantic Race at the weekend with "Rosalba" skipper Richard Tolkien and Neal Brewer. The trio finished the leap across the pond on the aged, two-decade-old Imoca in 17th place in the not-yet-final classification. This was initially worth 19th place in the IRC classification based on calculated time. The experience and the arrival were much more important to the British-German crew than the ranking. The latter also turned out to be highly exciting in the final sprint in a narrowly lost duel with the Volvo 60 "Challenge Ocean". The "Rosalba" crew celebrated their happy arrival in the harbour of Grenada in the Camper and Nicholsons Port Luis Marina.

It was the eighth transatlantic crossing for skipper Richard Tolkien and the fourth for co-sailor Neal Brewer, whose mother is from Hamburg. Frank Sturm, the third man in the group of friends and 59 years old since 10 January and the birthday party at sea, experienced his transatlantic premiere. "I would do it again in a heartbeat," said Sturm after 13 days, 21 hours, 5 minutes and 37 seconds of racing. The Berlin-based sailor originally comes from Kornwestheim near Stuttgart, but has lived in East Berlin since 1993. He discovered his love of sailing late in life and has been living it out intensively for several years, sailing several thousand nautical miles a year. His name accompanies him as a good omen. "Naturally, I'm not afraid of storms, but I do have respect," says Frank Sturm with a wink.

"We had a really nice tour"

The fact that his team "sailed relatively low" over long stretches of the course did not exactly strengthen the performance of the Imoca "Rosalba", which skipper Tolkien had given an extensive refit. Sturm explains: "The wind angle was usually 145 TWA true. But the carrot only runs really well at 120. If you have 17 knots of wind, you can get the boat up to 15, 16 knots. Without the right angle, you can easily lose 50 or 60 nautical miles a day." The crew also lost their old A3 sail early on in the race, which cost them further performance. "It's an 'Artemis' sail that's about 15 years old. You can't complain about it delaminating. Our position was ultimately not the deciding factor. We are not a professional team. We had a really nice tour," summarises Sturm after his unusual transatlantic baptism of fire.

The "Rosalba" reached its destination harbour in "generally very good condition". As a hobby chef, Frank Sturm regularly catered for the physical well-being of his British crew mates. He was even able to converse with Neal Brewer in German, as the Brit's mother is from Hamburg. "I'm technically quite well organised. If a word was missing, Neal was able to translate. That was very helpful," reports Frank Sturm. The trio had to repair the jib top twice - which was a challenge with a 25 metre long cloth on a boat just over 18 metres long. However, the "Rosalba" itself held up "very well" even in the stormy conditions at the start. Tolkien has the boat, which has had a chequered history since its construction in 2001 as "Hexagon", "Pindar", "Cheminées Poujoulat", "Pinder Alphagraphics", "Artemis Pindar" and "Artemis", technically and sailing-wise well under control. And the next race is already in sight for Tolkien and Sturm and other fellow sailors with the RORC Caribbean 600 from Antigua at the end of February. They want to continue training for this in advance.

While the line honours for the fastest multihulls and monohulls in the 8th RORC Transatlantic Race have long since been awarded, the battle for the top places continues. The small JPK 10.10 still had almost 90 nautical miles to go to the finish on Monday morning. At this point, her double-handed crew was in sixth place according to the calculated IRC time. Click here for the tracker and the intermediate results in all divisions (please click!).