It took Oliver Schmidt-Rybandt and Felix Hauss 3 days, 5 hours, 49 minutes and 51 seconds to bring their Dehler 30 od "Powerplay" across the Baltic Sea course from Strande around Anholt and back, which was littered with doldrums. This made the Dehler dominator and his team-mate one of the outstanding crews at the first small anniversary of the double-handed Baltic Sea regatta. The Speedsailing team from Rostock completed the course of the fifth Baltic 500 edition, which was shortened to a good 400 nautical miles, with determination and focus.
Never has a Line Honours winner been as small as we are" (Oliver Schmidt-Rybandt)
The 45-year-old skipper and his 40-year-old team-mate were able to manage their strength well in the nerve-wracking low-wind race. In the end, with the wind freshening up over the last few nautical miles, they made a brilliant dash to the finish, which even the strongest pursuers were unable to follow at the same pace. It was certainly enough to win the Dehler 30-od class classification. What the performance will be worth in the overall ORC classification remains to be seen.
"The fastest crew in a Baltic 500 has never been as slow as us. And never has a Line Honours winner been as small as us," joked Oli Schmidt-Rybandt shortly after crossing the finish line in Strande harbour. Friends and work colleagues had already sailed towards the "Powerplay" on the water and greeted the team enthusiastically. The "First ship home" had not only left behind a number of JPKs, which were unable to reach their full potential in the light winds, but also larger boats with light wind strengths.
Making the right decisions with good sleep management
"In the meantime, there were a few people within shooting distance who are actually faster than us in all conditions," said Schmidt-Rybandt. When asked about the aces up his sleeve, the "Powerplay" skipper said: "You had to take a close look and compare the weather models a bit, because they sometimes contradicted each other. And there was also a lot of luck involved." There was also good sleep management on board the Dehler: "I slept quite a lot, although never for long at a time. It was my third Baltic 500 and the one with the most sleep. That was good for my concentration and helped me make the right decisions."
The "Powerplay" made a powerful leap forward at Langeland. "You could see lighter and darker areas in the remaining light. We were relatively far out at the northern tip of Langeland. The others had to go through the small bridge, we went through the big one," reported Schmidt-Rybandt.
New start at Helsingør and strong Poles
Shortly before the Fehmarnbelt, the "Powerplay" caught a fast passage for this edition with a speed of 13, 14 knots. On the last evening before crossing the finish line on Sunday, things were also brisk again. Very fast, as Oliver Schmidt-Rybandt reports: "There was suddenly 20 knots of wind. We first had two shots at the sun. We had to recover the spinnaker and take our foot off the gas. After that, we sailed slowly around Møn to have another rest."
Between these short, fast passages in the first and second half of the race, however, was the "restart" at Helsingør. The "Powerplay" crew also had to anchor there. "That's where it got exciting, because we were quite far on the Swedish side, while the others, especially the Polish 'Pneuma', came rushing up on the Danish side."
Luck and bad luck in the Sund poker game
Andrzej Rozycki and Tomasz Zukowski on the JPK 10.30 earned the utmost respect from line honours winner Schmidt-Rybandt: "They are the big winners. They did it exactly right, went into the sound on the Danish side and out again on the Swedish side. They drove forwards like crazy." Others had it exactly the other way round in the Sund Poker. The "tutto bene" crew with Hajo Hensel and Martin Buck only had to anchor a little longer than the "Powerplay" team, but slipped back more than a dozen places from third place as a result.
When asked whether he liked last year's assault race or this year's slow-motion edition better, Oliver Schmidt-Rybandt said: "I wouldn't be able to say. The race was great. I know that I did a few things wrong last year and also when I took part for the first time. But this time we didn't make any mistakes. It was a clean race. I wouldn't have thought that was possible beforehand. It was also not fun out there in between ..."
Oh, there's a breeze, let's take it with us" (Oliver Schmidt-Rybandt)
Schmidt-Rybandt cited the smaller boat and the smaller sail areas as another advantage of his crew's more flexible decision-making ability: "I realised, for example, that we could peel back and forth more quickly between the code and the spinnaker, meaning we quickly had the right arrows in our quiver at the ready. According to the motto: 'Oh, there's a breeze line, let's go there and take it with us'." The team also managed to do this very effectively at night.
The majority of the Baltic 500 fleet was still sailing on Sunday evening.
Around three hours after the "Powerplay", first the "Hinden" and then the "Pneuma" sailed towards the finish line on Sunday evening. However, "Hinden" title defenders Jonas Hallberg and Patrick Schmidt sailed past the line because they already knew that they had made an annoying mistake: they had skipped the Stollergrund Süd buoy and abandoned the race. The "Pneuma" then crossed the line after 3 days, 8 hours, 56 minutes and 57 seconds. The observers were certain that Andrzej Rozycki and Tomasz Zukowski would win the overall ORC classification of the race.
It was not yet clear on Sunday evening which place the "Powerplayers" would finish in the final ranking. The majority of the fleet was still sailing. However, the ORC podium place was within reach for "Powerplay" in terms of the fleet.
