ORC Doublehanded World Championship: German double success in Gotland Runt: World Champion! "Hinden" takes the title ahead of "Lightworks"

The German double-handed sailors have struck gold at the World Championship in Sweden. The ORC world title series for double-handed teams was held in three categories (A, B, C) as part of the classic Gotland Runt. The middle division was dominated by the two JPK 10.30 projectiles "Hinden" and "Lightworks". The "Hinden" took the world title, even though it finished after the "Lightworks". The new world champions Jonas Hallberg and Till Barth were travelling without water ballast and used the cleverly calculated advantage of the larger handicap to win. With lighter winds on average, the removal of the water ballast from the measurement letter at the World Championships was the ace up the sleeve of the experienced JPK champion sailors. The fact that the World Championship successes could only be officially confirmed after a delay on Tuesday evening was due to a not unusual but time-consuming re-measurement of the winning boat and the correspondingly long wait for the green light from the ORC.

The demand for a re-measurement caught the new two-handed world champions in category B shortly after their arrival. "You arrive and have to empty your boat down to the last crumb. It's a tough job," said Jonas Hallberg, who, like all of the participants, was still feeling the effects of the long distance: "We actually just wanted to sit down comfortably and let everything sink in. We had only made one quick phone call to our families when the surveyor arrived. Yes, of course, I can't imagine anything better right now ..." Re-measurements are as much a part of top ORC big boat racing as doping tests in competitive sport. Jonas Hallberg, Till Barth and their "Hinden" passed them with flying colours. Afterwards, they were able to relax and celebrate their success. Hallberg was still reflecting on the start without water ballast after the decision: "It's very cool that we were able to decide the battle for the title with Michi Höfgen and Max Gurgel between us. In the end, I'm almost a little sorry that we took the water ballast out of the measurement letter. Perhaps it would have been even better with the same weapons. But we knew that statistically the wind is at its lightest in the area this month. And we hadn't used water ballast in the round Skagen with a small crew when the wind was stronger ..."

"A huge feeling of happiness that you can hardly describe"

Jonas Hallberg also reviewed how the title success came about: "I'm speechless. It's really, really cool and we're super proud. We were a bit slow at the start. We regretted that a little because we were always sailing in the wake of the other boats at first, while Michi and Max (editor's note: this refers to the "Lightworks" crew with Michael Höfgen and Max Gurgel) had a bit more wind at the front with the other JPKs and were able to sail away. It was then quite hard to catch up again on the first night on the cross with very little wind. Luckily we stuck with it, stayed on the ball, fought hard and waited for our chance this morning when the wind finally came. That's when we really put the pedal to the metal." Hallberg's team-mate Till Barth was equally delighted: "It's overwhelming and very surprising. It's a huge feeling of happiness that you can hardly describe. The archipelago was exhausting for us. We didn't really make any mistakes. Then we went out on the open sea. The wind was still a bit mild then. But the more the wind picked up, the more pleasant it became. Today was a magical day in terms of sailing. It worked like a charm. We sailed, or rather flew, through a corridor of large yachts. It was fantastic! We'll probably have a beer or two ..."

Vice world champion Max Gurgel said in the beautiful finish harbour of Sandhamn, while the DJ music in the harbour was already creating a great atmosphere: "As soon as I calculated the first few routings, it was clear that the boats that were going to sail well were the ones that were going to glide properly. The conditions on the short course were so good that normal displacers had no chance on the last long section." For Gurgel and Höfgen, the World Championship was a sailing pleasure. Gurgel says: "We were travelling at top speeds without end. The planing was a lot of fun. At some point, we stopped counting the number of 18-knot marks we had passed. We exceeded 20 knots at least three times. Our top speed was 21.4 knots!" On the difference between the JPK 10.30 "Lighworks" and her sister "Hinden", Gurgel said: "The fact that they sailed without water ballast made up eight seconds per mile. We didn't even think about it ourselves beforehand. For me, water ballast is part of a JPK. But Jonas is simply much more experienced and sails his boat several times a week after work. Micha and I had only had a few hours on the water together before. We congratulate the "Hinden" crew and are also very happy about second place." Third place went to the Finnish JPK 10.30 team with Jens Krogell and Ville-Veikko Miskanen on "AlmaVida". Rasmus Töpsch and Bertil Balser sailed to ninth place with the JPK 10.10 "Sharifa".

From Strande near Kiel, Baltic 500 founder Cord Hall followed the irresistible run of the two JPKs and was delighted: "That's a bit of a sign that the activities we've started here in recent years are also bearing fruit internationally. I'm guessing the boys are celebrating hard tonight and have already emptied their first beers together!" Nordseewoche Sports Director Albert Schweizer was also delighted for the successful German teams and said: "Congratulations to both crews! When you have a playground like the Baltic 500 and other races like the Skagen Round as part of the North Sea Week at home, it certainly helps." Further confirmed final World Championship results were not yet officially available late on Tuesday evening. In the classic Gotland Runt held at the same time, Tilmar Hansen's crew on the "Outsider" from the Kieler Yacht-Club narrowly lost the battle for the line honours against the VO70 "Hypr" after a very spirited race and taking the lead several times in the final sprint. Further news and results are published by the organisers here (please click!).