ORC World Championship off Sardinia: "Guardamago II" narrowly misses the podium: Michael Grau: "We were a very harmonious team"

Take a picture-book sailing area, 69 ORC teams, three classes and an internationally renowned host club - and the set-up for the 2022 ORC World Championship is complete. After an intensive week of racing, Michael Illbruck, Commodore of the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda (YCCS) and Volvo Ocean Race winner in 2001/2002, was able to draw a happy conclusion: "It was a really intense week, with the weather providing us with a wide range of conditions. They kept the race organisers on their toes and tested the skills of all the crews on the 69 participating boats. On behalf of the YCCS, I would like to congratulate all the ORC World Champions in their respective classes and all the sailors who took part in this high-calibre international competition and made it such a special event. My thanks go to the ORC, the Race Committee, the International Jury and the entire staff of the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda for their great professionalism. June could not have ended in a better way."

Five German boats took part in the world championship. The team led by Michael Grau from the Norddeutscher Regatta Verein, which entered the series on a chartered Italia 11.98 named "Guardamago II", performed outstandingly. Michael Grau, Florian Thoelen, David Chapman, Magnus Simon, Lorenzo de Felice, Florian Jakobtorweihen, Lennart Burke, Bouwe van der Weiden, Nicolaus Schmidt and Leonhard Harnisch, who stood in for Grau at the start, only needed a few days of preparation to get their boat ready for the battle with the optimised Class C competition. Unlike the class favourites, the charter yacht does not have a modified keel and had to make do without a carbon fibre mast, but with wheel steering instead of tiller steering. What the team achieved with fourth place in the world championship was a strong performance!

Lennart Burke: "A stark contrast to what I usually do"

Michael Grau said: "I'm satisfied. It couldn't have been better. The boats in front of us were pimped differently. We achieved a good result with a charter boat. What I'm most pleased about is that we were an incredibly harmonious team, even though some of us hardly knew each other." The crew included long-time Schümann protégé and Bundesliga maestro Magnus Simon as mainsail trimmer and sea sailor Lennart Burke, who was able to gain experience as navigator in a successful ORC team for the first time. Burke, for whom a new Class 40 is currently being built in France, said: "It was a stark contrast to what I normally do. I was able to bring a bit of experience from my previous Melges sailing. There were five of us then, now there were nine of us. It was special for me that I was able to sail with professionals like David Chapman or Lorenzo de Felice and then had the chance to be navigator. I was able to learn a lot." Only the three World Championship podium boats - the Italia 11.98 "Sugar 3" from Estonia as the new world champion and the Italian Italia 11.98 rockets "Scugnizza" and "To Be" - were unable to stop the Grau team. "The winners have been sailing together on the boat for about six years," said Lennart Burke. Twelfth place in the ORC division went to Gaby Pohlmann's J 99 DK "Meerblick Fun".

While there were no German starters in the middle ORC World Championship category B and the Romanian Grand Soleil 44 P "Essentia 44" took the title ahead of the Swan 42 "Mela" from Italy and the Estonian Swan 42 "Katarina II", Hanno Ziehm's crew on the modified Marten 49 "Moana" wrestled with the celebrities in Class A. World champion was Karl Kwok's team on the well-known TP52 "Beau Geste" ahead of the Argentinian Swan 45 "From Now On" from Chain Fernando and the Italian Mylius 14E55 "Milu III" from Andrea Pietrolucci. The "Moana" team sailed with an upward trend and finished the series in ninth place after seven races. Jörg Zieron's Solaris 50 "Snowwhite" sailed to 17th place. Bertil Balser, Chairman of the Regatta Association Sailing (RVS), watched the World Championship from afar on his way to Sweden for the Gotland Runt Offshore Race and said: "It was a strong field if you look at the top boats. So it's a world championship that can call itself a world championship. The usual suspects are at the front." Participants and observers agreed that the fact that there were not more German and Northern European boats at the start was mainly due to the long journey to the World Championship venue. Meanwhile, preparations for the ORC World Championship 2023 have long been underway in Kiel. For the second time since 2014, the ORC summit will take place next year in the well-known northern German sailing area. "Even then, Kiel was the first World Championship to attract significantly more than 100 ships to the starting line. We are hoping for the same in 2023, because the Kiel Yacht Club, Point of Sailing, the DSV and the RVS are all very committed to organising the event," says Bertil Balser.

All weather: a world championship with winds from zero to 30 knots

ORC President Bruno Finzi also looks back favourably on the World Championship off Sardinia: "It was a very challenging World Championship, both for the competitors and for the race committee and jury, who sailed six fantastic inshore races and one offshore race in winds from zero to 30 knots, which all boats finished within the time limit. The calculation of handicaps and distances between boats once again proved the quality of the ORC system, which was able to identify and predict the performance of boats at different points of the sail so accurately in such varied conditions that equivalent results were delivered. I would like to thank all the competitors for their tenacity in taking on such a demanding championship. And for the professionalism of the YCCS in organising this event. See you all next August in Kiel for the next edition of the ORC World Championship 2023."

The closing words belong to Simone Ferrarese, one of the most successful Italian sailors and tactician on the victorious "Sugar 3": "Our race results do not fully reflect the battle that took place at sea. It was not an easy victory, even though we won by a margin. Congratulations to the other participants and especially to 'Scugnizza'. For my part, I would like to thank the Estonian owner Ott Kikkas and helmsman Sandro Montefusco. He is a sailor with an Olympic past - and also my uncle." Click here for all results (please click!).