Strong gusts that swept over the Olympic Centre ensured a thrilling start to the race for the yachts within sight of the Schilksee crowd. The "Surprise" team of Marie Becker (Kiel) made a picture-book start, set the big red spinnaker and initially pulled away. Behind them, the light yachts such as the "Red" of Finn Groetzner (Hamburg) and the "Dwinger 2.0" of Jens Dwinger (Strande) struggled with the pressure in the light cloth and had a lot of work to do to work against a sun shot. Not all of the yachts were successful in this endeavour; they were leaning heavily on their sides before turning their bows towards Denmark.
With the wind clear, it was a fast ride to the north-east in the evening sun. By midnight, the leading yachts, the "Calypso" owned by Gerhard Clausen (Hamburg) and the "Red", had already reached the northern tip of Langeland and were making their way back southwards and finally through the narrow sound between the Danish islands of Tåsinge and Funen.
The course continued eastwards towards the island of Lyø. Ralf Paulsen and the race committee had positioned themselves there in the early morning and enjoyed the view of the yachts that were gradually approaching them on the upwind course at a nice angle. "We had very good winds of 18 to 19 knots throughout the night. It lasted longer than forecast," reported Paulsen.
"Calypso" is the first yacht to reach the Kiel lighthouse
The wind situation was kept under review for the morning, as a 180-degree wind shift was on the cards, including a lull in the wind. Against this backdrop, the race committee's intensive analysis of the weather and current options paid off. "The first yachts in Svendborgsund were still struggling with counter-current, the smaller ones were then pushed. That helped a lot. Our calculations of the possible sailing times of all the yachts paid off," said Paulsen.
After 14:24 hours at sea, the "Calypso" was once again the first yacht to cross the finish line, which had been set up at the Kiel lighthouse. It was followed around three hours later by the "Red", the "Surprise" and the Hamburg "Broader View" with skipper Max Gärtner. In the end, the "Surprise" came out on top of the ORC A/B group - much to the delight of the crew. "It's great that we were able to repeat our victory from 2022 after taking a break last year. We really enjoyed the race. The conditions were great and the course is very beautiful. A big thank you to the race organisers," said Julian Schaarschmidt, son of the "Surprise" skipper.
On the way to Langeland, the crew of the XP44 went into a speed frenzy. "We broke our previous speed record on the downwind, travelling at 17.5 knots - and that with a yacht that weighs over ten tonnes including crew," says Schaarschmidt. In order to reach this speed, the "Surprise" had set the 195 m² light cloth for the gennaker in addition to the 63 m² mainsail and the small staysail. The crew also enjoyed the tacking duels in Svendborgsund with the "Broader View". Julian Schaarschmidt: "We rarely have these situations in the long races. We really enjoyed it."
Finish first flat, then with dream conditions: Silver Ribbon of the Kieler Woche ends on Saturday afternoon
The winners in the other ORC classes were also announced on Saturday afternoon. Class B was won by the "Dwinger 2.0" of Jens Dwinger (Strande), and in the small boats of ORC C+D, the "Patent 4" continued its winning streak at Kieler Woche without its owner Jürgen Klinghardt. He was unable to attend for private reasons and had handed over his yacht to his tactician Oliver Voss. After the victory, he happily reported back to Kiel: "I'm really proud of the team. They did a great job," said Klinghardt.
It was more difficult to select the winners in the other classes, which were sometimes caught up in the doldrums in the middle of the Baltic Sea during the course of Saturday. "But that was only 15 to 20 minutes, then the wind came back from the other direction, i.e. from the east, and even freshened up to three to four wind forces, so that we were able to let everyone sail through to the Kiel lighthouse," said Ralf Paulsen. This made the day at sea a little longer for the slower boats in the field. However, there were no problems with the finishing time. As a precaution, the time for all finishers was set at 36 hours.
