91st North Sea Week: "Rafale" wins around Skagen, championship title for "Pure"

It remained exciting right to the end. At the 91st North Sea Week, this applied to the calculated victory and placings in the Pantaenius Rund Skagen race as well as the decisions in the title fight in the International German Offshore Sailing Championship. In the long-distance classic on Wednesday Henri de Bokay's Elliot 52 SS "Rafale" takes the line honours.

Pantaenius Round Skagen Race: "Rafale" wins sailed and calculated

The roaring ride over long stretches in the second half of the race has now also given the Rakete from the Seglerhaus am Wannsee club and its twelve-strong crew the overall ORC victory in the Pantaenius Rund Skagen race at the North Sea Week. The fact that the fast lap around Skagen It is already known that in the end the 26-year-old "Uca" record was a good one and a half hours off.

In the meantime, however, the record story has taken another turn, which could possibly influence the determination of the finish line in future editions of the Pantaenius Round Skagen Race or even result in a new record being recognised. Because the "Uca" record was already timed at Kiel Lighthouse in 2000, but the fleet in the Pantaenius Round Skagen Race now only crosses the finish line a few nautical miles further off the Kiel-Schilksee Olympic Centre, the times are not entirely comparable.

The race organisers of the North Sea Week therefore worked with TracTrac to research the time at which "Rafale" passed Kiel Lighthouse this year. But even then, the fast racer from the capital was still 19 minutes off the record. This means that the "Uca" record remains to be beaten in the future. But the grand prize in this year's Pantaenius Rund Skagen race went to the "Rafale" crew led by helmsman Malte Päsler and navigator Robin Zinkmann.

Lars Hidde's "Pure" wins IDM Offshore

The challenge prize is a large bronze cast sculpture in the shape of a Viking ship from the workshops of the and sailor Hermann Noack, who died this year. Nordseewoche partner Pantaenius donated the prize in 1994 for the fastest boat "by most frequent measurement" - which was and still is the ORC - in the 510 nautical mile race from Helgoland around Skagen to Kiel. "Rafale" won the race ahead of Jonas Hallberg's new JPK 10.50 "Hinden" (Kieler Yacht-Club), which had just triumphed in the Baltic 500, and Lars Hidde's two-year-old MAT 1220 "Pure" (Blankeneser Segel-Club).

With this third place in the long-distance classic, the "Pure" crew with some experienced and many young sailors around Linus Döpp has brilliantly cleared the title in the International German Offshore Championship after their two light wind race victories in the shortened Sundowner and the also shortened Capitell Cup Rund Helgoland. With a total of just ten points in the IDM account, the "Pure" with strategist Matti Cipra and navigator Max Schuberth had a 6.5 point lead over "Hinden" after the light and strong wind test in the Pantaenius Rund Skagen race.

IDM bronze was won by "Rafale", which had fought its way through the light winds in the two opening races, which the Elliot did not like very much, but was unable to finish higher than sixth and eighth. Michael Schlee's X-35 "Alexis" (Wassersportverein Wulsdorf) and Daniel Baum's single "Elida" (Hamburger Segel-Club) sailed to fourth and fifth place in the three IDM races.

Click here for the overall ranking of the International German Offshore Sailing Championship.

Parallel to the championship, ten other yachts were able to finish the Pantaenius Rund Skagen race. Nordbert Drücker's BM 53 "Sunbird" (Verein Bremer Segelfreunde) crossed the finish line after 2 days, 19 hours, 4 minutes and 58 seconds and clearly beat Frederik Linthout's Varianta 44 "FredFisher" (Norddeutscher Regatta Verein) and Ferdinand Muth's X-332 "Peggy" (DHH Regatta Group).

Click here for the results of the Pantaenius Round Skagen Race as race 8 of the 91st North Sea Week.

It was nothing new that the final long-distance leg of the 91st North Sea Week put its participants to the test. Whether in the doldrums trap on the Danish west coast, in the extremely rough passage around Skagen, which was often accompanied by seasickness on board and some breakage, or in the stop-and-go - more stop or more go depending on the size of the boat - in the final sprint to Kiel: the Pantaenius Round Skagen is and remains a huge challenge.

A great European classic: the Pantaenius Round Skagen Race

"We also raced our boat in the long-distance races as part of the World Championship or Rund Bornholm. I found them all much less challenging than this one. I think the Pantaenius Rund Skagen is one of the great classics that we have within reach here," said the new German champion Lars Hidde from Hamburg.

Pantaenius Germany has the last hero in the Pantaenius Round Skagen Race here a final clip dedicated. The "Best-of-on-Board" reporter special will follow.