Baltic 500: Favourites out after tiller break, will Fink and Burke fly to the record?

The bad news from the Baltic 500 came the morning after the first night at sea. The organisers had to announce the end for the co-favourite leaders on the JV 43 "Vineta". Wolf Scheder-Bieschin and Arnt Bruhns broke the tiller at the connection between the boom and rudder while spibergening in 28 knots of wind. They called at Helsingør before returning to Travemünde.

Baltic 500: "Vineta" task after a strong start

For the fast "Vineta", it was the second damage after the broken rudder in the Rolex Middle Sea Race 2024 - there in stormy winds with peaks of over 50 knots - that has now stopped the strong crew in the Baltic 500. Last year, the port suspension of the rudder broke during the Rolex Middle Sea Race.

Melwin Fink, who was a crew member on "Vineta" at the time and has now taken the undisputed lead in the Baltic 500 with his co-skipper Lennart Burke on the Pogo 40 S4 "Next Generation Boating Around the World", suffered with his former crew mates. Melwin Fink said: "It's a shame about 'Vineta', especially as I've already sailed two races on the boat. We already had a broken rudder in the Middle Sea Race."

Fink's bow to the retired leading duo: "They definitely made a very, very strong start to the Baltic 500. We had no chance at all in the light wind. We were stuck and 'Vineta' simply pulled away. We were only able to catch up and work our way round when the wind picked up again. Unfortunately, when we were almost level, they went off. That's a real shame!"

Burke and Fink fly towards the finish line

The three-foot smaller Class40 of Lennart Burke and Melwin Fink now dominates the field in the Baltic 500. With a huge lead, the co-favoured double-handed crew had already built up a lead of around 50 nautical miles over their closest pursuers on the older Class40 "Cantaloop" with Sebastian Ropohl and David Rowen in the first 29 hours since the morning start on 29 May.

They were followed in the early afternoon of 30 May by the Pure 49 "Gorre" with Matthias Schernikau and Urs Kohler and the Dehler 30 OD with Oliver Schmidt-Rybandt and Bjarne Lorenzen. The overall ORC victory was contested on Friday afternoon by the calculated leader Sun Fast 30OD "Gaia" with Sverre Reinke and Lina Rixgens ahead of the JPK 10.30 "Hinden" with Jonas Hallberg and Grant Greenall. In third place in the ORC intermediate classification were Charlotte Schneider and Konrad Streit on the JPK 10.30 "Rentnerbank".

It will be exciting for Melwin Fink and Lennart Burke at the front: will they be able to break the record time in the Baltic 500? The record has stood at 2 days, 7 hours, 54 minutes and 23 seconds since 2022. It was set by Tim Behrendt and his long-time sailing partner Andreas Buchheim with the JPK 11.80 "Frida", which is once again taking part in this seventh edition of the Baltic 500 and was in sixth place on day two. The boat is being sailed this year by Tim Behrendt and Julius Battenfeld. Click here for the entry lists for the seventh Baltic 500.

Challenging Baltic 500 final ahead

Current calculations on Friday afternoon suggested that Burke and Fink, as Team Next Generation Boating Around the World, could succeed in setting a record. On the other hand, the budding Globe40 circumnavigators are facing a not-so-fast final leg. Melwin Fink's assessment: "Things are going great for us. The boat is running well. It's fun."

We've actually been flying since yesterday evening, we're constantly doing over 15 knots." Melwin Fink

At the same time, the 23-year-old sailor knew: "The record is still there, but it will definitely be tight because we will have this long cross at the end. We're definitely going to give it everything we've got, and we're going to sail hard. The atmosphere on board is good. Everything is fine. Lennart is sleeping and I'm trimming." Fink and Burke also struggled overnight in the strong winds, in which Thomas Breuer-Löwenstein and Dirk Lötsch had to shed a gennaker on the Pogo 44 "Hotte".

The Luffe 43 "Stine" is out of the race. Lucas Lange suffered a foot injury. The crew decided to retire in the early stages of the Baltic 500 to avoid further strain. Burke and Fink also had to overcome challenges. Fink said: "The conditions in the Great Belt were pretty nasty for an hour at a time. We had a downwind of over 30 knots. You had to push the boat really hard to make sure nothing broke."

You have to pay very, very close attention to the boat. And where you're going. It's madness!" Melwin Fink

The summer race had become an endurance test in parts, as Melwin Fink describes: "It's not so easy to sail in the Great Belt. There is land everywhere, shallow water everywhere. We also sailed over a flat with a depth of only four and a half metres - we have a draught of three metres - where we both said to ourselves: So, hopefully this goes well." If all goes well, the young duo could reach the finish line as early as Saturday morning - possibly in a new record time.

Out for six boats, 42 still in the race

Michael Höfgen and Jasper Marwege, on the other hand, had to put up with a major setback on the Arcona 385 "Lightworks". Höfgen reported: "State of the nation: We just had to deal with a total failure of the NMEA bus. Error found. But without displays and wind data, it was no fun with 30 knots and waves." After around 29 hours of racing, six of the 48 boats that had started were out of the race. Click here for the tracking and the intermediate results.