After 195 nautical miles at the finish of the 1st race of the ORC World Championship, the favourite shipyard crew with professional Jesper Radich as skipper was once again ahead. The team won the long distance according to calculated time ahead of the sister ships "Dixi 5", also from Denmark, and the German "Exciter" of Jens Kuphal. The first non-X was the Polish Grand Soleil 44 Performance "Windwhisper". The best X-41, still the benchmark of the class today, took fifth place.
Class B of the ORC World Championship with 22 participating boats fought an exciting battle for position on a 195-mile course. About four and a half hours after the start, west of Naissar during the long upwind leg to the lighthouse at Bengtskär, Jesper Radich on his XR 41 "Formula X" was able to open up a narrow lead over the other three XR 41s in the race as well as some former champions on X-41s of the previous generation. At this stage of the race, the team was faced with an important tactical decision that would have a major impact on the rest of the race.
Tactical decision pays off
"We were well in the race with Marcin Sutkowski's Grand Soleil 44P "Windwhisper", and with them missing higher we were happy with our position on the long upwind leg," explained Radich. "When they broke away from the lead group and headed north we decided we had to go with them. As they are four-time champions in this class, we knew they would be hard to beat for the rest of the race and we didn't want to risk them breaking away from us if we split."
This decision proved to be spot on for the "Formula X" team. Five hours later, the crew had not only maintained their narrow lead over the reigning class champions, but were also ahead of the group that had sailed south and was led by Martin Estlander's X-41 "Xini Freedom". In close contact with the leaders, "Formula X" rounded the lighthouse and extended their lead on the long reach to almost two miles ahead of "Windwhisper" and 3.5 miles ahead of "Xini Freedom" at the turning mark at Glotovi.
"Exciter" in third place in the opening race of the ORC World Championship
The tactical decisions during the long upwind passage proved to be decisive for the course of the race. While "Formula X" and "Windwhisper" chose the northerly course, part of the field opted for the southerly route. The meeting of the two groups at the Bengtskär lighthouse showed that the northern strategy was ultimately the more advantageous and gave the leading boats a lead that they were able to extend further on the subsequent reach to Glotovi. The best German boat was the XR 41 "Exciter" of Jens Kuphal in third place. The Danish XR 41 "Dixi 5" with a large German crew took second place.
In Class A, the Polish HH 42 "Scamp Three" skippered by Maciej Gnatowski secured victory. The fleet was already split at Glotovi when some of the boats chose a course further away from land, while the favoured "Ran" stayed closer to the Estonian coast and was initially able to lead there according to sailed and calculated time. Then the Swedish boat ran into a lull west of the island of Naissar. The fleet positioned further north sailed at twice the speed in more stable wind conditions.
"Pure" temporarily in the top three
Before the turning mark at Uusmadal, Lars Hiddes Mat 1220 "Pure" from Germany, also favoured by the stronger wind, moved up into the top three according to the calculated time. On the last miles of the race into Tallinn Bay, "Ran" accelerated to over 13 knots again and secured victory in actual time. However, the lead was not enough to compensate for the time penalties for "Scamp Three"". Class C, in which no German boats are competing, was won by the favoured Italia 9.98F of Sandro Montefusco from Estonia.
More about the XR 41 in the YACHT test (Please click)
