IDM Seesegeln Offshore: Pre-start favourites victorious - "Rafale" and "Hinden" take the titles
Tatjana Pokorny
· 25.05.2024
The International German Offshore Sailing Championship has been decided: Henri de Bokay's Elliot 52 SS "Rafale" (Verein Seglerhaus am Wannsee/Norddeutscher Regatta Verein) and Jonas Hallberg's JPK 10.30 "Hinden" (Kieler Yacht-Club/Yacht Club Godewind) took the titles in the championship combination of Capitell-Cup Rund Helgoland and Pantaenius Rund Skagen. "Rafale" won with skipper Malte Päsler, navigator Robin Zinkmann and ten other crew members in the ORC A class with second place in the Helgoland round and a resounding victory in the Pantaenius Rund Skagen. "Hinden" opened the championship fight with a race win around Helgoland and ended it successfully with a hard-won second place in the Pantaenius Rund Skagen.
Pantaenius Round Skagen: a race for the big boats
IDM silver in the large ORC classification group A went to Dirk Clasen's Humphreys 39 "Ginkgo" (Regatta Vereinigung Elbe), which had just been crowned "Germany's best offshore yacht" at the German Offshore Award, winning around Helgoland and finishing fourth in the Pantaenius Rund Skagen. Third place on the IDM podium for the larger boats was secured by the crew on Gerhard Clausen's Maxi Dolphin 75 "Calypso" with sixth place around Helgoland and third place in the double-weighted Pantaenius Rund Skagen. Daniel Baum's beautiful single "Elida" just missed out on the IDM podium, finishing one point ahead of Johannes Wackerhagen's Knierim 49 "Desna" with skipper and RVS boss Bertil Balser.
After his crew's furious long-distance success, "Rafales" navigator Robin Zinkmann explained that it was above all the performance in the opening race around Helgoland that laid the foundation for his team's championship title: "We think we won the title right at the start in the first race around Helgoland. The conditions didn't really suit us: little wind and then increasing wind from astern for the little ones when we were already at the finish line. The fact that we managed to finish a few minutes behind the midfield positions for second place was the basis."
The weather really played into our hands, even if you first have to play your hand accordingly" (Robin Zinkmann)
In their dominant victory in the Pantaenius Rund Skagen, the "Rafale" team then benefited from the almost ideal weather scenario for the largest boats. "The weather really played into our hands, even if you first have to play your hand accordingly. I think we managed that quite well, especially thanks to great crew work." In fact, "Rafale" masterfully rode the traditional course around Skagen and was rewarded with the Skagen Prize for the best boat of the race.
Stop-and-go for the small boats
Only a long cross at Hanstholm meant that the 24-year-old Pantaenius Round Skagen record of Klaus Murmann's "Uca" (43 hours, 46 minutes) could not be broken again in this edition. "Rafale" rode the course in a strong 47 hours, 44 minutes and 8 seconds. The next chance to break the long-lasting "Uca" record will not come again until 2026.
The fascinating 510 nautical mile Pantaenius Round Skagen with its many challenges in the North Sea and Baltic Sea, Skagerrak and Kattegat was a race for the big yachts this year. The smaller boats in ORC Group B had a tough time, especially in the second half of the Baltic Sea in the shallow stop-and-go conditions. The new German champion "Hinden" alone, which had made such a promising start to the offshore marathon, had to anchor five times to parry flat winds and counter-currents. At the finish line, the concentrated fighting performance was enough for second place behind Jan Müggenburg's Swan 371 "La Diana", which came up strongly at the end, and ahead of Jens-Werner Hinrich's Swan 38 "Truwen".
For the championship podium, the Pantaenius Rund Skagen results produced this picture in ORC Group B: "Hinden" defended the top position it had achieved in the Capitell-Cup Rund Helgoland with second place on the long distance and won the IDM Seesegeln Offshore. The "Hinden" quartet of Jonas Hallberg, Till Barth, Luca Leidholdt and Jannis Holthusen were joined on the podium by Kai Greten's one-tonne quintet of the "Oromocto" as German runners-up. IDM bronze went to Jan Müggenburg's four-man team with the Swan 371 "La Diana", which was victorious in the Pantaenius Rund Skagen. Olaf Ballerstein's Bristol 35.5 "Atena" and Jens-Werner Hinrich's Swan 38 "Truwen" sailed to fourth and fifth place.
Happy master sailors after more than 91 hours
Asked shortly after the round Skagen finish about the tough second half of the race, which had taken a small but fast boat like the "Hinden" almost twice as long as the "Rafale" with a sailed time of 91 hours, 14 minutes and 44 seconds, Jonas Hallberg said with a laugh: "We're fine! It wasn't that bad. We tried to do our thing and got off reasonably lightly under Langeland. We got very close to shore and then went out onto the current ..."
We weren't lazy, changed sails a lot and had a great atmosphere on board" (Jonas Hallberg)
In the final hours of the Pantaenius Rund Skagen race, Hallberg says his crew fought "in the small breeze for every tenth of a knot". "I think we hardly made any mistakes in this race and sailed very focussed. In hindsight, I wouldn't do anything differently tactically. We weren't lazy, changed sails a lot and had a great atmosphere on board." Jonas Hallberg, who won the double-handed World Championship title with his co-skipper Till Barth in 2022, describes the Pantaenius Rund Skagen as a "super race". The fact that his crew won the title on their first participation in a German Sailing Championship was the crowning glory for a high-performing team.
