ORC European Championship: Two German boats and a Danish-German crew on course for medals
At the ORC European Championship in the Åland Islands in Finland, the battle for the podium places is coming to a head in the final sprint. After the opening long-distance race and four inshore races, the leading groups have recently regrouped. In the large A-boat division, two German boats, Jens Kuphal's modified Landmark 43 "Intermezzo" and Johannes Wackerhagen's Knierim 49 "Desna", have moved into the top three. Jan Opländer's Swan 45 "Katima" was in fifth place after a total of five races.
Dream spot for the ORC European Championship
In beautiful ten to twelve knots of wind, the short courses on day four of the ORC European Championship were close and exciting. In two fiercely contested up-and-down races, the German crews made further progress. While Karl Kwok's world champions on the TP 52 "Beau Geste" from Hong Kong dominated Class A as expected, the battle for the silver and bronze medals in this division remains intense with three teams within four points of each other in the overall standings.
The Finnish Landmark 43 "Madame Gray" is close on the heels of the German boats in second and third place. The crew led by Sampsa Vehkamaki was only two points behind "Desna" and four points behind "Intermezzo" before the middle course on Friday. The minimal gaps in the short races on Thursday also showed just how close the battle for the medals at the ORC European Championship is. In the second race of the day, Jens Kuphal's "Intermezzo" was only two seconds ahead of "Desna" in the corrected time.
"Sportfreunde" give wings to Danish "Dixi 4"
Group B is also dominated by one boat, Tilt Vihul's modified X-41 "Olympic" from Estonia. After second place on the long course, two victories in the short races on Wednesday and fourth and second place on Thursday, the clear leaders from Estonia have also only accumulated ten points on their ORC European Championship account so far. They are followed by Erik Stannow's Danish-German crew with RVS boss Bertil Balser and other sailors from the former "Sportsfreund" team.
Erik Stannow's X-41 "Dixi 4" has now moved up to second place, but is 15 points behind the leaders. "That's quite a lot," Bertil Balser already knew after the long-distance race, where "Dixi 4" did not score quite as strongly as hoped in sixth place. Owner Erik Stannow said after the upward trend on Thursday evening: "It was very, very close in the first race today. Five boats finished within 32 seconds of each other." He added with a smile: "But we were first. We had a good day today - the best so far."
Felix Streckenbach's "Imagine" was in fifth place before the last three races in Division B of the ORC European Championship on Friday and Saturday. Dirk Clasen's offshore rocket "Ginkgo" was in 14th place after five races in the field of 23 B boats. The Humphreys 39, which was named Germany's best offshore yacht in 2023 in April, has finished in the top ten twice in the four short races of the ORC European Championship so far. Alf Henryk Wulf's X-41 "Stardust" will continue to attack on the two final days as the 21st boat.
World champion crew on "Sugar" leads in class C
In Group C, Ott Kikka's favoured Italia 9.98 "Sugar" (10 points) from Estonia led ahead of Patrik Forsgren's modified First 36.7 "Team Pro4U" from Sweden before the last three races of the ORC European Championship. The Estonian modified First 36.7 "Amserv Toyota St" was equal third. As the only German ORC European Championship boat in Group C, Eike Claas Carmincke's M.A.T. 1010 "Matchbox" was in eleventh place before the final sprint in the largest fleet of small boats at this ORC European Championship with 25 boats.
The short offshore race started on Friday at 11am. The boats are expected back in the picturesque harbour of Mariehamn in the late afternoon. The cards are then set for the exciting finale on Saturday with the last two short races.
