The 13th edition of the single-handed regatta around Funen was primarily characterised by light winds. Accordingly, it is not surprising that none of the existing records could be broken this year. On the contrary, the Silverrudder challengers enjoyed fantastic sunshine and average temperatures of 14 to 21 degrees. In total, only 360 of the 421 registered skippers were at the starting line with their boats. In addition, 69 of them had to abandon the race after the start, meaning that only 291 ultimately crossed the finish line. This meant that one in five skippers had to abandon the race.
In most cases, the cause was their yachts running aground. Bjarne Lorenzen also had to make this experience. While some got stuck after the start, the managing director of Elvström Sails was caught out on the cross to Svendborg shortly before the finish. This was preceded by a power problem on board the "Powerplay" as a result of which the instruments failed. "I had to fly in here a bit blind, but I actually know the corner. Well, as it happens, I wanted to make a turn exactly one second too late and now I'm standing here," Lorenzen reported from on board the Dehler 30od via Instagram.
But he immediately gave the all-clear: "PS: Even with the short stop on a sand hill, the "Powerplay" is undamaged. He later posted a video of the ship's return under sail. In his video, Lorenzen nevertheless spoke of a "really nice, varied race despite many wind shifts and lulls". The "super intense race" had actually gone well for him until the grounding.
The winners of the respective categories at the Silverrudder
In the "Keelboat Mini" category (18 to 25 feet), the German Mattis Franken won on his Melges 24 "Freya" (See further down in the article). The J/70 of the Dane Anders from Laursen crossed the finish line just under two and a half hours after him. Third place in the keelboat mini class went to the Hungarian Gyorgy Juhasz on a Flaar 24, who crossed the finish line less than four minutes after the J/70. A total of 44 boats were entered in the category, 35 of which actually crossed the starting line on Friday morning. However, ten of the 35 retired during the course of the race, meaning that 25 of them finished the race.
The winner of the "Keelboats Small" category (25.01 to 30 feet) is anything but an unknown. The winner was the Norwegian Tim Sandberg on a Dehler 30od. This year's ORC Doublehanded World Champion reached the finish line off Svendborg after 24 hours, 45 minutes and 6 seconds. Sandberg said after the triumph in his Silverrudder premiere: "I really like the atmosphere here. We had good conditions outside, it was really fun." Second place went to the German Patrik Heinrichs. On the Esse 850 "JYNX", he took just under an hour longer than the Norwegian in front of him. A Dehler 30 od also crossed the finish line around 40 minutes after Heinrichs. The "Sexy Beast" was skippered by the Dane Anders Juul. Matthias Bröker crossed the finish line in fourth place in the category (See also further down in the article). In the small keelboat class, a total of 69 boats crossed the finish line. 13 had to abandon the race during the regatta and another 13 did not even start. In total, 95 boats were entered in this category.
Per Svanberg, the winner of the "Keelboats Medium" category (30.01 to 35 feet) reached the finish line after 24 hours, 18 minutes and 58 seconds. The Swede sailed the Fareast 31R GRP, "Kuai". Behind him in second place was the German Lorenz Jensen on the JPK 10.30. He crossed the finish line with the "Pensioner's Bench" just under 35 minutes behind Svanberg. Hasso Hofmeister completed the podium in the medium-sized keelboat class. The German crossed the finish line in the Akilaria 950 "Whiteout" a good 30 minutes behind Jensen. He finished third. Overall, the "Keelboats Medium" category was the class with the most entries of the entire Silverrudder. However, 18 of the 131 registered boats did not take part in the race. 26 of them had to abandon the race, meaning that 87 boats finished within the time limit.
Sven Kurka was successful with his well-known Bondi 36 Oneoff in the "Keelboats Large" category (35.01 to 40 feet). After his fifth place last year, he triumphed this year. The German reached the finish line off Svendborg after 23 hours, 9 minutes and 24 seconds. Wolfram Heibeck crossed the finish line 39 minutes after him on his Open 40 "Black Maggy". He finished in silver for the second time in a row. Just seven minutes after Heibeck, who also comes from Germany, Jens Ernst crossed the finish line. The Dane sailed the JPK 10.80 "Kaha" with a French sail number. A total of 64 boats were classified in the large keelboat class. 15 of the 95 registered boats did not even make it to the starting line and 16 skippers had to retire during the race.
In the "Keelboats Extra Large" category (> 40.01 feet), the Dane Martin Meredin won on the Landmark 43 "Esbern Snare". He completed the course around Funen in 22 hours, 15 minutes and 25 seconds. The runner-up in this category crossed the finish line over 100 minutes after Meredin. Torben Komum sailed the single-handed regatta on the Xc-47 "SpaceX" with the Danish sail number DEN001. Less than 25 minutes after Komum, Jens Listrup crossed the finish line. He sailed the Norlin 411 "Gerda-Ulrika XI". There were 35 boats entered in the extra-large keelboat class, 32 of which crossed the start line on Friday morning, although three had to abandon the race during the course.
The number of entries for the regatta in the "Multihull Small" category (18 to 28 feet) was the lowest of this year's Silverrudder edition. Just ten boats were entered for the race. As two of them did not compete, eight boats reached the finish line and were timed in this category. The winner was the Dane Anders Bastiansen on the Diam 24 "TRI-NE". He reached the finish line after 22 hours, 16 minutes and 51 seconds. André Bätz crossed the finish line just over 45 minutes later. The German sailed the Farrier F82R "Flaneur". Less than 14 minutes behind Bätz, Hannes Günther crossed the finish line on the Dragonfly 800 Race SW "Chilli Milli". He finished third.
The winner of the "Multihull Large" category (> 28.01 feet) comes from Denmark. Jens Quorning crossed the finish line with the Dragonfly 40 "Tripple Star" after 21 hours, 51 minutes and 41 seconds. A quarter of an hour later, the German Lars Kaempfe crossed the finish line on the Cosair F31 OD "TRI". Allan Tønnesen finished in third place, less than four minutes behind second-placed Kaempfe. Tønnesen sailed the Farrier 31 "Kekima". Eleven boats were entered in the large multihull category. Nine of them reached the finish line before the time limit had expired, one skipper did not even make it to the starting line and one had to retire during the race.
"Freya" wins in the "Keelboats Mini" category
It took the German Mattis Franken almost 25 hours, 43 minutes and 4 seconds on his Melges 24 "Freya" to complete the single-handed regatta around Funen. It took him over six hours longer than the current record holder in the "Kielboot Mini" class, Jørgen Mohr Ernst, who also set the record of 19 hours, 27 minutes and 38 seconds on a Melges 24. Ernst beat the then record by three and a half hours in 2021.
Repeat winner Franken describes his preparation for the Silverrudder to YACHT as follows: "Before the regatta started, I had already scouted out my opponents, and I also knew from some of them that they wouldn't be at the start." His closest rival from last year, Rolf "Rocky" Schmidt, had already called him during the week to say that he would not be able to make it to the starting line. The ship of the runner-up of the Silverrudder 2023, the Mader "CUL Masten", had suffered too much damage the weekend before the Silverrudder to make it to Svendborg in time. "That's why I had picked the Hungarian Gyorgy Juhasz on his Flaar 24 as my toughest competitor," reports Franken, "the boat weighs just as much as my Melges, but is a bit more modern. Gyorgy is also really strong".
Franken's goal for the start, where the dream of a single-handed circumnavigation of Funen is already over for some skippers because they run aground or have a collision, was to "simply get out cleanly and without incident". He succeeded in doing so, so that after a passage with the reacher and a stretch at the cross, he was able to sail back towards the Great Belt Bridge with the reacher. "Only the Danish weather forecast had predicted that we would get a northerly wind, then a lull and later the northerly wind would set in again. The Danes were the only ones whose forecast was correct," reports Franken about the nerve-wracking approach to the bridge. From the northern tip of Langeland, the Hungarian on the "Flaar" and he had just managed to fight their way into the current of the Great Belt Bridge with the remaining wind before the wind dropped out and they made progress mainly due to the current. However, they could have built up a certain lead over the other boats there, as they would not have been able to make it into the current before the calm.
Franken then reports on a tactical mistake made by his Hungarian competitor: "Unfortunately, he sailed too close to the coast of Funen, so that shortly before Romsø he could no longer delay tacking against the wind, which (as predicted by the Danish weather forecast) was shifting further and further to the east. From Korshavn onwards, Franken was then able to hoist his gennaker and sail all the way to Lyø except for a few minor wind shifts in the Little Belt. The skipper of the Melges 24 describes the last 20 miles of the approach to Fredericia as "really wild". He reports that fog banks briefly appeared, but quickly disappeared again, while he whipped through the "pretty dirty steep wave" at 11 to 14 knots boat speed with around 2 knots of counter-current. "After the passage, I had over 100 litres of water in the boat, but it was still a lot of fun," says Franken.
The passage through the "Kolding Landevej" bridge was really tough: "Because of the calm, the whole field tightened up a bit again, as I had feared. I was driven back through the bridge twice at the railway bridge with two to three knots of counter-current and no wind, but then I took the gate on the far left and got through." The wind also dropped completely again at Middelfart. "As soon as you got too close to land in the south of Funen, you noticed the influence of the thermals: the thermal wind and the ground wind cancelled each other out, there was no wind at all," says Franken, describing the final hours of the race. From Lyø, a "pretty flawless cross" followed into Svendborgsund. "The conditions were really nice just before the finish, we had eight, later 13 knots of wind and bright sunshine - it was perfect," says Mattis Franken.
Franken wants to be back next year, but then no longer with his Melges 24, which is currently for sale, but with a JPK 10.10. "Then I want to see if I can get involved in the medium class," he says, full of anticipation for the Silverrudder next year.
Silverrudder also convinces through cohesion
Quite a few sailors talk about the "Silverrudder spirit" in the atmosphere surrounding the event. This refers to the special team spirit among the sailors. The single-handed regatta around Funen is a challenge even for experienced solo sailors. This makes the sailors, most of whom are amateurs, all the more dependent on help from one another. Mattis Franken also feels the special atmosphere: "I have the feeling that the team spirit is getting better every year. For example, the parents of Anders, my closest rival, simply craned my boat. There was a long queue at the crane and we already had to go to the award ceremony and then they thankfully took over." In general, it was remarkable how the skippers who finished ahead of the others got out of their boats to greet the sailors who had just finished at the jetty.
Bröker satisfied with the premiere of his "KEENA"
Matthias Bröker, who works professionally as a naval architect at Judel/Vrolijk, was visibly satisfied with the performance of his one-off "KEENA". He had designed the ship himself and had it built by Greenboats. Bröker himself is already a Silverrudder veteran, taking part for the seventh time this year. "I looked at the entry list beforehand and realised that eleven boats should finish ahead of me according to the calculated time because they are actually faster," reports Bröker. He was therefore very happy with his fourth place. Bröker also tells of many doldrums, which he was able to avoid: "After the doldrums off the Great Belt Bridge, I actually got round all the doldrums well. I watched carefully and looked for the wind lines. Sometimes I only sailed slightly differently than my competitors. Nevertheless, I passed a few ships with only 100 metres of transverse distance because, unlike them, I was still making progress."
He explains that the Silverrudder was the "KEENA's" first real race ever. "The NKE autopilot only came in last week. The real success was getting to the starting line on time," he continues. When asked whether he would like to take part in the Silverrudder again next year, Bröker answers hesitantly: "I don't actually have to take part every year. But I'm already keen to do it, so I'll definitely be back next year."
Many entries, relatively few ships at the start
Not least because of the lack of starting places compared to interested sailors, there are many sailors who have registered and paid the entry fee for the Silverrudder every year but still don't take part. A lot of time passes between the registration window in March and the start of the regatta. A lot can happen during this time, be it accidents involving boats or unfinished refits. In the worst case scenario, the health of the sailors can also prevent them from taking part. In addition, the challenge can seem too great for one or two amateur sailors at the last minute. At this year's Silverrudder, the ratio of boats that started compared to the registered boats was 85.51 per cent. Only 360 of the 421 registered boats even made the journey around Funen.
