After 47 hours, 44 minutes and 8 seconds at sea, Henri de Bokay's "Rafale" secured the line honours at the Pantaenius Rund Skagen 2024 last Wednesday. The crew led by Malte Päsler and Robin Zinkmann lived up to their role as favourites, but fell short of the legendary course record set by the "Uca" in 2000.
Nevertheless, the Elliot 52 SS was still ahead of the direct competition on the water and also on the virtual course. In the Virtual Regatta game, which uses information from real weather models for realistic sailing, even the winner reached the finish line almost ten hours later and, in contrast to the "Rafale's" mile-wide lead, only just ahead of the pursuers. The podium, which was sailed entirely under the French flag, was separated by just 48 seconds and consisted of the winner "Koky - PVe" and "Ced007 / INC-BUREAU VALLEE" ahead of team mate "Luth / INC-BUREAU VALLEE".
Sailing novice once again best German
"Kiek mol in TG II" was the first German yacht to reach Kiel 8 minutes and 28 seconds after the winner in 30th place. In the YACHT rating that was enough for seventh place. Behind the alias is Eckhard Schlüter from Munich, who thus managed a small defence of his title. At the last edition of Rund Skagen, which only takes place every two years, he was the first German out of almost 500 German participants in the video game.
This time he improved his time by around eight hours. In 2022, he circumnavigated Skagen from Helgoland and reached Kiel in two days and just under 17 hours. Back then, his navigation on a PC and smartphone had to hold its own against almost 900 competitors in the YACHT ranking alone. With 155 participants, the field in this classification was significantly smaller this year, but the competition was just as strong, and Schlüter also improved significantly compared to the previous edition.
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However, "Nico_jud - PVe", a Frenchman and team-mate of the overall winner, secured victory in the special YACHT classification. He, as well as the second and third place winners with the pseudonyms "C&MTotW-EZ TheSeaCleaners" and "Kah-Yu - PVe", can look forward to a Pantaenius skipper's liability insurance policy with a term of one year. The insurance policies cover a sum of up to ten million euros and apply to ships up to 17 metres in length and for private use only. In addition, the three best virtual sailors of "Rund Skagen" will receive a one-year YACHT subscription, a Pantaenius goodie bag and a YACHT cap.
At the latest for the upcoming Vendée Globe you should have the real-time routing game on your screen again. Then it's time to compete with the offshore greats around Boris Herrmann and numerous sailors on the virtual course around the world. In the last edition, over a million sailing enthusiasts took part in the Virtual Regatta. With a fabulous time of 68 days, 22 hours, 16 minutes and 4 seconds, the Frenchman Jean-Claude Goudon triumphed - well ahead of "Malizia - Seaexplorer" and also winner Yannick Bestaven on his "Maître Coq IV".
